Basketball On The Internet.

IF you already have seen your NBL team in pre-season action, you may have noticed a few rule changes which the league has adopted and will institute next week at the Blitz in Brisbane.

These include a distinct change to overtime situations

The current rule states: “All team fouls committed in an extra period shall be considered as being committed in the fourth period.”

In other words, if a team is in the penalty situation at the end of regulation, each subsequent (non-offensive) foul in overtime results in two free throws.

Of course what that has delivered is a lot of free throw shooting in the extra five-minute period when tensions in an overtime game are high and fans want to see action, not assorted foul-shooting techniques.

Fans want a competitive spectacle.

What will happen now is overtime will start with both teams enjoying a clean foul slate, the bonus free throw situation applying after a team has committed two fouls in the extension.

Makes sense.

Four fouls gets you into bonus in a 10-minute quarter so two in a five-minute period is so logical, you wonder why it wasn’t thought of sooner!

Flopping – and I don’t think that needs any explanation after it was displayed as an art form during the FIBA World Cup, or was it FIFA…? – will be right in the officials’ target zone.

The penalty now will be a technical foul with one free throw. The possession then goes to the team which had the ball. 

Flopping, from the soccer charade which also is prominent now in European basketball, is such a growing blight on our sport.

Again in 2014-15 there will be no hands allowed by defenders on the ball carrier but jump-ball fans, despite great momentum in returning the jump to the entire game - not just tip-off - it won't be happening in 2014-15.

No, this time it's not about painting in the other side of the circle on keyways, but about time constraints. The league's official broadcaster is not keen on anything which potentially might take a game beyond its two-hour package.

So the jumpball, and maybe timeouts on the floor and a few other bits and pieces (such as 48-minute games) are at least a further season away.