Huggins balks at college rule-shift toward NBA: ‘We have a better game’

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Fresh off watching the NBA playoffs, Bob Huggins remains at odds with stewards of the college basketball who prefer to mirror the pro game.

During Monday’s Big 12 coaches summer teleconference, West Virginia’s coach addressed the quicker 30-second shot clock and the expanded restricted area beneath the basket. Both modifications—along with officials presumably re-emphasizing the freedom-of-movement paradigm that came and went two seasons ago—point toward increased scoring.

“I’m puzzled by our infatuation with the NBA, because I think we have a better game,” Huggins said.

A compressed shot clock, Huggins contends, limits the frequency of less-talented teams springing upsets because it prohibits underdog coaches from “controlling the game with offense.” And as the college game makes the inevitable move toward a 24-second clock, there’s the consequence of certain styles vanishing as offensive systems become more cookie-cutter.

“I thought we had a great game, so I don’t know why we’re doing what we’re doing,” Huggins said. “You watch the NBA playoffs and it comes down to throwing the ball to the best player in the world and letting him play.

“The more and more you reduce the shot clock, the more and more the best players are going to win.”

While “Press Virginia” sought to make games hectic last season, the increased pace-of-play dictated by a short shot clock would have been a zero-sum factor.

“We pressed to speed people up,” Huggins said. “We needed to speed the game up and we needed to be able to score with numbers (in transition) because we weren’t a very good halfcourt team. If we did what we did a year ago, it won’t help us at all.”

Other Big 12 coaches on board: Freshly hired Iowa State coach Steve Prohm played with an experimental 30-second clock in last season’s NIT, and generally favored it.

“If you watched our teams at Murray, we could get a couple shots up in 30 seconds,” he said.

Baylor’s Scott Drew beamed over the new rules—“I love it and I think all the fans will love it as well,”—and doesn’t foresee it leading to forced shots.

“It’s more than enough time to do what you need to do on the offensive end,” he said.

New Texas coach Shaka Smart, whose pressing style made VCU a mid-major power, likes the shorter clock and prefers the 24-second version, a la the NBA and FIBA. After all, if teams spend seven or eight seconds merely navigating the press to halfcourt, he said, “that really puts the offense under the gun.”

Will officiating coincide? Rule changes won’t make the college game more aesthetic unless officials clamp down, and remain clamped down, against overly physical defense.

A point of emphasis at the dawn of the 2013-2014 season, the zealous whistles that targeted grabbing and holding had diminished by tournament play. And last season was

“We tried to do that two years ago and I thought we were making headway, but then you didn’t hear about it last season,” Oklahoma coach Lon Kruger said. “I’m not sure where the disconnect was.

“All these changes won’t make much difference if we don’t get back to the freedom-of-movement.”

TCU arena behind schedule: The Frogs shifted last season’s home games to a Fort Worth high school gym while the Daniel-Meyer Coliseum began a $45 million renovation. Recent flooding in Texas has put that project about month behind, said TCU coach Trent Johnson, who hopes to be back in the coliseum by the start of Big 12 play next January.

More delays could affect the West Virginia game. Though the Big 12 hasn’t finalized its league schedule, the Mountaineers, by request, have opened conference play the past two seasons with two-game swings, both routed through TCU and Texas Tech.





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