Outgoing OHSAA chief says no to shot clock

COLUMBUS » When a report came out earlier this week that the National Federation of State High School Associations was nearing an approval of using a 35-second shot clock for high school games, many around Ohio rejoiced.

The reaction of OHSAA commissioner Dan Ross? Not so fast. Speaking to members of the Ohio Prep Sportswriters Association at the OHSAA offices in Columbus on April 17, Ross said he is on the rules committee for the national federation and that the story that surfaced was not true.

Ross said both the shot clock and the talk of two 18-minute halves — as opposed to four eightminute quarters — have been discussed on the national level. But he doesn’t advocate either.

“Why does this make high school basketball better?” Ross said of the question he asked a forum of coaches. “There was not one comment in the room, either for a shot clock or 18-minute halves.”

Ross said he has been on the national basketball rules committee for the past four years and he voted against the shot clock each time the measure was proposed.

Ross, who is retiring from his position at the OHSAA following the school year, said a multitude of data backs up his vote.

“My concern with that is the shot clock was designed to prepare kids to go

to college,” Ross said. “How many of our kids are going on to college? Ninety-six point four percent of our kids — the last day they put a jersey on for their school is the last day they’re going to compete as a team.”

Ross said there have been in-depth studies around the nation that suggest a 35-second shot clock would not speed the game as many think it would.

“The average time a kid takes the ball out of bounds until a shot goes up is 23.9 seconds,” he said. “If we had a shot clock, what would it be? Thirty-five seconds? You’d have a shot and a half — maybe three (over that period). When you look at data like that, it doesn’t make sense.”

There are also financial and personnel ramifications.

For instance, Ross said, multiple shot clocks would have to be purchased for each school.

Then the chore is finding people to operate them, he said.

“If you’re going to do that, you’re going to do it (for grades) seven through 12,” Ross said. “You have hard enough time finding people to keep score. Now you’re going to teach someone to run the shot clock in seventh and eighth grade? Disaster is an understatement.”

Ross is also against a shot clock from the standpoint of coaching styles.

“If I am going to hire a coach and said, ‘I want you to build a program,’ but he’s building a team that has seven kids come out and the only way they

can be competitive is to be deliberate — if you’re playing the deliberate team, you can still play defense.

“I’ve never thought it good to take that out of the arsenal of a coach you’ve hired to build a program.”

In regard to the possibility of 18-minute halves replacing eight-minute quarters, Ross said his opposition is based on taking mid-game teaching opportunities away from coaches.

He pointed out the NCAA women’s tournament and the NIT men’s tournament were both played with quarters this year — not halves.

“The NCAA people were at our rules committee, and they said they’ve already flipped back (to quarters),” Ross said. “Our data on that is really good.”