Shot clock in high school games debut earns high marks from coaches

Mar. 9—CHAMPAIGN — Some coaches like it because of how it affects the final minutes of a game. No lead is safe.

Some coaches like it because it rewards short bursts of spirited defense.

Whatever the rationale, the consensus regarding the IHSA's debut season with a 35-second shot clock at select basketball events was decisively positive ahead of the final weekend of the season. Even if the shot clocks aren't in play this postseason or will be in use this weekend at State Farm Center for the 16 state tournament games that run from Thursday morning until Saturday night.

"I definitely think it's needed," Simeon coach Robert Smith said.

"We played in six or seven tournaments with the shot clock, and it was good for us. It didn't hurt at all. I think shots are going up before that time anyway, but I think it's something that's needed to help the young men and young women when they get to college for the collegiate level."

Early rollouts

Some coaches — like Smith — have played more than 10 games with the shot clock during the course of the 2022-23 campaign. Others, like East St. Louis coach Mark Chambers, haven't faced it all.

Those figures, at least for now, were dependent on which tournaments and shootout-type events teams this past season elected to play in during the course of the season.

The IHSA approved 33 events to use the shot clock between Nov. 21 and Feb. 4, including the Toyota of Danville Classic and Christie Clinic Shootout hosted by St. Joseph-Ogden.

"We ordered the shot clocks and to make sure we got them up and running, that was a process," SJ-O coach Kiel Duval said.

"At the start, one of them was working and the other one wasn't working, so our maintenance guys were working on that quite a bit. Once we got it rolling, we figured out that it wasn't that hard to operate."

The Spartans were supposed to use the shot clock at the Kevin Brown Memorial Tournament of Champions at Washington in November, but ultimately did not when their game against Linton-Stockton was moved to a neutral site in Indiana on Jan. 5.

The rest of the TOC did use the 35-second shot clock and became the fourth event in the state to do so.

Tournament organizers didn't hear any negative feedback from the teams involved, many of whom traveled to Washington from out of the state.

"I think the coolest part of the (tournament) is the level of talent that is out there on the floor," Washington coach Eric Schermerhorn said.

"Again, it fits that style of play that you've got. You have a couple of games in the TOC every year that have six, seven, eight college-bound athletes that are playing that way. So that was enjoyable to watch. I thought the games were really cool."

Background info

Aside from minor growing pains, the rollout of the clocks has been smooth on multiple fronts.

"I would say the feedback, particularly from coaches, was more favorable than not," IHSA associate executive director Kurt Gibson said. "One of the questions we asked them had to do with, 'Did playing in this event change the way you coach or prepare your team?' A lot of them reported that it did change their teaching and their coaching and their strategy a little bit, and they like that."

The implementation of the shot clock on a case-by-case basis in Illinois finally came to pass this offseason after the National Federation of State High School Associations passed a resolution allowing its member organizations to determine themselves whether they wanted to implement the shot clock in the spring of 2021. The IHSA passed a resolution of its own at the end of the 2021-22 school year approving the function for use in tournaments and shootouts.

Strategy takes shape

St. Ignatius coach Matt Monroe was an early proponent of the timer, joining with fellow coaches like Tyrone Slaughter at Whitney Young, Pat Woods at St. Charles East and Mike Ellis at Evanston to advocate for the shot clock's introduction into IHSA-sanctioned play.

"Where it really comes into effect, obviously, is against teams that stall, but the biggest change would be at the end of the game," Monroe said, pointing to a game his 3A state semifinalist Wolfpack played against Glenbrook North at the Steve Pappas Shootout on Jan. 7 in which St. Ignatius trailed by six points with three minutes remaining.

"Without the clock, a team is going to be stalling and we might have to foul, you're going to go to the free-throw line and hope they missed some of those," Monroe continued. "With the clock, it was just about getting stops. The game flowed so much better. We were able to keep hope alive. Even though we lost the game, it was never a moment where we felt like the odds were insurmountable against us."

Mixed bag

Not every coach favors the implementation of the shot clock, however. At least in its current format.

Some would like to see the clock lengthened to 45 seconds. Others would prefer the clock be shortened further from its current 35 seconds.

"I know it was early and a small sample size but I didn't see much difference other than maybe the last minute of the game," DePaul College Prep coach Tom Kleinschmidt said. "I think they've got to work on time if they really want a true shot clock. Thirty-five seconds is a long time."

Then there are those who wouldn't mind if the clock never started at all.

"I'm still adamant: I really don't want to see the shot clock coming to high school, especially the 1A and 2A levels," said Kevin Roy, Monticello's coach who led the Sages to a second-place finish in 2A at the 2022 state tournament. "Just because we have a lot of variation in skill and ability, maybe the 3A and 4A levels, they've got basketball-only type players where they can play that fast pace.

"But at our level, I share athletes with football, baseball, soccer and golf. They're not just one-sport athletes, and I think that the skill level just isn't always going to be where we can compete with teams that have the better athletes sometimes."

Roy's Sages adapted when they played Newton with a timer on Jan. 7 at the Christie Clinic Shootout in St. Joseph. The Sages' offense scored 80 points in a comfortable win against the Eagles, the most it scored in a single game all season.

One game — even one where the Sages converted a program-record 18 three-pointers — wasn't necessarily enough to persuade Monticello's veteran coach.

"It was kind of a unique situation for us where playing with the clock, we shot the ball extremely well," Roy said. "It made us look really good. But our style of play, the way we were last year, we like to be able to control the pace and the tempo. We like to be able to force teams to come out and defend us and open up the floor for us to be able to play our style of basketball.

"That's what I like about having the freedom to be able to not be limited with a shot clock and not allowing teams just to sit back on defense and wait for you to put a shot up."

Final word — for now

Some coaches don't have a firm preference either way.

"I'm pretty indifferent on it," said Jim Thomas, Downers Grove North's coach who will guide his Trojans into the 4A state semifinals on Friday afternoon against Moline. "I'm pretty easygoing, so whatever comes my way, we'll adapt to it and adjust and do our best."

A full-time shift to the shot clock isn't likely on the imminent horizon for the IHSA.

Gibson cited the cost of the technology, a broader acceptance of the shot clock among small schools and girls' teams and the need for additional workers as factors the organization will need to explore before rolling out the rule change on a permanent basis.

But after a soft launch met with mostly positive reviews, it could be a change worth exploring in the seasons to come if more schools get on board.

"I don't see any reason why our board of directors wouldn't, at a minimum, say, 'OK, let's continue next year what we did this year,'" Gibson said. "If we really want to move the shot clock forward, schools around the state have to make sure that more people get exposed to it. I think there's going to be a broader acceptance from both girls' and boys' programs, big schools and small schools before our board of directors is going to be in a spot to say we're going to do this all the time."