Strike 2 for the deeper 3-point line

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For the second year in a row, attempts to redraw the three-point line and the lane in basketball have been defeated.

The NCAA Men’s and Women’s Basketball Rules Committees have pushed for a deeper three-point line. Division III has objected. In fact, a search of NCAA News and NCAA releases on the topic reveals many times this topic has been raised and rejected.

This point in the process seems key: “Because the basketball rules committees’ proposals involve financial impact (institutions would have to budget for new court lines), the divisions may consider the recommended changes separately and, on a division-specific basis, ask the Executive Committee not to apply the change.”

And here we are, still at 19-foot-9. That’s because this is not free. A member of the rules committee told Sports Illustrated’s Seth Davis in a recent column that stripping and repainting three-point lines would run about $15,000 per school.

While that seems high to some, throw in a trapezoidal lane and you’re still running into a lot of money — money which Division III schools can’t afford.

Let’s just say it is $15,000 to strip and repaint each three-point line and lane. In a spot-check of Division III basketball budgets, that could run anywhere from 17% to 60% of a school’s combined men’s and women’s basketball budget, according to our analysis of numbers provided to the U.S. Department of Education for the 2003-04 school year.

I pulled 20 Division III schools at random and checked what their institutional budget was for men’s and women’s basketball, then their overall athletics budget. Four of the schools were state schools, in keeping with the nature of the Division III membership. On average, the $15,000 would take up 27% of the schools’ basketball budgets, or 5% of the overall budget. (It’s higher at schools that don’t have football.) And if you don’t think that 5% is a big deal, consider that next time you’re asked to go without an annual raise.

I’m not personally against moving the three-point line to 20-foot-6, which is the most recently used number. But I’m against unfunded mandates, and unless the NCAA would like to filter down some money to the Division III schools as a grant to repaint their floors, I’m against the effort.

And you should be too.

Coaching confusion

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Let’s just get this out of the way: I love Minneapolis. Grew up in Minneapolis, went to DeLaSalle High School, would move back there if I could, the whole nine yards.

That doesn’t mean I don’t find Aaron Griess’ decision to go from Chaminade to Augsburg puzzling, to say the least. If Griess didn’t have a Division III background (Colorado College graduate, former Loras grad assistant) I would have to wonder if there were something going on at Chaminade we didn’t know about.

I’m even more confused by Pam Ruder’s move from UW-Oshkosh to Southwestern. Ruder is a WIAC lifer, graduated from Whitewater, was an assistant at Oshkosh and took over as head coach after the Titans’ national title team of 1996. Southwestern had a down year by its recent standards (16 wins in 2003, 15 wins in 2004, nine wins this past year) but has at least been competitive in its conference. That’s not the same as being competitive in the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, one of the top five Division III leagues for women’s basketball.

This is the opposite of the unusual coaching move announced the day before, in which Central, the 1993 national champions, hired Mount Ida head coach Natalie Nakic. She’ll be going from the 40th-best conference in women’s basketball (according to the Massey Ratings, out of 41 Division III conferences) to the 16th-best. She was 34-19 at Mount Ida in two seasons, but 40 of those 53 games were against North Atlantic Conference foes. This is a big leap.

As for Griess, well, I only hope the job comes with a wardrobe allowance. The whole family is going to need it!

This week’s recruiting update

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Blue Ridge High School (Ill.) center Brent Ruch has committed to attend Elmhurst and play basketball for the Bluejays.

“Brent has an unbelievable combination of size and basketball skill that you just don’t see everywhere,” Elmhurst coach Mark Scherer told the Bloomington (Ill.) Pantagraph. “Because of the injuries he has sustained, I believe his best basketball is still ahead of him.”

Hustisford (Wis.) HS guard Tony Thrasher, the Southern Trailways Conference boys’ basketball player of the year as a senior, will play at Hamline. Thrasher, 6-3, also played quarterback for Hustisford.

Derek King, Southside (Ind.), heads to DePauw. King averaged 16.8 points a game for Southside and had a GPA of 3.47 on a 4.0 scale.

“(Immediate playing time) was the biggest thing,” King told the (Muncie, Ind.) Star Press. “Wherever I went, I wanted to play right away. I went down and spent the night and played with the guys. We really clicked. Everything just really clicked. It was just a blessing to find a school like that.”

Fitch (Conn.) HS guard Todd Doyle will go to Wentworth Tech.

Manning (Iowa) HS post Brian Fogleman heads to Buena Vista.

Women’s recruits
St. Benedict’s incoming freshman class, according to the St. Cloud Times: Edina forward Ariel Tauer, Minneota guard Brittany Buysse, Edina point guard Nikki Carter, North St. Paul post Nicole Hjelmgren, Centennial post Alyssa Mohr and Rocori post Kari Schroeder.

Jackie Distler and Kelsey McCarty, from Sacred Heart HS in Louisville, will attend and play basketball at Transylvania. “Jackie and Kelsey have been an important part of a tremendously successful high school program,” coach Mark Turner said in a release. “Both will fit in well to our program and we’re excited they are coming to school at Transylvania.”

Fennimore girls basketball player Whitney Lenz, a 5-10 guard, will play at Clarke.

Nikita Eddy, Provincetown (Mass.) HS, to Mitchell.

Riverview High (Sarasota, Fla.) forward Stephanie Zarse to Illinois College.

Cor Jesu Academy (St. Louis) guard Jill Brandt and Punahou (Honolulu) School’s Shanna-Lei Dacanay to attend and play basketball at Washington U.

And Maddie Sikes signed one of those non-existent letters of intent at Wesleyan (Ga.). She went to Christian Heritage School (Ga.).

Tournament to feature Maryland’s best…

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… or all of Maryland, actually. We learned at the end of the season that the nine Maryland Division III men’s basketball programs have agreed to create an annual tipoff tournament. Each year eight of the nine teams in the state will participate: Frostburg State, Goucher, Hood, Johns Hopkins, McDaniel, Salisbury, St. Mary’s, Villa Julie and Washington College.

The tournament was inspired by the Chase Tournament, which features seven Division III teams and an NAIA team.

That makes us think — there are a few more theme tournaments we could put together at the Division III level.

Consider …

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