By Tyler Brush
Holt HS
1st Place
Division 1, Yearbook
Personality Profile
While the rules of most sports don’t change too drastically from high school to college and from college to pro, basketball is different. Unlike professional and collegiate basketball, high school basketball has no shot clock. “I wish high school basketball had a shot clock because playing defense for a minute can get annoying,” senior Joshua Denning said.
With no shot clock, teams could take as long as they need in order to get the shot that they want, thus taking up more time. This was often put to use in a strategy to eat up the clock in a close game. “ You can hold the ball at the end if you need to win a game but it is unfair sometimes,” junior Caleb Cooper said.
Some thought the idea of a shot clock played a key role in how the game was played and that the change from no shot clock to shot clock can be such a drastic difference that leaves unprepared when they go to the next level. “I feel like a shot clock is necessary [in high school] because without it you aren’t preparing yourself for the next level of basketball,” senior Myles Baker said.
Although the NBA has a twenty-four second shot clock, a slightly longer shot clock could still speed up the pace of the game for the less – talented high school athletes. “If we had a thirty-five or thirty second shot clock, the games might be more interesting and fast paced,” junior DeAndre Whetstone said.
Although there were two sides, many high school players preferred a shot clock. “It’s smart to take advantage of it if you’re a team who needs to hold the ball to win, but I’d rather play at a faster pace with the shot clock,” senior Jaron Faulds said.