INDIANAPOLIS --- No changes to the playing court were recommended and few other changes were adopted during the meetings of the Men’s and Women’s Basketball Rules Committees May 2-4 in Indianapolis.

The Men’s Basketball Rules Committee, which experimented with extending the three-point line to 20 feet, 6 inches, a widened lane and a restricted-area arc last year, decided to continue experimentation during the 2005-06 season.

"The court markings dominated our conversation, and the committee believes that the basketball community is supportive of extending the three-point line and widening the lane based on survey results, experimentation and feedback,” Perry Watson, chair and head men’s basketball coach at the University of Detroit Mercy, said.  “Dimensional changes are a significant consideration to our game and an expense to our institutions and we wanted to continue experimentation to ensure that the changes we make are absolutely the best dimensions for our game.”

To make sure the lane and the three-point line are properly spaced on the court, the committee will experiment this year with a three-point line that is 20 feet, 9 inches, which is three inches further back than last year’s experiment and a foot further back than the current line.  The collegiate lane will be widened to 14 feet, which is a one foot extension on each side of the current lane.

Watson said that the goal of a wider lane is to better spread the floor to reduce rough play near the basket and to allow periphery players easier access on their penetration to the basket.  The extension of the three-point line is part of that desire, not necessarily an effort to make the shot more difficult.

A restricted-area arc three feet from the basket will be another part of the men’s experimental research this fall.  The arc, which was experimented with at two feet last year, is meant to answer a common request of coaches and officials who have expressed the need for a more identifiable reference point to assist officials in making this difficult judgment when defenders attempt to establish guarding position under the basket for the purpose of drawing an offensive foul.  With the experimental arc, an offensive player should not be charged with an offensive foul when a defensive player has established position with one foot inside the restricted arc near the basket unless the defensive player is making a legitimate attempt to play defense and not attempting to draw a charge.

The Women’s Basketball Rules Committee will be experimenting with a three-point line extended to 20 feet, 6 inches and a 10-second backcourt rule.

All experimental rules for both men and women are required to be used during exempted contests played before January 1, 2006, and the committee urges participation during all other exhibition games and scrimmages.

"We need feedback on these experiments from as many schools as possible,” Lynn Hickey, chair of the Women’s Basketball Rules Committee and athletics director at the University of Texas at San Antonio, said.  “In the past we’ve not received the input we need.  The rules are common for all divisions, so for us to get good information from which to judge whether to make a change, we need to get sufficient data.”

Rules changes approved by both the men’s and women’s committee included the reduction of one, 30-second timeout during games using the media timeout format.  This and all other proposals made by the committee must be reviewed and approved by the Playing Rules Oversight Panel May 24 before being implemented in the 2006-07 rules book.

"In games with the media timeout format, there are already nine guaranteed timeouts,” Hickey said.  “The coach will still have three, 30-second timeouts and one, 60-second timeout to use throughout the game.  Both committees were concerned about stimulating the flow of the game.”

The committees also voted to reduce the time allowed to replace a disqualified player from 30 seconds to 20 seconds.  The warning signal will be sounded with five seconds remaining in the 20-second period.

Violations when the ball has been intentionally kicked will no longer result in the reset of the shot clock to either 30 seconds (women) or 35 seconds (men).  When the violation occurs with 15 or fewer seconds remaining, the shot clock will be reset to 15 seconds.  Otherwise, when the violation occurs with more than 15 seconds remaining, there shall be no reset of the shot clock.

Presently, officials are allowed to use the official courtside television monitor to ascertain if a try for goal was attempted before the expiration of time, 0:00, at the end of the first half or at the end of the game or any extra period when it determines the outcome of the game. After ruling that the try for goal was successful, officials shall now be permitted to put time back on the clock when it is determined that time remained after the ball passed through the net.

"Officials were able to use the monitor to check if the shot beat the clock, but this allows them to correct the time, when applicable,” Hickey said.

The monitor use will be expanded to allow for officials to determine if a foul occurred before the reading of 0:00 on the game clock.

Uniformity of uniforms was addressed at the meetings, requiring that head bands and wrist bands must be the same color as the dominant color of the game jersey and the same for all players choosing to wear these uniform extras.

Rough play will continue to be a point of emphasis in men’s basketball along with palming the ball. The women’s game will emphasize displacement and bench decorum.