Shot clocks: the final frontier

Following Provo’s 39-32 come-from-behind 4A quarterfinal victory over Highland, Bulldogs coach Craig Drury passed along an interesting news item to the reporters gathered around him for postgame interviews.

Drury told us that Provo High plans to stage a boys basketball tournament over the Christmas break next season that will feature the use of a shot clock. The Bulldogs are working in cooperation with the UHSAA to put this experiment together and a few teams have already been invited to participate in the tournament — although Drury did not disclose which teams will be participating.

The long-time Provo coach isn’t an advocate of making a shot clock mandatory in high school games per se. But he does think it isn’t helpful to have high school players play without one when shot clocks are a part of the game at the collegiate and professional levels.

“I’m not necessarily pro-shot clock. I’m just pro-basketball,” Drury said. “And if that’s what basketball is now is shot clocks, then we need to have it.”

Personally, I love the idea. I’m an advocate of having a shot clock of about 35 or 40 seconds in high school games because I think it would improve the pace of some games and also improve the offensive and defensive skills of many high school players.

Too often, without a shot clock, I see situations where a team will have at least minute or two left on the game clock and literally dribble around or pass non-stop until less than 10 seconds remain. Then whoever has the ball will toss up a rushed shot that rarely goes in the basket. No one likes watching that type of slowdown play and I think a shot clock would virtually eliminate that extreme kill-the-clock approach in close games.

I am aware installing shot clocks would need to be done in a universal manner for it to work effectively. It would not make sense to put in shot clocks in 5A schools, for example, but then not do it for 4A schools. There would also need to be a method of making it cost-effective to put in shot clocks so both smaller and larger schools around the state could afford to install one.

Obviously, a few issues need to be worked out, but I think it would be a worthwhile investment to do it. And I’m convinced the inclusion of a shot clock could have a positive impact on high school basketball here in Utah.

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