NCAA BASKETBALL New 3-point rule could be delayed for at least a year

The delay is to allow schools time to implement changes to their courts.
KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. -- A major rule change in college basketball that was to be implemented for the 2003-04 season is expected to be delayed a year.
Sources said Wednesday the delay would give more than 1,000 NCAA schools more time to implement the changes to their basketball courts while also allowing men's and women's basketball to synchronize their rules.
Last month, the men's and women's basketball rules committee voted to move the 3-point line back approximately 9 inches, from 19-9 to 20-6 (the international distance). In men's basketball, the international trapezoid lane was adopted, and in women's basketball, the trapezoid lane was to be used on an experimental basis.
Men's, women's differences
Some basketball coaches attending the Big 12 Conference spring meetings here believed that delaying the rule change was because of the difference in the lane rule between the men's and the women's games.
"I think because of that they're going to delay the changes for a year," said one Big 12 men's coach. "I think the men and the women have to agree on the lane before you can start painting courts that both men's and women's teams share."
"I think it would be absolutely crazy to play on a court where you have two different lanes," Oklahoma women's coach Sherri Coale said. "Delaying these new rules for a year makes sense. My hunch is that the women's game will look at the wider lane as an experiment this season. And next season, both men and women will have the same rules -- wider lane, longer 3-point shot."
Lanes not a problem
Lynn Hickey, UT-San Antonio athletic director who is chair of the women's rules committee, said that differing lanes wouldn't be a problem.
"If the rule is delayed, it will be to give schools a chance to implement the changes," she said in a telephone interview. "And, if we delay fully implementing the rule for a year, it will still give the women's game a chance to experiment with the wider lane this season in exhibition and preseason games. Potentially, we could wind up widening the lane for the women and implementing both rules at the same time."
Art Hyland, the Big East Conference officiating supervisor who is chair of the men's rules committee, also hinted that a delay in the rules' implementation is possible.
"The rules committees passed the rules, but they have not been approved by the NCAA's championship cabinet or management council," he said in a telephone interview. "I think in the next few days, there's a chance there will be some announcement that could entail a delay in implementation."