NCAA: NCAA to Regulate Coaches’ Sideline Behavior

NCAA to Regulate Coaches’ Sideline Behavior: Starting this season, coaches must watch what they say and how far they stray from the bench during games. The NCAA will emphasize bench decorum and encourage officials to give more technical fouls to hot-headed or unruly coaches. Specifically, coaches must refrain from cursing at officials, attempting to sway their decisions, or leaving the coach’s box on the sideline to protest calls or attend to injured players without the officials’ permission. Jim Boeheim, Syracuse’s coach and president of the National Association of Basketball Coaches, said the new emphasis will deliver strengthened, consistent enforcement of the decorum rules already in the books. The NCAA will reward officials who consistently apply the rules by choosing them first for NCAA Tournament and conference tournament gigs. [10/13/07]