Fun to see women's hoops bring in more fans, though part of me feels like the idiots who used to get mad when their favorite band got too popular.
Some of us grew up hearing about Denise Long's stats and tuning in each year to the Iowa girls 6-on-6 state tourney with the tuxedo'd dudes sweeping the floor in front of 15,000 people. We drove two hours in an ice storm in 1987 to watch a junior college women's game in front of 25 people. We can recite the stats of the NDSU and UND D2 dynasties of yesteryear. We emulated Sheryl Swoopes' midrange game. We had the SI with Mark Price, Bruce Dalrymple and Cheryl Miller hanging in our bedroom.
Respective start times: I was driving cross-country so missed the women's game but liked the afternoon tip and also cursed the late start for the men. Though a buddy was disappointed in both. I texted him Monday about meeting up at a bar to watch and he said it was too late for him, being that he's a teacher who gets up early and has little kids. But he was also mad about the women's start time because his daughter had softball practice during the afternoon and couldn't watch it.
Halves/quarters: I go back and forth. I've liked the college game switching to quarters but I've also liked Minnesota high school going to 18-minute halves instead of 8-minute quarters. For each level, the change just seems to work.
And was so happy when the women were allowed to advance the ball and think it's still so dumb the men don't (I know we've had this argument on here before so I won't write hundreds more words again on it; the circle of life on SJ). Yeah, it's arbitrary but so is pretty much every other rule. The college game stopped running the clock with under a minute to go on made baskets, breaking tradition. The game was fine. We'd get so many more amazing moments in the final three seconds of games if they too could advance.
It's fun looking through these rules changes over the decades and I'm sure with a lot of these folks were really mad when they were enacted but now it seems ludicrous there was ever any debate.
NCAA Basketball Rule Change History
Imagine the world if this one hadn't been put into place. Danny Hurley just staring at his players for 60 seconds.
1948-1949
Coaches are allowed to speak to players during a timeout.
And I never knew about this one until watching some old film and was baffled by the alignment on free throws.
1956-1957
On the lineup for a free throw, the two spaces adjacent to the end line must be occupied by opponents of the free thrower. In the past, one space was marked 'H' for the home team, and one 'V' for the visitors.
