College basketball has seen their share of issues in recent years with scoring going down. A new poll taken by ESPN however shows that coaches may be in favor of shortening the shot clock from the current 35 seconds to 30 seconds. In the poll, nearly 60 percent of coaches want to see the clock shortened to 30 seconds, 30 percent want it to remain at 35 while 10 percent would like it to go to 24 seconds, which is where the NBA shot clock is.
The women’s game has already moved to the 30-second shot clock. It is interesting that men’s college basketball wants to be the only game using a different clock. The international game uses a 24-second clock and with the NBA at the same number, there is probably no reason why the college game can’t move to that sort of clock as well.
There were issues when the game decided to go from 45 to 35 seconds years ago. There is going to be plenty of people who hate the idea of change but if it means making sure that games don’t end 51-49 and are instead 75-72, college basketball is going to make a move. The rules committee will meet from May 13-15 in Indianapolis and could recommend a change. Approval could come from the Playing Rules Oversight Panel on June 24 if things continue to progress.
