National Basketball Committee
Amends Personal Foul Rule

Change ‘Permits Offended

to Waive Free Throw;

Shooter Protected More
By. Everett. B. Morris

| In an attempt to discourage de-
‘liberate fouling and to afford more

protection to a player trying for}

a basket, the National Basketball
Committee of the United States and
‘Canada wrote two new-clauses into
the personal foul rule yesterday be-
fore concluding its annual two-day
conclave at the MeAlpin.

One change gives the offended
team the right to waive the free
throw and put the ball in play at
midcourt after a personal foul. The
other makes it mandatory for of-
ficials to award two free throws
when a player is roughly handled
in the act of shooting, whether or
not the field goal is scored. |.
| These new sections, closely in line
with recommendations submitted by
‘the National Association: of Basket-
‘ball Coaches after their meeting in
‘March. were the most important of
ithe seven minor changes made in
the playing code for 1939-’40. The
‘others were:

(a) The end line shall be four
| feet from’ the face of the back-
| board. (The present limit is two

feet—Ed.). Exceptions are to be
noted permitting the distance to
| be less than four feet with two
| feet minimum on courts which
cannot provide the four feet dis-

tance. The’ maximum and_ ideal
| length of court is ninety-four feet
| with a maximum space between
backboard faces of eighty-six feet.

(b) Slight changes in the speci-

fications for balls, relative to re-

siliency, :..:

 

 

.
Standing in Eastern
College Ball League

W. L. Pet.
1 2 2333
12 333
0 2 .000

het Sed 3 .h, Pet.
jHarvard . 4 1 .800/Penn.....
Dartmth. 4 1 .800|Cornell....
Yale.. >... 1 2,.883|Princeton.
Columbia.. 1 2 .333]| gears
Yesterday’s Result
Dartmouth, 9; Yale, 3.
_This Week’s Schedule é
_ Today—Pennsylvania at Cornell, Co-
lumbia at Harvard. i
Saturday—Columbia at Cornell (2),
Pennsylvania at Yale (2), Harvard at
Dartmouth.

 

 

 

 

factor the rules makers are count- |
ing upon to discourage the practice.

With respect to playing college
games in quarters instead of twenty-
minute halves, the rules committee
decided to leave this detail on an;
optional basis. Teams can agree to
divide playing time into quarters or
halves as they. see fit. :

Nothing was done about hoisting
the basket two feet to bring it twelve

feet above the floor and the same

fate befell the convex, fan-shaped
and other new-fangled backboards.
These items will be submitted to the
research committee for further ex-
perimentation. 4]

The extension of the court end
lines two feet in either direction will}
have little.effect in this district be-
cause of the physical limitations of
the gymnasiums. Only Fordham and
Brooklyn College have the necessary
space for such extensions. The pres-
ent court’in Madison Square Garden
is eighty-eight feet long, with eighty-
four feet between the backboards. If
the local teams do not object, Ned
Irish, Garden basketball director,
may move his end lines back.