NCAA’s New Charge Circle Will Hopefully End Duke’s Flopping

The NCAA Rules Committee is recommending that college basketball institute a “no-charge zone”, extending 3 feet from the center of the basket, and painted on the court. I assumed that last part would be obvious, until I found out there is currently a no-charge zone in college basketball. A mythical 2-foot no-charge zone .

I watched something like 100+ college games this year, pre-tourney, and never once saw this rule used. Obviously because referees are blind. Or maybe it’s just f**king impossible to judge a 2 foot hemisphere from the middle of a point 4.5 feet above your head while sprinting. The current zone is not painted on the floor.

Regardless, this can only be good for the game. It should help to eliminate the flopping that has somehow become a legitimate defensive philosophy. A thorough 2.5 -3 minute search didn’t yield me any stats, but as any sighted fan knows, Duke has raised charge-taking to an almost religious level.

Nothing starts a crowd-boner among the Crazies like a good charge . They have a long line of floppers, from Wojo and Battier, to Greg Paulus, to Zoubek, yada yada yada. (That Paulus vid might be the best/worst flop ever). Go ahead and Google “Duke flops”- you’ll get 2.2 million results, every one of them glorious examples of why people hate them.

They have co-opted the offensive foul into playing basketball “the Duke way”, and it has become so ingrained in their value system that I can’t help but see them being significantly affected by this rule change. They will be forced to change, though. If not, Coach K is about to see the already significant talent gap he suffers against rival Carolina become even wider.

Charges, when implemented as part of game plan, can be an incredible equalizer against a more talented opponent. But it’s a cheap parlor trick; it hides what is in plain sight. This will force teams to be more clever with their schemes, and maybe it will finally expose those preppy chumps for the overachievers they really are.