Something has to change in college basketball......when the last minute of a game takes a half hour to play is absolutely ridiculous. I know I said this a couple of years ago but nothing has happened. There has been some conversation in the last 2 years about the team being fouled having the choice of shooting the free throws or taking the ball out of bounds......I would go along with that.......I might let them do both......shoot the free throws and get the ball out of bounds. I know this could hurt Tulsa as well as the other team but fans are going to give up on college basketball if this nonsense continues. Depending on how big the margin is determines when the fouling starts. A team winning fairly easily......10 pt margin with 2+ minutes to go can expect to be fouled every time they touch the ball......yesterday they were fouled before they even touched the ball......this procession to the free throw line is nothing short of BORING. College basketball shouldn't be about who can shoot throws best but who played the best 40 minutes of basketball, not who fouled the most in the last 1-2 minutes!!!!

Good points. Limiting the last "drag" of a game is a double edge sword. It always alters the game by taking away momentum from the team in front. There are a lot of ways the rules could be applied to keep this from occurring, but as long as the coaches and ADs are in charge, change will be very slow.

What I saw was an attempt to foul a player intentionally who wasn't anywhere near the ball. If that occurs, it should be an automatic intentional foul IMOl. The fouling team would be penalized even moreso and less apt to do it - thus speeding up the game somewhat. USM did what they had to do to get back into the game, but all teams do this and gives them a chance if the team ahead can't make their FTs.

I hate "rules committees" in general because in order to justify their existence, they always come up with another rule or another procedure that often leaves the fans bewildered and confused. The new foul rule/emphasis has done that this year.

But I do like the rule you endorsed because it keeps that "drag" from happening.

A foul away from the ball - at any point in the game - should be an automatic "intentional" IMO.

I agree with Rabid...if they just would call intentional fouls when they foul a player away from the ball &/or before the ball is even in-bounded, that would help a lot. They used to call it that way, I'm not sure if the rule changed or they just don't call it any more. The new way of allowing a team to grab any player they want, before the ball has been inbounded, slows the game down & keeps the losing team in the game longer.

I will say that watching the USM game in person was not boring at all ! It has been a long time since I've heard a TU crowd get as loud as we got the last minute of that game. It really wasn't that big of a crowd & there weren't many students in town yet, but that arena got very loud !

I can't wait to see what it will sound like later this year & especially next year, if we continue to progress as a program.