College basketball became a better game Friday. Rejoice and be glad in it.

The NCAA men's basketball rules committee took a big swing at fixing what ails the sport, announcing an array of proposed alterations to the way the game is played. This no longer is a sport that seems terrified of change.

College basketball will likely trim its shot clock from 35 to 30 seconds next season. (AP) More

Pending expected approval from the men's basketball oversight committee, the key changes are these:

• Reducing the shot clock from 35 seconds to 30.

• Reducing the number of second-half timeouts by one for each team; eliminating coaches calling live-ball timeouts; reducing the amount of time to replace a player who has fouled out; and adjusting media timeout procedures.

• Expanding the restricted arc under the basket from three feet to four feet.

• Penalties for faking fouls (i.e., flopping).

• Most importantly, a renewed enforcement of rules that limit physical play.

That's a lot. And it's all needed. Badly needed.

College basketball has been trending toward unwatchable for several years, yet the decision makers in the sport seemed to willfully ignore some of the biggest reasons why. Slow play, excessive defensive physicality and overly controlling coaches had slowed the game to an ugly, inefficient, inartistic crawl.

At long last, the current command structure had the guts to do something about it. Vice president of men's basketball championships Dan Gavitt was a terrific addition to the NCAA in 2012, and he has the people around him now to enact change.

But it's not just the folks at the NCAA who had a hand in this.

"Look, we kind of had a charge [to make changes]," said Belmont coach Rick Byrd, who competently and passionately chaired that committee. "I don't know who from."

I do. The fans. The viewing public.

In recent years a lot of people voted with their TV remotes – clicking away from college hoops because they weren't enjoying what they saw. Hopefully they'll come back and give the improved game a try in 2015-16.

If these changes are approved and the new rules are enforced, here's what they'll see:

A game with more flow. There has been no greater detriment to college basketball than the clutch-grab-bump-slap defensive evolution of the game. Officials started to clean it up by calling more fouls in 2013-14, then lost their nerve – and lost the backing of the power structure – and the game reverted. If everyone stays committed, freedom of movement will return the way it did in the NBA.

"To us and to me, it's more about the officiating initiative and getting fouls called that are going to affect the flow of our game," Byrd said.

A game with more pace. Some overly protective of the status quo have argued that reducing the shot clock will lead to more panicked possessions instead of more points. But anything that eliminates the amount of time standing around doing nothing offensively – while the coach gesticulates and orchestrates and tries to call every movement from the sideline – will be an improvement. Getting into the offense more quickly will help.

When this rule was experimented with in the three non-championship tournaments in 2015 (NIT, CBI, CIT), scoring was up slightly over the previous year – and that's as a complete dry run. Give teams an entire off-season to practice and prepare for the shorter clock and they will be ready for it come November. Byrd said "well over" 60 percent of coaches favored the reduced clock.

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