Quote:
Originally Posted by williebfree
Although I acknowledge that officials cannot prohibit or penalize this strategy, every time I see discussion about it, I get a bit agitated.
Several yrs ago (read 30), my HS had a player who was striving to earn the conference scoring title and set the new total points record. Unfortunately, we played our arch-rival in the 2nd to last game of the season who, as you guessed, stalled the entire game.
Final score 10-8. We got the "W" and our star player had 6 of the 10 pts, but it put him in an impossible position to achieve the season scoring title/record.
(temporary reprieve from my life-time vent)
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I am guessing that your HS team likely played lots of zone -- gave your scorer more energy at the offensive end. Personally, I hope we never put a shot clock in at the high school level as the "shorten the game" strategy can be a great equalizer.
As has been mentioned, there is no rule prohibiting the defense from playing (shutter the thought) more than 20 feet from the basket they are trying to defend. I would employ this strategy -- ALWAYS at the end of each quarter (even if we were behind by a single digit margin) -- on a regular basis. This is simple clock game management at the end of each quarter. Why give the other team a chance to score, if you don't have to? Too many coaches want to spend ZERO time on man-to-man defense in practice. They just want to line up in their zone and work on offense for two hours. Why should a team that spends LOTS of time on man-to-man defense in practice be penalized by forcing to play against the other team's strength?
My players LOVED IT when the other team's parents would start booing and yelling and complaining. They took even more joy in seeing the other team's coach complain. Typically, the other team would eventually come flying out after us. We were always in a "ready to attack" position: point guard holding the ball, but still having his dribble available; wings out wide near the sidelines about five feet from the division line; and posts in the corners about three feet off the sideline and three feet off the endline. As soon as the defense came out, we would execute our spread offense -- usually leading to a lay-up via a back door cut.
While these games frequently had very little action for a period of time, there was virtually always TONS of action after the other teams would come out of their zone. With little experience playing helpside defense, wing denial defense, etc., these teams were typically easy pickins' early on in our spread offense.
While the parties representing the defense can complain that the offense is "not playing basketball", it is the defense that is ALLOWING the offense to "not play basketball." When teams try to hold the ball against my team, I look at the game situation. Sometimes, I let them (if I have a player or two in foul trouble, for example). In most cases, we will come out and play aggressive man-to-man defense. Usually, below the college level, a team (especially if the team on defense is more talented) will not be able to successfully hold the ball under pressure.
The reason the shot clock was put into college basketball is that many teams -- particularly Big Ten and ACC teams -- were taking the air out of the ball with five or six minutes left in a two point game. Since most teams had talented ballhandlers in these conferences, teams virtually had to foul to get the ball back. These last five, six minutes or even more became free throw shooting contests exhibitions and not much more. Hence, the shot clock was enacted.