[Mark T. DeNucci, Sr.]

As I write this reply to DC_Ref12's question, there have been only two replies to his question: Snake~Eyes and CoachP. Unfortunately, both of their replies are incorrect.

Prior to the late 1980's women's college basketball used the National Association of Girls and Women in Sports (NAGWS) basketball rules. NAGWS basketball rules were loosely based on a mixture of National Basketball Committee of the United States and Canada (NBCUSC), which was the forerunner of the NFHS and NCAA Men's/Women's Rules Committees, and the International Federation of Basketball Associations (FIBA; USA Basketball represents the United States of America and its basketball organizations to FIBA).

Unitl a few years ago FIBA did not have a backcourt time limit; it now has an eight (8) second time limit. NAGWS did not have a backcourt time limit because it also used the FIBA thirty (30) second shot clock rule (it now uses the NBA/WNBA 24 second shot clock). FIBA's rational at the time for not having a backcourt time limit was the shot clock rule.

NAGWAS adopted other FIBA rules which are still in the NCAA Women's rules:

1) Closely guarded while holding the ball, not while dribbling, and just like in FIBA, this rule also applies to the backcourt.

2) While FIBA only allows the Head Coach to requests timeouts and this request must be made by the HC to the Official Scorer, NAGWS was using the current timeout request rule used by both the NFHS and the NCAA Men's (and NCAA Women's) in the 1960's.

So ends the history lesson.

MTD, Sr.