Preparation rules

In years past, the first practice of the college basketball season would’ve taken place Saturday, on Oct. 15.

As it stands now, that’s more than two full weeks into practices for Hawaii and everyone else, with nearly a full month to go until the season’s start. The game continues to be tweaked on and off the court.

UH coach Eran Ganot decided it would be a good time to bring in officials to explain this year’s rule changes, which generally continue last year’s emphasis on freedom of movement for offensive players. There is no change as drastic as last year’s adoption of the 30-second shot clock, however.

“It’s so important we do it every year,” Ganot said. “There will always be changes in the rules, some years more significant than others. Last year was huge. … Such a significant amount of changes, especially for the (handsy defense) team we had. Credit them for making the adjustment.

“This year it’s explaining the changes in the rules, but understanding you have five new freshmen, who don’t know any of those rules. And then you have international guys who have a different set of rules. It was very key to have that again; we’ll do it every year.”

These changes flew mostly under the radar in the offseason.

“You don’t hear it as much (this year), but there are some significant changes,” Ganot said. “Perimeter play, post play, the cylinder, freedom of movement, in terms of cutting, and rebounding. Shame on us if we don’t address it with our team.”

The “cylinder” refers to a vertical protected space an offensive player is allowed immediately in front of him with the ball within his own arms’ length, from feet to head, as long as the offensive player’s arms are mostly vertical (with the ball either high or low) but not horizontal. A player may swing the ball around high or low but not into a defender with elbows extended at shoulder height.

Another new rule states that a help defender in the restricted area under the basket may jump to contest a shot, straight up, but may not remain planted on the ground.

“That’s something for me, Gib (Johnson), Ido (Flaisher) and Zigmars (Raimo) to work on,” forward Jack Purchase said. “With the guards there’s a lot of hand-checking (fouls), so we gotta be careful with that.”

Coaches may now again call timeouts when a player is attempting to inbound the ball. Last year, coaches lost their ability to call timeouts during live action.

There’s an effective breakdown of the changes here.

UH had the changes explained both officiated live and in then in a paused, Q&A format.

“(During live play) there was a cylinder call, and no one knew what that was,” Purchase said.

There’s been increased talk across the college game of adding a sixth foul before a player fouls out, in part because of all the rules stacked against the defense. As it stands, a player could get called for two touch fouls a few seconds into the game and be effectively sidelined until halftime.

“People have talked about it, coaches have,” Ganot said. “My whole thing is … everyone’s trying to improve the game. If we’re going to do that, maybe we protect our guys and add one more foul. I know we’ve thought about it.”

UH ended its team day by appearing at UH football’s homecoming game against UNLV, along with the UH women’s hoops team.

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A reminder, the UH season tip-off banquet is Thursday at the Stan Sheriff Center. You can still sign up at a cost of $100 by emailing Bobbie Omoto at bomoto@hawaii.edu or by calling 956-6501. Last I heard, there were about 400 people expected.

Two days later (Saturday) it’s the free-admission Green & White scrimmage at 1 p.m. at the SSC.