Kentucky's Calipari questions if refs will have 'the stomach' to enforce directives
The NCAA's new rules to improve the pace of play and reduce physicality in men's basketball sounds good, but Kentucky head coach John Calipari wants to know if officials will have the guts to enforce them.
Calipari spoke on the subject at the SEC's annual spring meetings Wednesday, pointing to whether officials will be instructed to continue calling fouls so as to limit rough play as the biggest issue that needs addressing.
"Here's what the question will be: How long will they keep calling the fouls?" Calipari said, according to Jon Solomon of CBS Sports. "Two years ago, we started this and then no one had the stomach for it. The teams that advanced in the NCAA Tournament that year fouled on every possession. So then we all - me included - went back to football practice. 'That's it. Put helmets on. Let's go. That stuff was a bunch of BS.' And by the end of the year, that's how we played and basically made it to the Final Four playing football."
The NCAA men's basketball rules committee approved a series of new officiating directives earlier this month with the intention to limit physical play on the perimeter. Similar directives came into effect prior to the 2013-14 season. Free throw attempts increased during non-conference play, but once the conference schedules came around, the physicality returned.
"This happened in the NBA when they went to the hand-check," Calipari said. "It took two years for them to change it until the coaches and everybody said, 'OK, you can argue, you can say what you want, but I'm calling that foul.' And then we've got to accept it as coaches and administrators. Fans have to understand why it's happening.
"Teams that are just fouling on every possession. That's OK. We'll call a foul every possession. ... They'll all say, 'Well, the better teams don't want fouls.' No, (it's about) the flow of the game. You say there will be a foul every play. OK. Then he'll have no players to play. So he's got to teach his players, or play a zone or trap the post. There's all kinds of things you can do as a coach if they're calling the game. We'll adjust. Guys are not dumb."
Calipari wants to see officials develop a consistent standard of what is a foul so they're all on the same page.
"I'm telling you, you could go to 12 (on the shot clock) and the game won't improve," Calipari said. "If you let them keep fouling, we're not going to score. It doesn't matter. You're going to foul more."