Let me start with a disclaimer. I love college basketball; it is and has always been my favorite sport. I played at Middle Tennessee State and coached at Oral Roberts, Iowa State, and Butler CC, Kansas. I grew up looking forward to the Big Ten Game of the Week every Saturday afternoon. I have seen the game explode into one of the most watched sporting events in the world. The 2023-24 Final Four was watched by 14.8 million, which was up slightly from the 2023 championship. (It did, however, have 2 million less viewers than the women’s Final Four, which was a first. The reason: Caitlin Clark. College basketball has never been more popular and watched by more people than in the last 10 years. A lot of that has to do with all the games that are on cable networks. Having said all that, like anything else there is room for improvement, it is not perfect. I think there MUST be some changes. Some are major, like dealing with the portal and getting a handle on NIL. Those are too big and complicated to deal with in this post. (I did offer some suggestions in a post and on my website a few months back.) They are the TWO elephants in the room that need to be addressed immediately.

For this post, I want to address FIVE things that are hurting college basketball. All five would and should be a quick fix. Number one, why do the officials have to go look at the monitor and review EVERY call in the last 2 minutes at the end of EVERY game? To the referee’s credit they get most of the calls right for the entire game but now at the end of the game they “second guess” every call? The last 2 minutes of the game last 15 minutes and is BORING. One challenge each half, that’s it. Two, when will the officials quit being “suckered” into calling a foul on the defense every time a “little” guard or player drives to the basket and initiates contact, falls down, then gets to shoot 2 free throws? The offensive player caused the foul! Stop with the verticality propaganda, the defender did go straight up! Third, if an offensive player shoots a 3 AND kicks their feet out and falls down they get 3 free throws. The offensive player should get the foul. I played enough basketball to know that a player that is in the air is vulnerable and must be able to come down without the risk of getting hurt, but what is happening on the court now is ridiculous. I see players fall every time they shoot a 3. Four, stop ALL the grabbing and holding by the defense. Call the fouls, the players and coaches will adjust. I watched Auburn and Tennessee about a month ago where the final score was 53-51. It was a terrible game to watch because both teams fouled so much. No continuity, no offense and no fun. They are both great teams, but basketball is NOT hockey. Five, it is against the rules of the game to advance the ball without dribbling the ball, unless it is a pass. Stop all the walking and carrying the ball. That gives the offense a tremendous advantage. These five changes are an easy and quick fix that would make the game much more enjoyable. I am not blaming the officials at all, they do not make the rules. But they MUST call the game by the rules AND be consistent.