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Originally Posted by Camron Rust
Needless meddling:
9. play in halves instead of quarters Why? OK, but Why?
10. entend the game length to 36 minutes How would it improve the game?
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As many of you already know, in MN we went abandoned the quarter system in favor of halves this past season. In addition we went with a 36 minute game. The official reasons for this were as such:
1. Halves added more strategy by eliminating the quarter break.
2. Halves created a better flow by eliminating the quarter break.
3. By lengthening the game to 36 minutes and not adding additional timeouts, it created a need for more substituting, thus ensuring more players would have an opportunity to participate.
4. The coaches in MN supported this move.
After doing it for a season (only at the varsity level...all under varsity games were 2 halves of 16 minutes each), I must admit that I like it. The games seemed to go more quickly and it seemed like the coaches actually ended up using less timeouts than before. I don't know if it created additional playing opportunities for bench players, but it change the complexion of the game in subtle ways that didn't seem intrusive.
I'm all for making this NFHS policy, but I can also understand reluctance to ensorse this measure. To me, it makes sense because if a player goes on to college ball he/she will be playing in this system anyway, and its not as drastic of a jump to go from 36 minutes to 40 minutes in a game as it is to go from 32 minutes to 40 minutes.
Just my two cents worth.
Dave