More and more, basketball is looking like hockey.

There were the forwards, the centerman, and now ... drum roll, please ... the Mad Ants can have a goaltender.

Not the flaky, French-Canadian type with superstitions that can fill a bus, but the kind of goaltender who is at least 6 feet and can knock a ball off the rim.

Because of a rule change that will go into effect this season, that's the new brand of basketball we'll be seeing.

Ants coach Joey Meyer says he's not a fan of the rule, but -- and he pauses a couple times -- he says he does what he's told.

This is the NBA's way of using the D-League as a guinea pig to see if this goaltending rule can play in Peoria - or more specifically, Fort Wayne, Iowa, Sioux Falls and the other D-League stops.

My guess is it will hurt the game.

When all other leagues are trying to increase scoring - because that's what the public wants and likes - along comes the NBA to tell its lesser brethren that it's OK to knock away a possible game-winning free throw that happens to hang on the rim.

So much for drama.

Amazing how much we tinker with a game that isn't broken.