[bob jenkins]

Originally posted by ChuckElias
There have been a couple of threads recently where the differences between men's and women's rules or mechanics has caused some confusion.

Leaving my own feelings about the differences aside, it seems pretty clear to me that the women are consciously and deliberately trying to make their game more like the pro game. Their rule interpretations about defenders under the basket, their mechanics changes over the last couple years, etc., all move toward the pro ranks.

My question is, and I mean this in all seriousness, why don't they just adopt WNBA rules and mechanics? Has there been any discussion of this? You'd have to tweak them a little (number of personal fouls before disqualification, length of shot clock, distance of the 3-point arc), but they're already tweaking the heck out of the NCAA rules. Why not just go all the way?

Again, this is a serious question and I'm wondering if it's been discussed at all by the rules committee, and what the drawbacks would be.

Marcy Weston made some comments on this (especially as relates to mechanics) in the most recent RefMag -- iirc, something to the effect of "they are the best refs, so we'd be foolish not to borrow from them."