NCAA denies it’s discussing rule changes to stop Monmouth bench celebrations

The Monmouth bench has been arguably the best story of the young college basketball season. If you haven’t seen it in action yet, a group of players deep on the Monmouth bench have come up with several over-the-top celebrations to enjoy the success their teammates are having. From re-enacting dunks to performing the human scissors, they do a little bit of everything.

It’s all in good fun and doesn’t interrupt the action on the court at all. It’s just a few student athletes having a good time being student athletes and celebrating with their teammates. Whether they -- or other teams -- would be allowed to keep doing similar situations was questioned on Monday.

Jay Bilas has been outspoken in his criticisms of the NCAA. But, just in case you think that is him sarcastically mocking the NCAA with an outlandish hypothetical, it wasn’t.

The NCAA is facing a number of issues. From player compensation, to concussions and injuries to antitrust lawsuits. Reworking rules to limit players from having fun and celebrating with their teammates would have been a questionable and dubious decision. But the NCAA denied it is doing anything of the sort.

That comes from David Worlock, the NCAA director of media coordination and statistics. The response makes a lot of sense, too, considering the current bench decorum rules are mostly focused on not complaining about officiating. Lumping in players celebrating on the bench along with criticizing officials and making profane or vulgar comments doesn’t exactly fit.

So keep doing your thing, Monmouth bench. All is well.