Consistency is all a coach can ask for from an official during a game. During the next two months, the primary goal of officiating directors around the country is setting the tone of how games will be officiated during non-conference games, before the games take on an added importance in conference play.

Art Hyland, the chair of NCAA officials and the Big East coordinator of officiating, said getting officials to make consistent calls throughout the conference season begins during November and December. And, once again, the focus is to reduce rough play in the post. Officials will look more at whistling offensive players than the defensive players while fighting for position in the post. Speaking of fighting, throughout the season, officials can go to a monitor to check replays of incidents to see who was involved.

Like last season, three experimental rules will be used during exempted tournaments, beginning with the NABC Classic in Madison, Wis. (Nov. 15-16). The Guardians Classic (Nov. 17), the Preseason NIT (Nov. 18) and the Top of the World Classic, Maui Invitational, the Great Alaska Shootout and others will use the rules over the next two months. Next week's AT&T Wireless Classic, benefiting Coaches vs. Cancer, at Madison Square Garden is no longer an exempt tournament.

The three experimental rules were almost designed to mirror the World Championships in Indianapolis. Rules committee members liked what they saw, not from Basketball USA, but the brand of ball played by the rest of the world.

The lane will be widened by two feet on each side like the NBA (going from 12 to 16 feet). But if that happens, and the officials want to still watch rough play, the 3-point line had to be pushed back nine inches to the FIBA line of 20-feet, six-inches. This allows enough space in between the defender guarding the shooter and a defender fronting the post. A minor rule where players can step on the block along the lane will also be used. Officials used to allow the first defender to put his foot on the block, which created more contact with the player inside the lane.

The philosophy in trying to widen the lane and lengthen the 3-point line is to clean up the post. Hyland said that the odds are 90 percent that once the ball is in the post, a player will either shoot, score or get fouled. The rules committee liked the spacing between the lane and the 3-point line at the World Championships, and the feeling was that maybe that was a better game.

During the run of play, officials will look closely at whether or not a post player tries to dislodge a defender by moving his hands back, to almost grabbing the defender to create position and using a raised arm that is going backward to ward off position. It's legal to use a straight arm to keep the defender back to create position, but not to push it backward into the defender.

Officials will also look closer at cutters going through the lane and getting bumped. Officials are almost looking for a cutter to get a free cut, and if they are impeded, there could be more calls off the ball to start the season. Officials will also look closely at back screens.

Hyland said the defender has to have a field of vision to get around the offensive player. And that means on a back screen, used in a number of motion offenses, the offensive player cannot be up against the defensive player. He must give the defensive player some space, unlike a traditional screen where the offensive player can almost rest against the defensive player.

Officials will also have to keep a close eye on a few calls that could be decisive at the end of games or halves. One new rule change affects the timer. If there is a timing error at the end of the game, not an official's error, then a team cannot substitute. Officials want to get away from a coach manipulating this situation to get another shooter in the game.

Another use of replay will be to see whether or not a shot was a two- or 3-pointer. A coach can request that an official look to determine what kind of shot was taken at the next dead ball. But if the coach questions a call and is wrong, a timeout will be assessed to that team, regardless if the other team had already called a timeout to stop play. If a coach doesn't have any timeouts and challenges a call, and is wrong, he would receive a technical. Officials still must go to the monitor to check an end of game shot, but not one at the end of the half.

Officials also will enforce a new rule that looks at intentional fouls at the end of the game. Too often coaches would tell a player to foul the worst free-throw shooter, even if he was nowhere near the ball. But Hyland said the player has to make a legitimate attempt to get the ball. If he doesn't, then it will be deemed an intentional foul -- two shots and the ball rewarded to the team shooting the free throws.

Selection committee gearing up
The two new members of the selection committee are Virginia athletics director Craig Littlepage and Princeton athletics director Gary Walters. The 10-person committee will meet in New Orleans in December and then again in February to do a mock bracket in advance of Selection Sunday (March 16).

Meanwhile, the committee will allow Boston College to play at the Fleet Center in Boston if it works where the Eagles are the right seed for that site (likely a 1 through 4 or a 13 through 16). If the Eagles are in the 5-12 range, it makes it tougher to put them in that site because they wouldn't have as much say in the geographical seeding process adopted last year. The same is true for Gonzaga at the Spokane Arena in Washington. Gonzaga will play one game at the arena in their hometown a few miles from the Kennel on campus. BC won't play a game at the Fleet Center in downtown Boston (home of the Celtics) this season.

The committee took some flak for having Pittsburgh play at home, albeit not in the Panthers' regular home arena, last season and Texas playing in Dallas against Mississippi State in the second round. Pitt beat Cal in the second round in what was essentially a road game for the Golden Bears. The coaches association expressed some competitive concerns, but the selection committee didn't vote to change the geographically-friendly format after attendance was up the first weekend.

Brigham Young would be able to play in Salt Lake City, but Utah would not, since the Utes are the host school. Oklahoma was the host school in Oklahoma City, but gave that honor to the Big 12 within the last few weeks, which would allow the Sooners to play nearby. Oklahoma plays a game in Oklahoma City and the rule states that a team cannot play more than three games on a court and still play an NCAA Tournament game in the same place. Indiana and Kentucky are all eligible to play in Indianapolis during the first and second rounds, too.

The committee also wants to get rid of the word "pod" to describe the first and second round of the tournament. The committee is hoping that regionalizing the first weekend of the tournament will now be self-explanatory.

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