It is Sunday which means two things. The college basketball season is one week closer to Selection Sunday so every game matters the rest of the way for Bubble Teams. Sunday also means that it is time for another edition of the Sunday Mailbag. Over the last week there has been a ton of news in the college basketball world. Ohio State fired Chris Holtmann, the Athletic Directors and NCAA tournament committee are talking about changing the NCAA tournament, which is a terrible idea, and finally the NCAA tournament committee is set to reveal the top 16 seeds in their NCAA tournament bracket.
Those are all questions that we will get the answer to in time but this week for the Mailbag I received a question about the 24 second shot clock and my thoughts about it. I also received a question about the top teams in the Mountain West conference. Then there was a question that asked me to focus on Saint John’s and what could be wrong with them as they continue to fall further out of the NCAA tournament field. Then I am going to highlight a player who is arguably the best basketball player of this generation of either gender. The questions and the answers are below.
My thoughts on the 24 second shot clock?- Ivetta (@IvettaAbramyan)
Ivetta, thank you for the thought provoking question. I had never thought much about the shot clock before this. To clarify, the shot clock in the college game is 30 seconds and it will reset to 20 seconds after a foul if the possession does not change. I like the current format and think it keeps games moving faster. Now what if the college game moved to the NBA rule of a 24 shot clock?
That would force teams to play at a much faster pace and would force coaches to change their offense to accommodate for the quicker shot clock. It would be all about getting a good open shot within the 24 second shot clock. There are numerous teams in college now who struggle to get a good open shot in the 30 seconds they are allotted. It would be a way to speed up the game and make it far more exciting.
Let’s just think about this for a little bit. The 24 second clock would mean that teams have 14 seconds after getting across half court which means they better move or have a great plan to get the best shot. Usually is going to result in three or three point attempts. Teams that press and will be that much harder to beat. Another thing to think about is end of game situations. There will be no more let’s get this to one possession under 30 seconds to play and get fouled. With a shot clock at 24 seconds teams are going to have to play it out for the full game because there will likely be an extra possesion for each team.
I don’t think College Basketball is ever going to change the way they operate in regards to the shot clock and it appears it is going to be 30 seconds for the foreseeable future. There is zero chance that the majority of coaches and Athletic Directors would be on board with a 24 second shot clock. Especially when there are a lot of teams who don’t even start to run their offensive sets until there are 18 seconds left on the shot clock. It would be a large adjustment and I don’t think the NCAA is ready to force everyone to play at that pace. It was fun to think about though.