Rules changes will be interesting for Smart and OSU

For the 16 of you who watch college hoops in October you likely watched OSU’s game against Campbellsville on Sunday with some sort of interest in the new college basketball rule[1. Because let’s be honest the overlap between “people who watch OSU-Campbellsville on Fox Sports Oklahoma with seven NFL games on at the same time” and “people who care about the future of college basketball” is between 99.8% and 100%.] that Travis Ford said “will change the game more than anything since the three-point line.”

The changes essentially boil down to the fact that there will be fewer (if any) charges called and that defenders won’t be able to touch (literally) offensive players with the ball who are facing the rim.

So what happened on Sunday?

Not a ton — but it was an exhibition game against Campbellsville and according to Travis Ford the refs didn’t even do the job they were supposed to do.

There were 22 fouls on OSU and 28 on its opponent.

OSU only got more than 22 fouls called on itself four times last season and never drew more than 25. But this hardly seems like the biggest change since the three-point line was invented.[1. Which, by the way, every OSU fan 70+ is probably still trying to come to grips with…don’t even get me started on this dadgum spread offense!]

Travis Ford agreed after the game.

“I think most of us have work to do. The officials kind of strayed away from what they were supposed to do and let us play out there. (Our) defense wasn’t great at all, we played as if we couldn’t touch anybody out there. We have to go back to being a physical ball club.”

“I didn’t see that it was a major distraction or a whole lot slower. I think the biggest thing I was trying to get a feel for, and the referees and I were joking about it out there, was that they were trying to figure it out. There’s some things they let go where I thought, ‘That is for sure a foul.’ We were all kind of just figuring it out, but I don’t think it played a role in the game or a distraction at all.”

Markel Brown also commented on it.

“It didn’t seem like it distracted us. From my standpoint, Yes, there were more free throws, but maybe because I was expecting it. Once we got into the bonus, I don’t think we attacked enough like we’ve been working on and hoping to use to our advantage with the new rules.”

I honestly didn’t notice it that much but I was also flipping back and forth between this and Dez’s meltdown.

I’m a fan of the rule long-term but I think this season has the potential to be a nightmare. If you’re calling 50 fouls in a glorified pickup game in October, how many are going to be called when OSU and OU are bordeline punching each other in February?

Smart might also polarize this rule more than anyone else in the country. He could shoot 304 free throws in the first half of games but might foul out by the time the second period starts in 75% of them.

It’ll take some adjusting for sure but at least we have a guy leading the team who’s really good at adjusting gamepl…

On second thought, bring back the old rules!