Most high school basketball coaches want a shot clock

It's about time.

That's how the majority of The Gazette area high school basketball coaches feel about adding a shot clock to the sport in Iowa.

'It would promote faster-paced and more fun style of play for fans to watch,” said Ryan Luehrsmann, boys coach at Cedar Rapids Xavier.

On Dec. 10, The Gazette emailed a questionnaire to all area athletics directors, requesting them to pass it along to their boys and girls basketball coaches for response.

Forty-seven coaches returned the questionnaires, and a healthy majority of 70.2 percent said they either 'strongly support” or 'moderately support” a shot clock in Iowa.

Meanwhile, 21.3 percent either 'strongly oppose” or 'moderately oppose” the addition, and 8.5 percent marked themselves as 'indifferent.”

Among boys' basketball coaches, 80.7 percent are in support of a clock while the number drops to 57.1 percent among girls' coaches.

Eight states have a shot clock - South Dakota, with a 35-second clock, is the only bordering state - and Wisconsin will add a 35-second clock in time for the 2019-20 school year.

Todd Tharp, assistant director for the Iowa High School Athletic Association, said there would be consequences for Iowa joining the growing shot-clock club.

'Our handbook states that we are required to follow the rules of the National Federation (of High Schools), as far as each sport is concerned,” he said. 'Unless it is mandated by the NFHS, we wouldn't make an adaptation to our playing rules.”

Any state that makes an adaptation, Tharp said, loses its national voting rights on rules with the NFHS.

The IHSAA is a full member of the NFHS, and the Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union is an associate member. So, unlike the IHSAA, the Girls Union would have nothing to lose.

But it's hard to imagine a shot clock for girls' basketball and not for boys.

'I'm not against (a shot clock) at all,” IGHSAU executive director Jean Berger said. 'But I want to know, how would it improve the game? What problem are we trying to solve? What are we trying to fix?

'Would participation go up because it's more up-tempo? If so, it's something worth a look.”

South Dakota added a shot clock in 2016, and Jo Auch, South Dakota High School Athletic Association assistant director, called it 'one of the smartest things we've done.”

Expense had been 'one of the biggest issues,” she said. 'We did some research, and most (clock) sets run between $2,300 and $4,000.”

Most shot clocks in South Dakota are located above the backboards, though some are on the gymnasium wall, next to the scoreboard.

Tharp said shot-clock discussion 'raises its ugly head at the state tournament every year,” particularly after games in which a team takes the proverbial air out of the ball for long periods of time late in the fourth quarter or in overtime.

'(A shot clock) would make the end of games a lot more interesting when one team holds a slight lead in a close game,” Luehrsmann said.

On the other hand, some - like Williamsburg girls' coach Aaron Feddersen - believe delay tactics 'are part of the game, and if defenses don't like it, they can do something about it.”

Other than end-of-game situations and games in which a team blatantly slows the tempo, the impact of a shot clock might be minimal.

Linn-Mar girls' coach Nate Sanderson tracked possessions of the Lions' game with Xavier Dec. 7. He found only four of 129 combined possessions by the teams did not feature a shot attempt within 30 seconds.

Still, Sanderson is pro-shot clock.

'In the last four minutes of a game, teams would be able to play defense with hopes of getting a stop when trailing instead of having to foul to get the ball back,” he said.

Taking away late-game stalls and free-throw parades is one reason coaches favor the addition of shot clocks. They believe it will lend itself to more points and a better product, and also reward a team for playing strong defense for 30 or 35 seconds at a time.

Others aren't so sure.

'The questions are, does it increase the tempo of the game? The score of the game? Field-goal percentage? I don't think there's data that shows that it does,” Tharp said.

Jacob Brindle, who coached the Cascade boys to a Class 2A state championship last season, did some fairly extensive research on the topic.

'The idea that a shot clock will lead to increased scoring is a fallacy, and in fact the data suggests otherwise,” Brindle said. 'The most recent data shows that of the top nine scoring states (combined winning and losing score), all are non-clock states, and nationally, both the winning and losing scores are, on average, higher in non-shot clock states.

'The limited data available actually shows that shot clocks lead to lower field-goal percentage and higher turnover percentage, as I would expect with kids playing faster.”

Despite the data, Brindle is in the minority.

'A shot clock offers the fans a faster-paced game with more offensive possessions and kids will enjoy playing that style more than a slowdown pace,” North Linn boys' coach Mike Hilmer said. 'It is in line with what kids will see in college basketball for those that go on to play more. I am always in favor of gearing our games in any sport to the higher level kids that want to move on and play at the next level.”

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HOW THEY VOTED ON THE ADDITION OF A SHOT CLOCK FOR IOWA HIGH SCHOOL BASKETBALL:

AREA BOYS COACHES (26 responded)

Strong support: 16 (61.5 percent)

Moderate support: 5 (19.2 percent)

Indifference: 1 (3.8 percent)

Moderate opposition: 2 (7.7 percent)

Strong opposition: 2 (7.7 percent)

AREA GIRLS COACHES (21 responded)

Strong support: 6 (28.6 percent)

Moderate support: 6 (28.6 percent)

Indifference: 3 (14.3 percent)

Moderate opposition: 4 (19.0 percent)

Strong opposition: 2 (9.5 percent)

AREA COACHES, COMBINED (47 responded)

Strong support: 22 (46.8 percent)

Moderate support: 11 (23.4 percent)

Indifference: 4 (8.5 percent)

Moderate opposition: 6 (12.8 percent)

Strong opposition: 4 (8.5 percent)