Connecticut Shot Clock ...

[BillyMac]

From the Hartford Courant, September 16, 2022

The slow-down game will be disappearing from Connecticut high school basketball in 2023.

The CIAC Board of Control voted Thursday to implement a 35-second shot clock for varsity boys and girls basketball games beginning the 2023-24 season, an element that has long existed at other levels of the game.

“It should have been done a long time ago,” said Ken Smith, Windsor boys basketball coach. “It has been on the table since 2009, 08, 07. We’re so far behind with rules changes in the game of basketball, this is a step in the right direction. It’s definitely needed, and it will help us prepare our kids for the future.”

The shot clock was proposed by the CIAC Boys and Girls Basketball Committees, and was “overwhelmingly endorsed in a survey of CIAC member schools,” the CIAC said in a release. The 19-member Board of Control, comprised of school principals, was unanimous in its approval.

The shot clock will be mandatory for varsity contests, and will have to be operated by an adult. It will be optional for freshman and JV contests, and if used, not mandatory than an adult operate it for those contests.

“I think it’s a long time coming,” said Mary Roickle, girls basketball coach at E.O. Smith in Storrs.

“Although it would alter some coaches’ strategies, it would be a level playing field and kids would know they have X number of seconds and we’d be able to really have competitive games vs. some things in the past that I’ve seen where you just hold on to the ball and stand at half court. Is that basketball, is that competition? It changes the pace of the game, and I love it.”

The NBA implemented a 24-second shot clock in 1954, and it immediately resulted in more action and scoring. The NCAA adopted a 45-second shot clock in 1985, later shortening possession time to 35 seconds, and then 30. The WNBA uses a 24-second clock, as does international basketball.

The National Federation of High Schools approved a 35-second clock in 2021. Eight states were using it at that time. While some states model their rules on the NCAA or other organizations, the CIAC has traditionally followed all NFHS rules 100 percent, so once the NFHS green-lighted the shot clock, the CIAC began the process. The boys and girls committees signaled their approval in September 2021.

“It trickles down from the higher levels,” said Northwest Catholic-West Hartford boys coach John Mirabello. “It’s part of the game now, and it’s great for the kids to have some uniformity in that sense. You still can grind a lot of clock, wear clock down and hold the ball; 35 seconds is a long time to hold the ball anyway without something happening. You know you have to get a shot off in a certain amount of time but you can use a good amount of that clock and still control pace. The excitement for the coaches is the strategy that comes involved with that. It’s just fun.”

The original proposal was for the shot clock to be used at all three levels, and be implemented in 2022. Feedback from schools led to the one-year phase-in to the 2023-24 season, and the varsity only implementation to allow time adjust budgets to purchase equipment and hire and train officials to operate the clock.

“This is something our coaches have wanted for a long time,” said Gregg Simon, the CIAC’s associate executive director and liaison to the basketball committees. “They have always been the driving force behind change. They’re going to be excited about teaching the strategy at the end of the quarter, half, game, and not have to rely on fouling to stop the clock the way it has been done for a long time. It’s going to be a newer kind of game. At the end of the half and the end of the game, it becomes very consequential in determining the outcome of the game if you’re able to play really good defense.”