Might IU fans be able to see more Troy Williams dunks this season? If they go to the games early, they might. The NCAA approved a number of rule changes in both men’s and women’s basketball Monday. Most attention has been the implementation of a 30-second shot clock, a five-second reduction from the previous mark.

The shorter shot clock seems to many like it will benefit Indiana, including Mark Cuban, who walked over to Tom Crean at last Thursday’s announcement. Cuban, a basketball advanced stats nut, spoke with Crean for a moment before heading to the podium, and as he walked away, said, “That 30-second shot clock is perfect for you guys.”

This is the overriding opinion, but IU players and coaches have both mentioned in recent months that they have practices on shorter shot clocks, played with a shorter shot clock in Canada and usually play faster than 30 seconds in games.

The main benefit might not be on the offensive end for Indiana, but on the defensive end, where IU needs a little help as is. Teams were able to wear IU down on defense last year during possessions, eventually being able to exploit a player being a step behind or a second late. With five fewer seconds for offenses to work, IU might see even more defensive improvement, where the Hoosiers expect to see some improvement as is.

Many might be overlooking some other rule changes, and the effect they might be having on next season’s Indiana Hoosiers. For example…

One fewer team timeout — Only three timeouts carry over to the second half instead of four. This likely benefits Indiana, as Tom Crean isn’t one to use up timeouts anyway. He much prefers his teams to play in the flow of the game, letting defense lead into transition offense.

In addition to having one fewer timeout, teams will be under more pressure from referees to hurry up following timeouts. Referees will issue a delay-of-game warning one time and the second time a team drags behind, a one-shot technical foul will be assessed (as if we needed referees to insert themselves into games more).

Extension of restricted-area arc

Indiana's Tom Crean likely approves of many of the latest rule changes to increase the pace of play.

The arc under the basket is going to be extended from 3 to 4 feet with intent of “reducing the number of collisions at the basket.” The NCAA tried this out in the NIT this year, measuring that the number of block/charge plays decreased from 2.77 per game to 1.96 per game.

This will likely benefit both players and, quite frankly, fans. The block/charge debate has been at the forefront of rule discussions for years because of the confusion that stems from the difference between the two and the sometimes inconsistent calls that go along with said confusion. With fewer block/charge calls, there will be fewer of these debates and fewer games decided in the final minutes by these calls.

The rule will also likely result in safer playing conditions and possibly more aggressive post defense in terms of blocking shots. We saw Hanner Mosquera-Perea (IU’s best shot-blocker) try to draw charges as much as he tried to block shots last season, but without charges being as prominent, we might see post players try to challenge shooters and drivers more often. On this point, this rule might harm the Hoosiers at times, as drawing charges has been an emphasis for IU for years. Nothing gets the bench going more than a Hoosier drawing a charge, but the bench might have to find something else to rally around if the amount of charges decrease dramatically, which remains to be seen.

Flopping penalties

This one shouldn’t affect IU or most teams dramatically, but it’s nice to see college basketball looking to nip flopping at the college level. We can only hope it helps reduce faking fouls at the NBA level eventually.

No more penalties for dunking in warmups/at halftime

Maybe the NCAA had Troy Williams in mind when it approved this. Sure, it might increase the risk of injury during warmups, but it also increases the chances of seeing Williams do something crazy.

This is likely an overreaction, but bear with me. Indiana had issues getting fans (especially students) to show up in time for tipoff this past season. If pregame warmups turn into a dunk show of sorts involving Williams and other athletic showmen in Nate Ritchie, OG Anunoby and Thomas Bryant, maybe fans will have more of an incentive to show up earlier. Sure, this wouldn’t bring enormous amounts of people in early, but it would be an added bonus to showing up early to games.

And if Williams taught IU fans anything last year, it’s that dunks don’t have to count to fire up a crowd: