John Calipari comments on next season’s NCAA rule changes

On the SEC Summer Teleconference, John Calipari gave his opinion on the NCAA rule changes that were announced earlier this month.

The most notable rule amendment was moving the three-point line back to the international distance of 22 feet 1 3/4 inches. Another important change that will take place in the 2019-2020 is that the shot clock will only reset to 20 seconds after an offensive rebound.

Initially when these were announced, it seemed favorable for Kentucky. The Cats are not going to be team that relies heavily on the three-point shot to win games, and adversely, many other teams often do need to make a high number of deep shots to have a chance at beating UK.

Calipari confirmed on the SEC Teleconference that he believes the rule changes are necessary and seemingly favorable to his teams moving forward.

“I think they are good, I like the reset to 20 (seconds),” Calipari said. “The game will be faster. I like the three-point line spreading out because the teams that — I’m not a big proponent of shooting 40 threes (per game), and if you are, that percentage is going to go down now. I think it’ll make the game more about movement and spacing and open up the lane a little bit more. I think it’s all good.

“But, you know, it’ll play out and I just, like I said, for young kids to say, ‘That line’s moving back and we’ll shoot the same percentage,’ I just don’t see it happening. I think percentages will come down, and now as a coach, you’ve got to make a choice. Are we going to shoot that many threes or are we going to be more of a driving, lane-touch kind of team?”

Coach Cal is confident that moving the three point line back is sure to decrease percentages across the game of college basketball. Not really much can be said to refute that and it’s also very likely that three point attempts will also see a decline with this rule change.

Calipari also once again discussed his plan to get his current players considerable time to work on their individual game this off-season.

“The one thing I’m trying to get these guys to do — too much individual work. We need more pick-up basketball. We need more movement. We need more spacing. We need more chemistry. They need to play. There’s no arms on the cone. There’s also just you and a guy.”

What are your thoughts on the new rules?