The floor of the Palestra will most likely have to be repainted next year.
This is because the NCAA Championships Committee has approved a proposal to move the college basketball three-point line 9 inches farther from the basket, starting next season. The line is currently 19 feet, 9 inches away.
Penn basketball coach Fran Dunphy believes that this rule change will not have an enormous effect on the game.
"I don't think it will make a drastic change," he said. "Guys will make the adjustment."
Dunphy's Quakers might have to make a more dramatic adjustment than most. Penn relies heavily on the three-point shot, finishing ninth in Division I last year in threes per game, averaging 8.96 baskets from downtown.
Penn also finished third in Division I in three-point shooting percentage last season, shooting 41.3 percent (251 for 603).
Then-junior Jeff Schiffner led all Division I in three-point shooting in 2002-2003, making 74 of 150 (49.3 percent).
The new line will be 20 feet, 6 inches from the hoop, the same distance as international play. The National Basketball Association's three-point arc is 23 feet, 9 inches from the hoop, except in the corners where it is 22 feet away from the basket.
Dunphy says that this rule change was not a surprise to him.
The NCAA "has been trying to open up the game," he said. "Guys are going to have more freedom in the post."
Another proposed idea to open up the game for post players -- widening the free throw lane from a rectangular shape to the international trapezoidal lane -- was rejected by Divisions I, II and III.
While the change of three-point distance is likely, it is not set in stone yet.
The NCAA's management councils must approve the decision in its Oct. 21-22 meeting. There is a separate management council for each of the three divisions. If the councils agree, the rule will be made official.
If the different councils disagree, however, the proposal will go to the NCAA Executive Committee, which meets Oct. 31. This committee can either approve the change for only the divisions which want it, approve it for all three divisions or reject the change for all three.
"In Division I, it's essentially done," Marty Benson, the NCAA liaison to the basketball rules committee, told The Associated Press.
