Central MN Schools Adjust to New Shot Clock Rule

The girls basketball season is underway and the boys will be starting soon.  This year will look a bit different with shot clocks in use for all varsity games.  Cathedral Activities Director and President of the St. Cloud Officials Association Emmett Keenan joined me on WJON.  He says there are two reasons why shot clocks are a good idea for all varsity Minnesota State High School League boys and girls basketball teams.  Those reasons include prevention of numerous intentional fouls with less than 3 minutes remaining in competitive games and this will also credit teams for playing good defense for 35 seconds.  Keenan feels this evens out the pace of the game.

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The high school rule starting this year includes a 35 second shot clock.  There are many occurrences that will necessitate a reset to 20 seconds when change of possession doesn't occur.  On a change of possession the shot clock will reset to 35 seconds.  Keenan states despite the numerous reset possibilities this new rule is less complicated that it appears.  He expects officials, fans, coaches, players and operators to catch on quickly to this change.

One of the reasons to not force all varsity teams to move to a shot clock in the past was cost.  Keenan believes cost was an issue for some schools with the one time purchase of the shot clock but also the costs to have someone dedicated to operator the clock.  Keenan says at Cathedral he is paying the shot clock operator $50 a night.  Cathedral used a shot clock for their junior varsity girls game Tuesday night but only varsity games are required to use a shot clock for all games.

Keenan indicates Cathedral ran a holiday tournament for many years where they were allowed to use a shot clock as part of a trial period.  He says the trial was for about 15 years and the rules used now are slightly different than the rules they had been using.

If you'd like to listen to my conversation with Emmett Keenan it is available below.