Southern Methodist's Larry Brown calls the new hand-check rule "scary."
He's not alone.
"Tons of fouls, a lot of free throws, long, ugly games," Oklahoma's Lon Kruger said. "Hopefully fans can prepare for that. It is going to be frustrating."
The crackdown on hand-checking and a different interpretation of the block-charge call represent the most dramatic changes in the sport in years.
The criticism is already rolling in.
"They don't want a great 57-52 game, hard played, competitive," West Virginia's Bob Huggins said. "They want an 86-82 game. Do they want to watch that garbage for four-and-a-half hours? Do they want to do that by shooting 70 free throws? ... People don't want to watch free-throw shooting contests."
The changes were made in an attempt to bring more athleticism into the game.
"I will tell you, the focus of playing tough, physical defense was never the game of basketball," said Curtis Shaw, coordinator of officials for the Big 12, Southland, Ohio Valley, American Athletic Conference and Conference USA.
"So I think we are just going back to the rules of basketball, saying let's go back to playing an athletic game, not a physical game."
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