Another Prerequisite For Referees: Superhuman Vision

The NCAA is expected to enact a policy Wednesday to cut down on flopping by help-side defenders sliding under the basket. Here's the catch: The semi-circle to enforce the rule won't actually be painted, only imaginary, like the chances of this new rule ever working.

Remember how the NBA solved this problem? It painted an arc around the basket. You know how any logical organization would solve this problem? It would paint an arc around the basket.

Not good enough for the NCAA. Instead, college referees will be forced to eyeball the arc, decide whether the helper defender was inside that radius and then, if necessary, figure out whether his feet were set in the first place. All in about a half a second. Which will cure nothing, because, as Robbi Pickeral points out, the "theater" of flopping will continue, as players simply will dare referees to make two correct calls instead of just one.

Why won't there be an arc? The referees wanted it — of course they did — but they were pigeonholed by pointless bureaucracy.

Dick Hack, chair of the NCAA Basketball Playing Rules Committee, said that because of NCAA rules, it would have taken four years for the arc to go through all the proper channels and committees, before it could be permanently painted on all the floors.

"We were thinking, 'How can we add something that will be beneficial right away?'" Hack said.

Here's an idea: Figure out a way for it not to take four years to paint a 24-inch arc.

NCAA tries to take charge under the rim [ Raleigh N&O]