The National Basketball Association, in a desperate attempt to raise its over-all attendance and capitalize on the high-scoring college players in the league, adopted a rule this year which has completely revolutionized the sport. This change, commonly called "the 24-second rule," is now being discussed by coaches, some of them actually desiring its adoption by the colleges.

This Saturday night, in the preliminary to the Harvard-Princeton game, the Crimson junior varsity and freshman teams will meet, playing under the 24-second, and other professional rules.

It will be interesting to see Saturday's game, if only to see the undesirability of the rule for the colleges. The rule forces a team to take a shot within 24 seconds after it gets possession of the ball. If it fails to shoot, the opposition takes the ball.

For the professionals, this rule is more than suitable. By forcing teams to shoot within 24 seconds, the owners made sure their Bob Couseys and Frank Selveys would score 25 points a night. They also made sure the point-hungry fans would see more 115-108 shooting contests. To let teams score more easily, the zone defense, the best way to stop a team with a big man, was abolished.

But in the colleges, the accent is not on points, it is on winning. The beauty in college basketball is that an underdog team, without any phenomenal shooters, can throw up a zone, or a pressing man-to-man defense, and upset some undefeated power. Half the excitement of a game would be lost if some 5-8 play maker could not freeze the ball for two minutes, dribbling by the lunging, desperate opposition. You don't need 100 points to win a game--even though the pros may think so.