If you’ve studied the hardwood habitat, then you know he is an endangered species, victimized by the Darwinian hunt for more pace and more space. He is the back-to-the-basket center, and over the last two decades he has steadily gone the way of the woolly mammoth. As a result, dinosaurs like Wilt, Kareem, Hakeem and Shaq are increasingly being looked at as relics of a distant past.



The big man is about to face a big decision this week, when the NCAA men’s basketball rules committee gathers in Indianapolis to consider a list of 54 proposals. At the top of that list is the question of whether the free throw lane should be widened from 12 to 16 feet, which is the dimension used in the NBA. If the change is made, a player would have to post up two feet farther from the basket. That would be a slide toward further irrelevance and, eventually, the disappearance of the traditional center.



Ah, but take heart, traditionalists: There is reason to believe the rules...