Wow! To see that coach's face would have been worth the price of admission.

Great story!

My high school alma mater is in the MI record books for scoring the fewest points to win a game and being involved in a game with the fewest total points scored.

In 1996 Hastings came to town with a very talented, high scoring team so Northwest decided to stall. Hastings decided not to press the issue. The final score:
Northwest - 7
Hastings - 6

In 5 overtimes! :eek:

Yes I remember that rule, but I thought the hashmark rule was called the "20" second... You had to advance the ball passed the hashmark every 20 seconds to avoid a violation... Now if the defense wants to engage all they have to do is stay within 6' of the offensive player with the ball.. I feel the shotclock would resolve alot of these quirky situations.. Point: Play ball!!

I believe the NFHS Lack of Action rule was deleted sometime after 1990-91. I graduated high school in 1991 and during our district ifnal game, the other team decided to wait for the last shot in the first quarter and was given a warning for lack of action, before hitting a buzzer-beating bucket to tie the game.


Fast forward to May 1994. AAU boys tournament with modified NFHS rules. one of the team decides to stall when the other team goes zone, and the referees aren't counting for lack of action. :eek: So the rule was apparently deleted between 1991 and 1993.

Hmmm - I didn't play high school ball so I don't know if the lack of action rules were if effect in CA (1988-1992).

HOWEVER, I was coaching CYO basketball during my high school years (and beyond) and I remember "lack of action" being mentioned in the rules. THis was because CYO adopted most of the Federation's rules with some exceptions.

Note that I DON'T remember if the lack of action rule was used in CYO or not. THe rule may have been mentioned in passing.

If there was no shot clock in CA back around the mid 90's, one of the highest scoring teams in the Bay Area might not have broken 100 points. Balboa High with their "Jet Offense" ran around some high quality competition but also the lower rung teams in their league. I know my alma mater tried to slow things up but the shot clock proved to be too difficult to overcome.

Hash Mark
 

Don't forget that the 28 foot hash mark used to have another purpose besides lack of action. If a dribbler was closely guarded, and dribbled past the hash mark, in a forward direction, they got a new five second count. So a dribbler could hold for 4 seconds, dribble for 4 seconds, pass the hash mark, continue to dribble for another 4 seconds, and hold for 4 seconds, for a total of 16 seconds with no violation. Now the maximum is 12 seconds, hold, dribble, and hold.

When I was coaching, the players filling the two outside lanes on our fast break were required to touch the hash marks. It was a great teaching tool, until gyms started to get new paint on the floors, with no hash marks.

A game in northern Wisconny was 5-3 ten or so years ago.

...was the ruthless leader of the Soviet Union from 1922 - 1953. :D
Sorry, I couldn't resist!

That's when we had a forecourt which was the portion of the frontcourt below the hash closes to the end line.

Mregor