Fansided

Report: NCAA considering using a 30-second shot clock

By Luke Dahlgren

Apr 6, 2015; Indianapolis, IN, USA; Wisconsin Badgers forward Sam Dekker (15) shoots a three over Duke Blue Devils guard Matt Jones (13) in the second half in the 2015 NCAA Men
Apr 6, 2015; Indianapolis, IN, USA; Wisconsin Badgers forward Sam Dekker (15) shoots a three over Duke Blue Devils guard Matt Jones (13) in the second half in the 2015 NCAA Men /
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The NCAA wants to pick up the pace of men’s basketball games by reducing the time on shot clocks from 35 seconds to 30 seconds.

Fans of scrummy, dead-ball basketball will be sad to hear that their brand of the sport may be dying at the collegiate level. The rest of America with functional eyes will be glad to hear that the NCAA is considering picking up the pace.

From ESPN:

"The NCAA men’s rules committee announced a range of rules proposals Friday — including a 30-second shot clock [down from 35], an extension of the restricted-area arc and fewer second-half timeouts — it hopes will accelerate a game that has faced widespread criticism for increasingly paltry scoring and too-frequent stoppages throughout the past decade."

The slower shot clock often times encouraged teams to run longer developing plays in the half court. This would often times result in the sight of mind-dulling passing along the perimeter without gaining any advantage, leading to a desperate shot attempt at the end of the shot clock.

The criticism coming from fans of the NBA is legitimate. Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban has criticized the NCAA for stunting the potential growth of college players as pro prospects, stunting them with the style of play seen in the NCAA.

"“If they want to keep kids in school and keep them from being pro players, they’re doing it the exact right way by having the 35-second shot clock and having the game look and officiated the way it is,” Cuban said Wednesday night. “Just because kids don’t know how to play a full game of basketball.”"

The difficult transition to the professional game for rookies has become even more obvious with recent groups of rookies. The highly touted 2014 class was either injured, disappointing or Andrew Wiggins, and that is mostly due to the players not having the experience of playing an NBA-style game, both longer and with more of an emphasis on conditioning. Improving the pace will prevent future draft classes from having the same fate.

But the NCAA does n0t care about how their players will succeed in the NBA. This is  move to make the game more watchable. The parity of the tournament and the relative anonymity of the players provide the NCAA with an advantage over the NBA, but compared to the professionals the sport is unwatchable over the course of a game.

A five second change may only have a marginal effect on the game itself, but the NCAA is heading in the right direction.

[H/T: ESPN, link II]

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