While I am generally disinterested in sports, tonight I happened to be with some guests who wanted to watch a NCAA basketball game, and apparently sometime since I learned the game, they changed the rules in a major way.
It appears that the rules for traveling changed. As I learned it, after your last dribble, you can only take one step (with one leg) and then you have to shoot. But in tonights game, I distinctly saw players take two steps once they’d stopped dribbling and approached for the shot. On one occasion, I saw a player take 3 steps and not get a foul.
So what’s going on here? Did I learn the rules wrong, or are players really pushing the boundaries? Or is it just plain old bad officiating?
Either pushing the boundaries, bad officiating, or a combination of both.
Read “traveling” here.
Plato? Aristotle? Socrates? Morons!
~Well it’s the way we shake and sway, and it’s the passion that you play… -Better Than Ezra
The three-step situation you describe is definitely against the rules, but the other one I’m not so sure about. Officially, “traveling” depends on where the player’s feet are when he/she stops dribbling. If the player is in the air when the dribble stops, he/she can land on one foot and then jump and land on one foot or both feet simultaneously, which might appear to be more than one step but is perfectly legal. If the player has one foot on the floor when they stop dribbling, they can push off with that foot and land on both feet simultaneously, which is also legal. In either case, the player isn’t allowed to take another step before passing or shooting the ball.
Unofficially, I’ve seen some leeway given by the officials regarding the traveling rule, especially with regards to what constitutes “simultaneous”. One foot landing a split-second after the other, extra “baby steps” when driving to the basket, that sort of thing. It’s just part of the rich tapestry that is college basketball. 
Here is the official 2002 NCAA college basketball rule book. It’s a .pdf file, so you’ll need Acrobat, of course. The definition of traveling is under Rule 4, Section 64. And here is the text of a ruling/interpretation by the NCAA Rules Committee earlier this month. Hope it helps.
Thanks guys, the rules makes sense, but even with the simultaneous dribble/step rules, that just makes the 3 steps into 2 steps, still a traveling foul. Just to clarify, this guy was driving for the basket, running at full tilt, taking three huge steps, this was no “baby-step” or feet planted together. Jeez, what the hell use is it to have rules if nobody obeys them and nobody enforces them?
Rules no longer apply when you have a bunch of millionaire sell-outs who only want to serve themselves. Rules would interfere with their “game.” Money has ruined basketball, baseball, and football. I’m sure hockey and soccer have their share of prima donnas who like to “stretch” the rules.
Pretty much what I was going to say, although the OP was referring to the NCAA - aka he NBA’s minor leagues. Players like Michael Jordan, for example, would be nowhere if they weren’t “forgiven” those extra steps to gain the momentum for their spectacular leaps and bounds, the game would be more boring and the marketing people would be mad. If the players aren’t allowed to do this sort of thing at the college level, then they can’t make it to the pros. My question is: has this new interpretation of the “rules” made it to the high school level?
Ah, this makes even more sense. I have been informed that Mr. Three Steps was hotly desired last year by all the NBA teams, and certainly would have been a first round draft pick and instant multimillionaire, but he decided to finish his senior year in college instead. So now he has a full year for showboating.
I also note with amusement, the final play of that game. One player deliberately drew a foul in the last 30 seconds of the game, in the hopes of making a steal after a missed free throw. I remember this exact play from a Student vs. Teacher game I watched in jr high school. One of the students deliberately fouled a teacher for the exact same reason. The student was a star player on the school BB team, he knew that drawing the foul was an accepted strategy, the school’s coach even taught it to him. Alas, the teacher didn’t know a thing about BBall. The teacher was so incensed at being fouled, he slugged the student right in the face and broke his nose. The kid’s parents filed assault charges, and the teacher was kicked out of the school. Now THAT’s poor sportsmanship.