FIBA Rules - 8/20/10

DENVER - The Pioneers will have some adjusting to do that goes beyond the eight-hour time change, when they head to Spain next week.

Denver will be playing its six games using the international rules set by FIBA, basketball's world governing body.

In a nutshell, that means the games will be played more like the NBA, but some of the subtle differences could make the games a little more interesting for a team like Denver.

 These are the basic difference, according to USA Basketball:

1.      Instead of two 20-minute halves, there will be four 10-minute quarters.

2.      The international court is a little more than two feet shorter and a foot narrower (91 feet, 10 inches long by 49 feet, 2.5 inches wide).

3.      The shot clock will be 24 seconds, instead of 35 with NCAA rules.

4.      The three-point line will be 22 feet, 1.7 inches (compared to 20 feet, 9 inches in college), which FIBA actually moved about 1.5 feet farther back this year, making it almost exactly half the distance between the NCAA and NBA (23 feet, 9 inches) distances.

5.      Back court violations occur after eight seconds, two less than in college games.

6.      Two bonus free throws are given on and after the fifth team foul per quarter. In college basketball, it's a one-and-one from the seventh to ninth team foul per half, and two free throws after that.

7.      Only three defensive players are allowed on the free throw lane, one less than NCAA rules.

8.      Jump balls are used for tie-ups, as opposed to alternating possession. The two players involved take the jump ball.

9.      Players are allowed to touch the ball on and above the cylinder once it has touched the rim. Both the NCAA and NBA consider it goaltending.

10.  Each team gets two 60-second timeout in the first two periods and three timeouts in the third and fourth quarter. In college, teams have four 30-second and one 60-second timeout per game (in addition to media timeouts at the first stoppage after every fourth minute).

11.  Only the coaches can call timeout. NCAA rules allow the head coach or any player on the court to call timeout.

12.  While the lane in international competitions used to be a trapezoid, FIBA changed it to a rectangle this year. However, that rectangle is 15 feet, 8 inches, which is almost four feet wider than the lane in the NCAA.

Of those 12 differences, a couple seem to jump out, especially the 24-second clock, but head coach Joe Scott says the team will adapt to the rules within Denver's system.

"To us, it really doesn't matter. We're not going over there to play the 24-second clock and FIBA rules," Scott said. "We're going over to be good at our offense and be good at our defense, show that we're more physical, box out and take care of the basketball. I don't care if there's a 24-second clock. That's how we approach it."

Scott has been on similar trips with other teams. Scott was an assistant coach at Princeton, when the Tigers went to Italy before the 1997-98 season, and he was the head coach at Air Force, which went to Sweden and Denmark prior to the 2003-04 season.

"I'm more concerned about the little differences, like the refs don't touch the ball out of bounds on the sideline, and if you don't know those rules, you can give up easy points," Scott said. "The other one is that traveling is different over there. It's called completely differently than here. You're going to hear a lot of 'pasos,' which means 'steps' in Spanish. When I was in Italy, we heard a lot of 'passi,' steps in Italian. There are certain things that we teach here that aren't walks, but they're traveling violations over there. And there are certain things that are walks over here, but they aren't walks over there. You can't worry about that stuff. You've got to be good at your offense, be good at your defense. Over the course of six games, we'll learn pasos. We can't let it affect us. 'It got called a walk? OK, let's run back and keep them from scoring.' In the end, that's the right way to approach it, because it puts the responsibility on you to be good at what you do, and don't worry about refs or rule changes or anything like that. Be good at the things we've been working on. Make the things we've been working on show up when we go over there and play."

When he was reminded that there would be a jump ball whenever a ball was tied up, Scott smiled. "That's old school. That's the way they did it when I was playing," Scott said. "That's just the way that it goes. We have a jump ball to start every single game, so it's not something completely new. Those aren't big deals. It's just basketball."

In the end, Scott says the differences in rules are comparable to different styles that Denver's opponents play.

"We're going to do what we do. That's why we're going: to get good at what we do," Scott said. "We're not going just so we can face Spanish professional teams. We're going to play basketball the way we play and to get good at the way we play. It's what we do and how we do it. And we do it all the time."

Random Notes: At the end of each practice, one player is chosen to shoot two free throws. If he makes them, practice is over. If he misses either, the players have to run five-man fast break drills (Denver's version of wind sprints). Freshman Chris Udofia (Irving, Texas) stepped to the line for the first time today and buried them both, much to the relief of the other players.

After several hours of working hard every day since Tuesday, the Pioneers have tomorrow off before their final two pre-Spain practices on Sunday and Monday.