NCAA announced yesterday that the NIT will have some experimental rules being debuted during the NIT. It’s a good spot for the NCAA to test out new ideas. The tournament is a posteason celebration for those who couldn’t make a 68-team field. The emotion for it isn’t really there, rather, it’s a way to extend watching your favorite team. NIT adding different rules, and the feedback is good, we could see it being a thing in college basketball over the next two years. Here are some of the changes.

NCAA said in a statement yesterday that they will be pushing the three-point line back to FIBA international rules, the paint is getting widen to the NBA size at 16 inches, 10 minute quarters and the shot clock goes to 20 seconds on an offensive rebound. None of these are stupid. In fact, most are a step in the right direction. I’ll be curious to see the scoring as a whole for the NIT. Making it harder to shoot threes might lead to lower scoring, but who knows with the idea of widening the lane plus the quarters versus halves. The NCAA gets a lot of shit, but they deserve praise for this one.

Of the rules that I could see sticking the most is the widening of the lanes because that means they’re should be more motion and flow in offenses leading to hopefully less fouls. The three-point line might also get the okay. If Marquette ends up in the NIT, it would be fascinating to see how a team built on 3-point shooting handles being 1.8 inches farther away from the basket. Andrew Rowsey, Markus Howard and Sam Hauser have unlimited range, but that has to effect your shot a little bit. The one rule that I can’t see being a thing is the 20 seconds after an offensive rebound. It’s an ambitious idea, but you’re asking a lot from your clock operator who is usually just an old guy who smells like onions.

Once again, kudos for the NCAA for trying something new, and even if Marquette somehow miraculously makes the tournament, I’ll probably tune into a game or two of NIT hoops.

Charlie.