Bye bye 35-second shot clock.
The NCAA announced Monday hat the proposed rules changes for men’s basketball have been approved, including a 30-second shot clock:
OFFICIAL! 30-sec shot clock, 4-foot arc, reduction in time outs among changes coming to men's basketball next season. pic.twitter.com/qgLqt0BS6D
— NCAA March Madness (@marchmadness) June 8, 2015
The hope is that a shorter shot clock will lead to more possessions, a faster pace of play and perhaps an increase in scoring. Analytics expert Christopher Long offered his take on how the shorter shot clock would change the game:
Here's comes the NCAA 30-second shot clock. My analysis has scoring increasing by around 9.9% vs the 35-second shot clock.
— Christopher D. Long (@octonion) June 8, 2015
My shot clock analysis was based on comparing regular season results (35-second clock) with NIT, CBI and CIT games (30-second clock).
— Christopher D. Long (@octonion) June 8, 2015
Other rules changes approved include a reduction of timeouts and the restricted area arc moving from three feet to four feet. Making the arc smaller will hopefully lead to fewer collisions in the paint. Lessening the number of timeouts allowed will slightly decrease the time it takes to complete a game.
You can read the NCAA's release on the rules changes from last month here. The biggest goal of the NCAA this offseason as far as rule changes went was to speed up the pace of play and make the game more enjoyable to watch.
These changes should be a small step in ensuring that happens.