A look at the new fouling rules and how they're affecting Minnesota

Now that the Gophers have begun the regular season in full force, it's high time we take a look at the NCAA's new fouling rules and look at what everyone thinks of them so far, and how they are affecting Minnesota.

There are two major changes in officiating (and thus, in the way teams play) that you can expect to see this year.

The first regards blocks and charges; the second deals with defending the player with the ball.

Many of you may be familiar with these already – and may have noticed a change in what is being called through the first two games. But let's review.

First, the block/charge rule: Now, the defender must be in legal guarding position as soon as the offensive player begins his upward motion to pass or shoot – rather than at the moment of contact. The idea here to improve the accuracy of block/charging calls, some of the more controversial in the sport.

The second change ultimately creates more touch fouls. New fouls that will be called include:

The new rules come on the heels of a season of college basketball that churned out an all-time low in fouls called and – probably not coincidentally – historic scoring lows as well (lowest since 1951-52). The ultimate goal of the NCAA with these new rules, then, is to increase scoring and create a less physical and more exciting game.

That would indicate that scoring is going up as well.

But not everyone is ecstatic about the immediate impact the changes will have.

The Big Ten, long maintaining a reputation as a very physical league, could see a big difference in the way games are played. Many, already, have notice lots of stoppages, calls that never existed in the past and an overall slower game.

On another spectrum, Gophers coach Richard Pitino has expressed concerns that the number of fouls being called will dilute what Minnesota is trying to do – keep the pace fast and the opponent uncomfortable.

Ultimately, though, he thinks the rules will be beneficial for the game.

"I was like 'This is weird, did it start late?' And then I processed it – they're calling a lot of fouls," he said. "I think the fans are going to be extremely frustrated at first, but I think it's good for basketball, because [the games] were turning into slug fests … They're just trying to clean up a mess that was kind of let go. It's going to be much, much better for college basketball, everybody just needs to be patient with it."

It hasn't been too tough for the Gophers to do that, because it hasn't caused much of a ruckus so far. Minnesota's opener was just over two hours on Friday, and the players seemed pretty vigilant of the rules -- no doubt helped by Pitino calling fouls in practice for a couple of weeks – fouling just 15 times.

Tuesday's game against Montana had quite a few more calls, with the team combining for 50 trips to the line.

The Gophers are much better than the national average through two games, allowing .324 free-throw attempts for every field goal attempt (the national average, again, is .411 FTA per every FGA). Currently, Minnesota is actually fouling less than their percentage from last year (for the full year), which was 36.7 FTA/FGA. But when you take into account that they're also getting fouled slightly less than the national average (.40 FTA/FGA), it might simply be a case of more lenient refs thus far -- or at least in that first game.

Considering how much the Gophers like to press, the new rules could be an easy trap. But players said it's forced them to be better defenders, to move their feet in order to get into position, which ultimately proves more effective than simply relying on hands.

"We attack," Hollins said. "We're going for body contact and once we get there, that's going to be to our advantage if the refs call it."

What do other coaches around the league think? Here are some thoughts from Big Ten media day:

Fran McCaffery, Iowa: "It appears to me it's going to have a tremendous affect on the game. It only stands to reason there will be a lot more fouls called out and away from the basket. What I don't want to see is touch fouls away from the basket and guys getting mugged off the ball, because that won't work. I've been saying for years we need to clean up those collisions at the rim. So I think that is brilliant what they're doing there, to protect the driver. Too many guys that were talented enough to go by their man and three guys falling down before the guy even got to the rim ... It will be interesting to see if the moves out front and the touch fouls will be sustainable. I think in theory it will work. In practicality it may make the games long and grueling, and it may have an adverse effect with regard to we're trying to open up the game. Teams may have to play more zone because you have to protect your guys who are in foul trouble. So I think when it's all said and done, we really don't know what's going to happen. But I like the thought process. I'm an offensive guy. We're going to drive the ball to the basket. So those rules would in theory help us. We'll see how it ends up."

John Beilein, Michigan: "The people that have changed the rules over time have really had a good record at doing this. There's some experimentation probably we would have preferred at times. But we led the country in not fouling last year. I think we were number one or number two in not fouling. So I don't think there's going to be a big change in how we coach. And the block charge, I hope it simplifies things. I do not know that it does. We have to wait. And this is where I defer to the experts and say, okay, if they think it will work, they've done enough research on it, we just go and we adjust from there. But we've had a scrimmage and inner squad scrimmage. I haven't seen the difference, in particular, in how the game was called against us. And I think other teams have a drastic difference. But who knows."

Thad Matta, Ohio State (on point guard Aaron Craft): "From what I've seen thus far, I don't think it's going to affect him. I think if they stay with what they're saying, it's going to affect the bad defenders, because they can't move their feet as well. And I say that in the most complimentary way to Aaron because I think the thing he does better than anybody in the country is moves his feet. He's got the ability late rally to really move. He's got great lower body strength. So I don't really see that being an issue for him in terms of he's not a guy that grabs and holds, because he's always there with his feet. So I think he should be in pretty good shape."