Basketball Rules Committee Cuts Amateur Foul Shots

College and High School basketball teams will no longer take one foul shot after the first six common fouls charged to an opponent during a half.

Beginning next season, the team will put the ball into play "from the point out of bounds nearest to the point of the foul" after the early infractions.

The National Basketball Committee of the United States and Canada retained the one and one free-throw situation when it eliminated the one shot foul at its annual rules meeting which ended Wednesday in Los Angeles.

Prefer Possession

"It was felt that most teams would rather have possession of the ball than take a chance at making one point and lose the ball," Ed Steitz, secretary of the rules committee, said. "Also this change should speed up the game."

When a team is fouled seven or more times in a half, each common foul permits the offender one free throw. If he scores, he is given one more foul shot.

As in the past, a player fouled in the act of shooting a field goal at any point in the game gets one free throw if he makes the goal, and two if the foul prevented him from scoring.

The rule is expected to shorten college games by as much as 12 minutes. This is based on an average of 30 seconds required to line up for and take one field goal--during which time the clock is stopped.

Tremendous

Jack Ronan, Columbia's basketball coach, said. "If that's how they want to play the game, that's the way we'll play it." Roy Danforth of Syracuse called the change "tremendous."

"It will speed up the game and help get the fans off the officials' backs," said Penn State coach John Back.

Bob Harrison, Harvard's head coach, is in Florida and could not be reached for comment.

The change is a move toward international basketball rules. The international rules, used in the Olympic and Pan-American games, has the possession rule for a common foul up to the last three minutes of the game. After that, all fouls call for a one-and-one situation.