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NewsCut
Bob Collins

MN High School League blocks shot clock for basketball

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It's apparently going to take a lot more to get a shot clock in Minnesota high school basketball.

On Monday, the Minnesota State High School League rejected -- again -- calls for a shot clock, calls which were amplified this year by the game between Marshall and Waseca in Minnesota’s Section 2AAA tournament. It was a lot of stand around and watch ball.

WDAY says the MSHSL cited the cost of installing the shot clock, in which players have a limited amount of time to control the ball without taking a shot.

Coaches want the shot clock, the Star Tribune says, but the activities directors at schools around the state do not.

The vote was 128-to-24 by the MSHSL, which was closer than a lot of the games in high school basketball in Minnesota last season.

According to the MSHSL minutes, three coaches spoke in favor of the shot clock; nobody spoke against it.

Tom Critchley, executive director of the boys’ basketball coaches association, has been making the proposal for a decade. The told the Strib he's disappointed, but there are signs of progress.

"The strategy of holding onto the ball for two minutes with a five, six point lead just isn't good basketball. That's not the way we teach kids how to play," Willmar boys basketball head coach Matt Williams told the West Central Tribune after February's Waseca-Marshall game.

His gym is set up to use a shot clock, and the school does use it for non-conference games.

And even some coaches who favor the shot clock are concerned about what it might do to the sport, particular for girl's basketball in which outside shooting is often hard to find. A shot clock might encourage defenders to pack the area under the basketball, daring players to shoot bricks.

Archive: Hopkins plays by rules in basketball tournament win, and makes new enemies for doing so (NewsCut)