Shot clock in HS Hoops
 

During the halftime of Hoover vs. Hillsboro Girls' game at the 2009 T-Mobile Invitational national high school basketball tournament, Mary Struckhoff (one of the asst. directors of the NFHS) was interviewed. There was a mention of the shot clock. According to Mary, NFHS has been having this discusion for about the past 10 years.

Should the NFHS adopt the shot clock or should this decision stay with the State Associations?

The NF can do whatever they want but high schools won't buy them if they can't afford them and there's plenty of high schools who can't.

Would I like a shot clock in the high school game? Yes. Don't think we'll see it for a while though.

Agreed.

I would like a shot clock so players aren't just passing the ball around, wasting time off the clock. It tends to get boring easily.

But, it probably won't happen for a while. And when NFHS does instate the Shot Clock, it won't be required by all schools for another 4 or 5 years after that, knowing that some schools may not be able to afford it right away.

Actually, what she most likely means is they have been considering officially sanctioning the states' ability to adopt the shot clock. It's currently not "allowed," even though several states have adopted its use.

What states? I'm moving to any one of those states.

I would at least like to see it available as an official state option

An example of the shot clock, here in Washington State:

Girls have a 30-sec. Shot Clock (According to articles I've read online, the girls have had a shot clock since 1974)
Boys have a 35-sec. Shot Clock (this is the 1st year for the boys to have the shot clock)

From what I've read online, there's only 7-8 states that have a shot clock for either girls or boys.

30/35 seconds? I would've expected it to be maybe 35/40 or 40/45 because 30/35 is college...

When the WIAA Representative Assembly voted on adding the boys' shot clock in April they had the choice of either 30 or 35 seconds. They decided to do the 35-sec. shot clock.

http://wiaa.com/ConDocs/Con133/Shot%...Rules%20_2.pdf

The only thing to me that doesn't make much sense is that the girls don't have the 10-sec. BC count with the 30-sec. shot clock, yet the boys still have the 10-sec. BC count with the 35-sec. shot clock.

Speaking of the 10-sec. BC count, watching the Girls' games at the 2009 T-Mobile Invitational national high school basketball tournament, since neither the girls or boys here use the shot clock, the girls had the 10-sec. BC count, as well as the boys.

in California...
 

... the same.

Girls have no 10 second count in back-court as well.

In a couple of the online articles, there was mentioning that some schools even have a hard time finding personnel to do table operations.

I have never been able to understand why that is.

That's consistent with the NCAA-W and NCAA-M rules, with regard to the BC count.

Consistent with NFHS rules.

Personally, it makes no difference to me whether a shot clock is adopted or not.

And yes, good table people are hard to find.

Could that be because of not wanting to take the time to learn everything having to do with the table, or is it cause of the fact everyone would rather be a spectator?

It's because it's so difficult to pry the darn cell phone out of your average teenager's hands so they have the necessary appendages free with which to operate the clock or keep the scorebook. ;)

Cell phone, PDA, Handheld Gaming Device, Portable DVD players...Are these all culprits?

Why just get the teenagers involved, get some parents involved as well or other adults.

Besides the aforementioned devices, the other problem with teenagers is that their friends want to be with them.

We use one here!
 

California is one of the states which employs the Shot Clock in all levels of basketball.

When I read the numbers of states that do use the shot clock it kinda surprised me.

Speaking of invitational tournaments like the T-Mobile National Invitational or the City of Palms Tournament, where teams from mulitple states are involved, what rules are used, the state association's or NFHS/Fed?

Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on your POV, we have no say in the matter of who the schools provide to staff the table. The table at my games tonight were staffed by the principal and his secretary, who have been running the clock and book respectively for about 25 years. I'd love to have a staff like that at every game I do. But too often the table staff is an after thought. So we give them the 2 minute training, and we watch them as closely as we can and fix as many of their mistakes as we can. C'est la vie

Very true about the fact that the officials really have no say who's table personnel, since this is up to the game management.

It's cause of the one comment of loving to have a staff that's experienced that I'm trying to get the rules/regulations down even those having nothing to do with the table.

It's a volunteer job 99% of the time, so you get what you get.

I, for one, encourage you to continue studying and learning all you can about the rules of the game. However, be mindful of the boundaries of your duties while working the table. Just because you understand the rules does not mean that unsolicited "help" is helpful or welcome.

You get what you get and you don't throw a fit. :D

+1

I'm only guilty of being an off-the-floor official when watching a game on TV. The only rules that I pay close attention to at the table is of course those that have to deal with what I'm doing at the table, except for the periodic uniform or safety concerns.

I'll leave the full unsolicited "help" to the coaches LMAO :)

This is what we're talking about.

It's not something that happens every game. I'm doing more out of sight, out of mind when it comes to this, the last time I did anything like this was last year.

Exactly!

Me either. Unlike our neighbors to the north, Oregon does not use a shot clock during the regular HS season. For the End of the Trail tournament in July in Oregon City, they do use NCAA-W rules, including the 30 sec shot clock.

Sad but true. It would be nice if more people would get involved.

Amen!

We have one school with a similar staff. Been doing it forever! As we go by the table between quarters the clock operator looks you dead in the eye and says - "Ref, white ball coming out. Switching the arrow now!" :)

They also have a great, polite management staff to open the locker rooms, escort you, provide water - a real treat! Squared away!!

As someone who works a great many levels of games, it's so refreshing and appreciative to have an excellent table crew!

My favorite comment from an experienced table...... I did a Girls 7th grade game a ways back. Bad is an understatement! At the end of the first quarter the score was 0-0. The only mark on the scoreboard was the 1 for the period! No fouls, nuttin! :eek:

I walked over to the table between periods and the book person looked at me and said......."I've been doing this for 25 yrs......and that's six minutes of my life I'll never get back!" :D

Exactly. The table crew needs to stick to their responsibilities under 2-11 and 2-12 and let the game officials deal with what they are responsible for. I'm far more impressed with someone that shows up on time and does their job conscientiously and consistently, as opposed to those who for some reason (ego?; self-importance?) try to impress people with how much they think they know, especially when the reality is they really don't know as much as they think they do and understand far less. Don't get me wrong, I encourage and applaud anyone that wants to become a student of the game to expand their knowledge and understanding of basketball - just use it appropriately.

Sometimes I think people forget that the game isn't about the coaches, the officials, the table crew or the fans - it's about the players.

+1

Really? Here, it's a paid position (usually, teachers eraning overtime). I've heard that they earn more than the officials on the game.

At the local JuCos, they are paid, but the pay is small.

Table crews that try to dictate to the officials drive me crazy -- substitutes after I've beckoned them, for example. I'll catch the occasional sub walking towards the X and I'll whistle them in (during FT administration, normally). During a game earlier this season, I had a timer try to tell the subs *after* I beckoned them in that they had to go down to the X and report.

I then asked the home book if they had any problems getting the subs. Guy said no. I turned to the timer and said, "then when I say they're in, they're in."

Keeping the clock is a hard job. It was for me the 2-3 times I've done it. Do your job, I'll do mine.

Same here. All paid. Most make more than us if they work the JV and V games.

Again, Snaqwells spouts off from his limited experience. I should find out if the table crews get paid here.

Table Crew Waiting List
 

At one of our local High Schools there is a waiting list of people for the table jobs. It typically requires something extreme, like a death to move up that list...obviously not so with the Jr Highs.

Is that at Eastmount or Wenatchee?

Varsity here gets paid (the scorebaord operator/timer does), for the subvarsity games, it's volunteer (unless a parent is trying to pay off their child's fees).

For 4A Regionals last year, if I remember right, the table crew was getting paid $10 a game (PA Announcer, Shot Clock, Scorer, & Timer).

The list is for Wenatchee, I know someone who is on the list but because he only has at best 40 more years on the planet isn't expecting to get the call...I don't know about Eastmont. Now that I think about it the table crew for the JV games at Wenatchee had the same set of experienced people every game. They were good too, letting us know when it was bonus or double bonus, great with the arrow, etc.

Well at least B.J. has several people at her disposal for working games.

Down here, I wish there was a list of people on the waiting list, but that isn't so. From my understanding, there's only 3-4 people that can do shot clock, & only 3-4 people that can do scoreboard/timer. As for scorebook, we have one person that does the Varsity books, but for JV & C-Squad, it's whoever is available to do it even if they have no training.