A Brief Overview of College Basketball

Basketball is one of the most loved sports in the world today. It is loved by people from all walks of life and there are some real hardcore basketball fans in teenagers. Basketball is therefore played a school and college level. It’s the college level basketball that is taken seriously as it forms a platform for the future national level players. College basket ball in America usually refers to American basketball competitive governance structure. It was established by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). Basketball in NCAA is subdivided into three divisions. There are 32 division I conferences, 22 division II conferences and there are 347 schools under division I. There are still several independent division I and division II schools that require conference affiliation.

Earlier the NBA used to select its players from college level teams. This was beneficial to the NBA because it didn’t have to fund minor leagues but as the college level basketball games began to get commercialized it became increasingly difficult for the students to concentrate on the studies and also they dint earn any money for playing basketball. They also had little scope to get good coaching. This all changed with the NCAA. Several new laws were brought into existence to help students facing economic hardships at college level. Several players skip playing basketball at college level and directly play for the NBA. But all the players must be above 19 years of age during the calendar year of the draft. But the pervasiveness of the college basketball at the national level and the brilliant marketing strategies followed by the NCAA has kept the basketball at college level well and alive.

The rules for the college basketball are set by the NCAA basketball rules committee which consists of a team of three experienced coaches. Good coaches are a must for any team to succeed. Several teams have become successful by recruiting good coaches who make the team play together in a cohesive way with better consistency and sophistication. The total NCAA game is for duration of 40 minutes but it is divided into two halves, each half played for a duration of 20 minutes. 35 seconds is given by the shot clock for NCAA team to shoot whereas NBA shot clock gives only 24 seconds. NCAA allows the players to commit five personal fouls before fouling out and they are given ten seconds to move the ball past half court.