Three-point line altered

By Staff     Oct 8, 2003

? The three-point line in college basketball is about to be moved nine inches farther from the basket beginning in the 2004-05 season.

Barring unexpected dissent by the NCAA’s two smallest divisions, the new line will be set at 20 feet, 6 inches.

The championships committees of all three divisions decided to keep the rectangular free-throw lane, rejecting a switch to the trapezoidal lane used internationally.

“In Division One, it’s essentially done,” Marty Benson, the NCAA liaison to the basketball rules committee, said Tuesday. “In Division Two and Three, the management councils have to look at it and either approve what the championships committee did or change what the championships committee did.”

The management councils meet Oct. 21-22. If they agree, the changes in all three divisions will take effect in the 2004-05 season. If they don’t, the matter will be decided by the NCAA executive committee Oct. 31.

“I like us moving the line back,” Kansas University coach Bill Self said, noting the current distance may not be worth an extra point.

Self is not a proponent of the trapezoid lane that at its widest point is 19-83/4, compared to the current 12-foot wide lane.

“I do not like us changing to the trapezoid. It will be as big a rule change as widening the lane and the shot clock, maybe the biggest as far as how as you recruit,” Self said.

“I can understand the rationale why they’d think it would be good,” he said, indicating there’s the belief the wider lane leads to more skilled big men overseas.

PREV POST

6Sports video: KU battles to tie Texas A&M

NEXT POST

4405Three-point line altered