Columbus East’s Kenzi Cheek shoots a free throw during the annual crosstown rivalry game at Columbus North, Thursday, Dec. 14, 2023.
Mike Wolanin | The Republic
Fans have noticed a small change in how this year’s girls and boys basketball season is played.
The most notable change is that players are shooting two free throws for common fouls when the team is in the “bonus.”
The change eliminates the one-and-one scenario and sets new foul limits each quarter for awarding the bonus free throw.
In addition to awarding two foul shots for shooting fouls, teams will reach the bonus when their opponent commits five fouls in each quarter, and team fouls will reset at the end of each quarter. Previously, teams were awarded the one-and-one bonus when their opponents committed seven fouls in a half and two foul shots when 10 fouls were committed each half.
These changes were approved by the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) Basketball Rules Committee at its annual meeting April 24-26 in Indianapolis. The recommendations were subsequently approved by the NFHS Board of Directors.
“The rules committee studied data that showed higher injury rates on rebounding situations and saw this as an opportunity to reduce opportunities for rough play during rebounds,” said NFHS director of sports and liaison to the Basketball Rules Committee Lindsey Atkinson in a news release earlier this year. “Additionally, resetting the fouls each quarter will improve game flow and allow teams to adjust their play by not carrying foul totals to quarters two and four.”
The new rule is quite similar to women’s college basketball, where they play 10-minute quarters and are awarded two free throws after the fifth team foul and reset at the end of each quarter.
While it can get physical going for the rebound on the front end of a one-and-one, Hauser boys coach Trent Moorhead said he hasn’t noticed any major injuries in games his team played, nor a big shift in how players are going after the second free throw.
In the past, if a team was already in the bonus early in the second or fourth quarter, it made the game more time consuming for fans to watch.
“You definitely see less stoppage in games, especially at the start of the second and fourth quarters, knowing the foul count is going to reset,” Moorhead said. “In the past, if I know that the other team has fouled us five or six times in the first quarter, in the second quarter, it will let us be more aggressive and get to the rim.”
The new change eliminates the “what if” scenario of possibly leaving points on the board if a player misses the front end of the one-and-one bonus. There is also much less pressure put on the players as in the past where a player could be shooting a one-and-one bonus with the game possibly on the line.
“I think it’s a big difference mentality-wise,” Columbus North sophomore point guard Caleb Ferguson said. “In the fourth quarter, when you get five fouls and they get to the line and they get to shoot two, it’s a huge game-changer instead of having the one-and-one. It really does change the game when you have to shoot two.”
“It’s such a different mental shift as a shooter,” Moorhead added. “You’re going to the line and it’s a three-point game with less than a minute on the clock, knowing that you have two free throws as opposed to making the first free throw to get that second free throw. That takes some serious pressure off the shooter, so it’s going to benefit teams that aren’t good at shooting free throws. Good free throw shooters will have less pressure on them when they’ve got two. If you’re a team that can convert at the line, I think it’s going to play in your favor. A lot of different moving pieces with it.”
For Columbus East girls coach Kaitlyn Phillips, it allows her team to be more aggressive in the paint and drive to the basket more in hopes of having more opportunities at the line if the opposition is over the limit on fouls.
“The one thing that it changes is that you now have the opportunity to change how you play four times in a game instead of twice,” Phillips said. “If you hit the bonus in the first quarter, you’re changing things a little bit. You’re attacking a lot more instead of doing that once per half. It does give us more opportunities to attack and be aggressive.”
While the change has mixed reviews thus far, there is still a lot of change for players, coaches and officials to get used to going forward.
