As the weather becomes colder, colleges all over the country head indoors to hit the court for one thing: practice. College basketball practice opened nationally Friday, Oct. 2 with the Monmouth Hawks Men’s team set to start Monday, Oct. 5.
A lot of changes for 2015-2016 are already forcing the Hawks to adjust. Changes for the season ruled by the NCAA include cutting the number of timeouts each team can use in the second half from four to three. Resulting from this no timeouts will be allowed to be called during the 16-, 12-, 8- and 4-minute breaks.
Coaches will not be able to call timeouts when the ball is live with very few exceptions. Teams will now have 10 seconds to advance the ball past half court instead of resetting the clock if there is a stoppage that occurs.
Along with the adjustments of timeouts, the arc underneath the basket will be extended out from 3 feet to 4 feet. This change was made after data showing the reduced number of collisions with the addition of the extended foot mark in the arc. To add insult to injury, teams will also only have 15 seconds, instead of 20, to make a substitution when a player fouls out. The whole process is in efforts to reduce unnecessary delays of the game. Officials will be instructed to start play quicker following timeouts. If teams do not corporate, penalties such as technical fouls will be called.
An optimistic look about these new changes comes from junior guard Collin Stewart who showed vast improvement last year.
“I can’t wait for this season, I really think not only me but our whole team is making huge steps forward and can’t wait to see where it gets us,” said Stewart.
With all these changes, the main one, which literally is a “game changer” is the adjustment of the shot clock. The panel ruled that the shot clock will be reduced from 35 seconds to 30 seconds, which is what women’s college games already use. The shot clock was last reduced in the 1993-94 season from 45 to 35 seconds. This is going to force the players to play faster and think more aggressively when in action.
Not only will this season bring changes for the Hawks rule wise, but a mix of veterans, freshmen, transfers and injury returners will need to come together for Coach Rice and the Hawks. This will be the first season of play for Oklahoma transfer, Je’Lon Hornbeak and redshirt freshman Micah Seaborn. The Hawks also added a freshman wing, Pierre Sarr and big man Diago Quinn. Injury returns including junior forward Greg Noack, who was out last year due to a concussion and junior guard Josh James coming off a toe injury are also key figures to the Hawk’s lineup.
“Coming into this year I feel very confident,” said James. “I feel like I have nothing to lose. I’m an upperclassman now so I’m excited to get out there and make a contribution with the experience that I have.”
The Hawks were fairly senior heavy in 2014-2015 season which included Max DiLeo, Andrew Nichols, Brice Kofani and Mike DeLorenzo, who all graduated leaving only one senior to lead the team this year. Senior guard Deon Jones was named Third-Team All-MAAC in 2015 and a preseason Third-Team All-MAAC selection a season ago.
“The way I can lead this team is by leading by example and helping each and every player get better every day,” said Jones. “And also by giving the players my knowledge of the game that I have since I’ve been in college the longest on the team.”
The Hawks are set to open up on Nov. 7 home for an exhibition game against Georgian Court. Three away games including UCLA, USC and Drexel should be a good early test to see where the Hawks are at.
Following Monmouth’s road trip, the Hawks will return to the east coast to match up with MAAC foes, Canisius College and Niagara University in upstate NY.
Dec. 13 marks the Hawks home opener against Wagner at 2 p.m. in the Multipurpose Activity Center on ESPN3.
Georgetown, Rutgers, Cornell and Army complete the Hawks non-conference schedule for the 2015-2016 season.
PHOTO COURTESY of Monmouth Athletics
