When college basketball adopted the three-point shot for the 1986-87 season, the impact was immediate - and not necessarily for the better. The number of shots teams took went up, and the percentage of shots made went down.
"I think idiots put in the rule," former La Salle coach Speedy Morris said at the time.
Dr. Edward Steitz, the athletic director at Springfield College who was chairman of the NCAA rules committee, thought otherwise, saying that it was the game's most important change in 50 years.
"It accomplished everything the rules committee wanted," said Steitz, who died in 1990. "The dunk is no longer basketball's home run; the three-point shot is."
In the more than two decades since its inception, the three-point shot has changed the game - most recently in the way mid-majors have used it to level the court every March.
Now comes the question: Will moving the fences, uh, three-point arc, out a foot to 20 feet, 9 inches for the men's college game make a difference this season in the approach coaches and players take?
Oh, did they change the distance?
"I haven't even noticed anything about it yet, even in practice," said Indiana-Purdue Indianapolis coach Ron Hunter, whose team led Division I in three-point shooting last season at 42.3 percent.
Said Loyola guard Marquis Sullivan (Archbishop Spalding), who last season finished 23rd in the country - right behind Davidson standout Stephen Curry - "It looks pretty much the same to me. Maybe late in the game, those few inches could make a difference."
According to those familiar with the decision to move the arc, the NCAA rules committee did it this time for the same reason the legendary (or infamous, depending on your viewpoint) Steitz did it back in the mid-1980s: to open the floor and help with the flow of the game.
But IUPUI's Hunter doesn't think it's going to make a difference in that area, either.
"The kids are too big," Hunter said. "The only way it's going to have an effect is if we use the NBA three. It's the only way you'll get it where guys can cut without it being football or anything. For what we did, I just don't think it was enough."
Florida State assistant coach Andy Enfield, who made his reputation as the nation's best free-throw shooter at Johns Hopkins and has made a living teaching players to shoot from all distances on the college and pro level, said the rule change will likely affect frontcourt players more than guards.
