Junior Guard Promise Amukamara attempts to screen a player at a home game in Tempe. New rules mean new challenges for the Sun Devils to overcome over the course of the season. (Photo by State Press Staff)
On June 24, the NCAA Playing Rules Oversight Panel convened in a conference call to pass new rules for the 2013-14 season.
Perhaps most important is an added emphasis on calling the game by the rulebook regarding hand touches when guarding an opponent. The panel said it hopes this will “open up the game.”
ASU women’s basketball coach Charli Turner Thorne said she likes the intent behind the increased attentiveness to hand touches.
“What they're saying they're doing is that they're actually calling it by the rules that are written in the book,” Turner Thorne said. “That's their statement. The intent behind it is great.”
When players put their hand on an opponent’s back, they aren’t doing much to defend. Turner Thorne said it will force her players to defend with their arms in passing lanes, which will help create more deflections.
The change actually fits quite nicely into Turner Thorne’s scrappy defensive philosophy. However, Turner Thorne said she thinks the change was implemented much too quickly.
“I support it, but I do feel like we might have moved a little too fast, because I don't think we gave the officials very much time to train and really embrace this,” Turner Thorne said. “Some of these officials have been doing stuff for 15-20 years, and now they're being asked to really change a lot philosophically with what they are doing.”
Aside from their clinics in October, Turner Thorne said referees didn’t undergo additional training about the change.
Turner Thorne also said officials have had a hard time drawing the line and that sometimes referees think they have to call a certain number of fouls.
“But it is a little bit scary if they're feeling they have to blow the whistle,” she said. “Probably if you polled the coaches nationally, maybe what we might be struggling with is you can't call every touch.”
The Sun Devils have struggled to become accustomed to the changes, having totaled 69 fouls in their first three games. Freshman forward Sophie Brunner has committed 10 fouls so far this season.
“You just got to kind of be more conscious of focusing on getting around and staying loose in the post and not having your hands over the defender because otherwise you pick up easy fouls,” Brunner said.
While the increased foul calls helped contribute to senior guard Adrianne Thomas’s historic night from the free throw line, Turner Thorne said there will likely be irritation across the NCAA initially.
“I think there will be a lot of frustration this year on everybody's side and then hopefully we can go past that and really embrace the change,” Turner Thorne said.
10-second backcourt rule
For the first time in the history of women’s basketball, officials will now monitor a 10-second backcourt rule, which the panel also said it believes will “open up the game.”
The rule change doesn’t affect ASU’s high-paced transition offense, though.
“It doesn't change our offense, because we're trying to advance the ball," Turner Thorne said. "We're trying to play fast.”
ASU benefitted from the rule change when it used a containment press to force a 10-second call on Texas Tech at a critical point in the second half. Turner Thorne said defensively, it might change the type of presses ASU uses.
Brunner, who has played just three collegiate games, has had an easier adjustment to the rule.
“We still had that in high school, so it’s kind of like an easy transition,” Brunner said. “We haven’t got a 10-second call that I know of yet.”
ASU hosts the offensive-minded Providence Friars on Saturday at 4 p.m. at Wells Fargo Arena.
Reach the reporter at bmargiot@asu.edu or follow him on Twitter @BenMargiott
