Had another running clock last night, although the winning team didn't hit a 40-point margin until the final 3 minutes of the game. For the girls varsity season, that makes 5 games out of 31 with the mercy rule. Two of my running clocks involved the same losing team.

Only 2 games left, but these are in district and regional semifinals, where a 40-point margin is unlikely.

Wow. Our season is just starting - first games were last Thursday. And no mercy rule here in Idaho.

Since all the teams are playing in the state tourney, you can only hope none of your teams get mercied. ;)
Have a good tourney, stan-MI!

We still play girls bball in the fall, at least for another year.

No mercy rule adopted in Nevada.

Same in Washington, no mercy rule. I have to wonder how many states did implement it and if the players like it. I am assuming this was for the players.

No mercy rule in Illinois. We were at a clinic that had three coaches at a session where we could ask them questions. I asked about the mercy rule, and all three coaches were against it. They didn't like it because in a blow out they could get all their players in game situations whether winning or losing. I really don't understand their thinking. On the other hand, in football coaches that are getting blown out want the clock to run faster than it can so they can get the game over. Blow outs aren't fun for anybody; the players, coaches, refs or fans.

Neither MN nor WI implemented the mercy rule.

There is no mercy rule in California. I hope at some point in the future, it will be implemented.

Hey, Idaho here, too. ntmy (=nicetomeetyou), DownTown. :) But our GBB season has just begun (my 1st game was on Tues 11/18) it and my game last night both could have used the mercy rule. Both blow-outs. All is well, but I think most coaches I've seen would also be against the mercy rule, for the fact that they can play all of their kids...who knows 4 sho' tho' :)

The mercy rule only penalizes teams when games are played that have one poor program participating.

Florida has adopted the mercy rule.

35 points -- second half.

There is one part of the rule that is a bit peculiar, just wondering if this is consistent with other states. Once the running clock begins, (35 points) the clock continues to run the rest of the game (except for time-outs, injuries and techs). So the situation could exist that a team that is down 35 points, accidently comes back and sends the game to overtime, the OT would still use the running clock.

Of course I want to see the team that can pull that one off ;)

LSams,
I like Michigan's "Stop the clock in the last two minutes for free throws.", because it will probably get a sub's name in the paper.
Getting 'print' is often better, than getting points.
mick

Simple math problem. You are a top team in the state, play a pretty tough schedule, want to keep a good W-L record, and you only go 8-9 deep in a game, with your starters getting 3/4s of the minutes. The blowouts give #s 6-12 an opportunity to play - for the normal subs, it is more minutes than they usually get, for the bench crew, it's minutes they never see.

There is no substitute for game experience, so I fully understand why coaches want a chance to play their subs. As for footbal, the injury rate is so much higher that you are lways worried about having a player hurt in a meaningless game. Basketball isn't quite the same in that regard, although injuries do happen.

I'd like to point out that this is a good situation for the losing team, too. Once those third string players get on the floor, the losing team gets more experience. When it's the starters, they're learning nothing, gaining nothing and hurting plenty. We have a couple top teams here that will put in their whole JV third string after about 5 minutes, just so that the game is more interesting and a better learning experience for everyone.

I'd also like to point out that if the coach who's blowing out the otehr team is so anxious to get playing time for his third string, he could put them in earlier, before the spread gets to 40. Then there wouldn't be a running clock!