It's time to take a shot at improving the game

Sporting News, The, April 22, 1996 by Mike DeCourcy

It would take only 10 seconds for the NCAA Men's Basketball Rules Committee to fix what's wrong with the game, and then it could heed the call of the fairways and beaches of Destin, Fla., where it meets this weekend.

The sport needs a lot of help, with talent draining more quickly than ever through early departures for the NBA draft and entering more slowly because of increased academic requirements.

The game, though, doesn't need much more than those 10 seconds added back to its shot clock, restoring the 45-second clock after a disappointing (if not disastrous) three-year experiment with a 35-second clock.

"I think we had a better game at 45 seconds," says former Alabama-Birmingham coach Gene Bartow.

The rules committee, chaired by Seton Hall Athletic Director Larry Keating, is expected to discuss expansion of the 3-point line from its current distance of 19 feet, 9 inches and widening the free-throw lane and/or restoring the five-second count against closely guarded ballhandlers. None of those is likely, but each is a better bet than a switch back to a 45-second clock.

The committee sent a survey to coaches, officials and media members a while ago, and the question about the shot clock asked whether the committee should: A) leave it at 35 seconds; B) cut it to 30 seconds; C) cut it to 24 seconds. Hank Nichols, secretary-rules editor of the committee, says the survey did not offer the 45-second option because previous surveys had showed declining support

Bartow cast a write-in vote for a 45-second clock. So did I.

The explanation of why the rules committee switched to the 35-second clock following the 1992-93 season was to help smooth the final two minutes of games, when teams trying to erase large deficits were compelled to foul in order to regain possession of the ball.

That has worked, but it also has had a side effect. As the rules committee figured, teams facing deficits of 6 to 10 points wait longer to begin fouling on purpose because the clock guarantees they'll get the ball back sooner. However, there may be fewer close games because of the 35-second clock. In the last three 45-second Final Fours (1991-93), there were four games decided by fewer than five points. In the three 35-second Final Fours (1994-96), there has been one.

In fixing the final two minutes, the rules committee messed up the other 38. The shorter clock has shifted the balance of power in favor of the defense. For all the talkshow squawking about how these kids can't shoot free throws anymore, field-goal shooting has deteriorated much more rapidly and twice as drastically.

Free-throw shooting hit an all-time high in 1978-79 at 69.7 percent but dipped to 67.4 percent in '95-96. However, field-goal shooting went from an all-time high of 48.1 percent in 1983-84 to 43.9 in 1995-96. Why? Too many rushed, off-balance jumpers to beat the clock.

As television ratings have declined for the Final Four, the convenient explanation has been the early exodus of players such as Chris Webber, Jerry Stackhouse and Joe Smith to the NBA, but the college game has been losing underclassmen for more than two decades. The ratings, in fact, are in a three-year cycle of decline. The 35-second clock has been in existence three years. "I don't think the rules committee will worry about television ratings," Nichols says. "It's what's best for the game itself."

That's as it should be. Either way, the tonic is a 45-second clock.

Canadian gem

Jamal Magliore has one heck of an excuse for being left off the McDonald's All America team. He's all Canadian.

Magliore is a 6-9, 235-pound post man for Eastern Commerce High, which happens to be in Toronto. His coach, Simeon Mars, suggests that no Canadian player ever has been as widely recruited. "Unlike a lot of Canadians who've been labeled soft" Mars says, "he has a little bit of nastiness to him on the court. He establishes himself. He competes."

He also studies, which is why he may be the best catch of any prep big man.