looking for mercy rule input

[stan-MI]

Originally posted by Dan_ref
No need for a mercy rule in basketball, it will eventually end and it creates no greater risk of injury...unless one of the teams gets rough, but that's something else again.

Almost every high school coach or official in Michigan, which used the mercy rule for 3 season, is thrilled that it's back.

Our mercy rule worked like this: running clock in the second half when one team got a 40-point lead. Clock stopped for time outs, the end of the 3rd quarter, and on FTs in the last 2 minutes of the game. If the losing team got within 30, normal timekeeping resumed.

Nothing good happens in a 40-pt game. Teams don't come back. All these types of games do is dramatically increase the number of frustration fouls and rough play. No one learns anything from this type of game. It's just a layup drill for the winning team, and even the deep bench players on both teams lose interest in playing.

With the mercy rule in place, you'll see some teams demonstrate good sportsmanship by pulling off the press and playing reserves earlier, in order to avoid the running clock. And for coaches that don't care about sportmanship and try to run up the score, the running clock takes care of that.