One-and-one free throws eliminated

The one-and-one is done. Beginning with the 2023-24 high school basketball season, all fouls committed in the "bonus" will result in two foul shots, based on a rule change implemented by the NFHS in late May. "The pressure free throw of a one-and-one was a big deal," Oak Harbor boys coach Eric Sweet said. "You repped it in practice. You talked about it. 'Make a kid make the first to earn the second.'" Team fouls will no longer be kept in each half. Instead, the bonus will begin after five team fouls in a quarter and reset before the next eight-minute period. "Overall, I love the new rule of the fouls resetting after each quarter," Norwalk girls head coach Brock Manlet said. "I think it will make game more interesting instead of a steady march to the foul line. "We play an aggressive style, so the resetting of the fouls is something that probably will benefit us in the long run." Previously, teams got to shoot one free throw and the potential bonus after seven opposing team fouls in a half, then two foul shots after 10 fouls. "The rules committee studied data that showed higher injury rates on rebounding situations and saw this as an opportunity to reduce opportunities for rough play during rebounds," said Lindsey Atkinson, NFHS Director of Sports and liaison to the Basketball Rules Committee. "Additionally, resetting the fouls each quarter will improve game flow and allow teams to adjust their play by not carrying foul totals to quarters two and four." The rule change aligns with women's college basketball, which has 10-minute quarters but otherwise matches the five-team-fouls-per-quarter and no one-and-one. There will be no change to the rules on shooting fouls. Being fouled on a two- or three-point attempt will result in the equivalent number of free throw attempts, and if the shot goes in, the shooter will still get the resulting and-one attempt. "I'm hoping for our players it takes pressure off them for the first shot, but it's like that for everyone," St. Paul boys head coach Steve Minor said. "Everything changes over time, and that's fine. I don't have a problem with it. "But the injury risk part as the reason to make the change ... that's just silly rationale." The new rule could lead to fewer overall free throw attempts — that's what happened to women's college basketball when they adopted this format, according to the Associated Press. "The one-and-one is the area I have mixed feelings about," Manlet said. "I like the idea of being able to put the opposing team on the line in a close game with the pressure of making the first free throw. It just takes a little bit of the pressure off of the shooter." Whether the total tries go up or down, this new normal will certainly alter the tempo of bonus trips to the line in multiple ways. One: there'll be a lot more bonus free throws shot in the first and third quarters than before. What used to take reaching seven early fouls for a stop at the charity stripe will now take just five. There'll also be a change in suspense at the end of close games on both sides. A team in the lead trying to ice the game as the other team fouls them to save clock will get a second chance to expand the edge, even if the pressure of the moment forces a miss on the first shot. "It's gonna be a little harder to get your way back into a game, I feel like," Sweet said. "If you're guaranteed two shots, at 50 percent you'd get one of the two, you assume." On the flip side, a team mounting a comeback won't be immediately foiled if the first foul shot after a foul on the floor is missed. From a tempo standpoint at any point in the game, there will no longer be the quick shift that came after the front end of a one-and-one was missed. The rule change could also create new incentives for end-of-quarter defense. If a team goes into a stall offense to hold for the last shot in the first or third quarter, and the defense has only committed a foul or two, they can defend aggressively to try and get the ball back knowing that counter resets at the end of the frame and won't carry into the second or fourth quarters. "It kind of gives you that NBA, you have a foul to give at the end of a quarter idea," Sweet said. "I like that, you can take one now in the first quarter which you didn't want to before." Teams will now have "fouls to give" at the end of each of the four quarters instead of just at the end of each half. "I think it definitely does affect strategy a bit," Manlet said. "I mean, you have to really pay attention to who you may foul. You have to monitor those percentages a little bit closer in that situation, and maybe it affects how early you decide to purposely foul to put a team on the line." These rules will officially take the court in late November when the high school basketball regular season gets underway. ----------------------------- Reflector Sports Editor Mark Hazelwood contributed to this story