By John Clark
The one-and-one bonus free throw is now a thing of the past. There will be new foul limits for shooting common fouls and the foul count will be wiped clean at each quarter change.
The National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) met in April and approved these changes and others that were announced in a press release in May. But with West Bladen’s Knights, the defending Southeastern Athletic Conference co-champions, opening their season Friday night against South Brunswick, it seemed like a good time to review the changes.
East Bladen’s Eagles who shared that SAC co-championship with West had their Friday season opener postponed due to the Eagle football team’s success in the football playoffs.
Teams will begin shooting 2 shots on the 5th common foul in each quarter. This replaces the old one plus the bonus if the free throw is successful. Also, the common fouls will not carry over to the next quarter. The total will be reset to zero at the beginning of each period.
“The rules committee studied data that showed higher injury rates on rebounding situations and saw this as an opportunity to reduce opportunities for rough play during rebounds,” said Lindsey Atkinson, the NFHS Director of Sports and liaison to the Basketball Rules Committee in the release.
“Additionally, resetting fouls each quarter will improve game flow and allow teams to adjust their play by not carrying foul totals to quarters two and four,” continued Atkinson in the release.
Throw-in administration was also addressed. When an official administers a throw-in to the wrong team, the error can be fixed before the first dead ball after the ball becomes live unless there has been a change in possession. In the past, once the official handed the ball to the in-bounder, an error could not be corrected.
The throw-in procedure for front court violations has been simplified. When the ball is in team control in the offensive team’s frontcourt, and the defensive team commits a violation, a common foul prior to the bonus, or the ball becomes dead, the corresponding throw-in by the offensive team will be at one of 4 designated spots determined by where the infraction took place.
The designated spots are either the nearest 28-foot mark along each sideline or the nearest spot 3 feet outside the lane line on the end line. The one exception is when the defensive team causes the ball to be out of bounds, the throw-in shall be at the spot where the ball went out of bounds.
Another rule change allows a player to step out of bounds and return to the court if the player gains no advantage. A player is penalized only if, after returning inbounds, the player is the first to touch the ball or avoids a violation.
The other 2023-24 rule changes applied to color of uniform bottoms and undershirt colors.
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