More teams need a shot at change

ST. CLOUD - Jason Monke, the Sauk Centre boys' basketball coach, was less concerned with shot clocks Thursday than with keeping his team moving up and down the court. His sentiments can be summarized by this mid-game statement, and I quote: "Go! Go! Go! Puuush!"

The Mainstreeters had procured a defensive rebound but the jockey wasn't hitting the horse with enough authority to suit the coach. He wanted his guys in an all-out sprint to the other end, which kind of defeats the whole purpose of shot clocks.

Sauk Centre lost to Milaca 45-43 in the first game of the Crusader Short Stop Christmas Classic at Cathedral High School. The eight-team tournament will continue today and Saturday, with 35-second shot clocks being used as part of the Great Hoops Experiment. The Minnesota State High School League approved the use of shot clocks this season only during nonconference games and regular-season tournaments, as long as all teams involved say OK. Which is a namby-pamby way to go about it.

The 35-second horn was silent during the Milaca-Sauk Centre game, but in the second contest of the day it didn't take long to hear it bleat.

On Litchfield's first possession against Concordia Academy of Roseville, the Dragons dillied and dallied against the Beacons' zone. Litchfield finally threw up a long, errant shot in time to beat the clock, but the high-pitched horn blew while the ball was in the air. After that, the shiny new timepieces were not a factor and Concordia won 75-53.

For all the teams in the tournament -- Pierz beat Melrose 63-51 and Sauk Rapids met Cathedral in the day's last quarterfinal -- these are their first games with shot clocks. For most of them, it will be their only games with shot clocks.

The clocks were installed at Cathedral for a price of $5,000; a booster who wishes to remain anonymous covered most of the cost. If every school in the state had a similar sugar daddy, the biggest argument against shot clocks would be moot. But try convincing a rural school board that five grand for clocks is a wiser expenditure than say, textbooks, and you might be asked to not let the door hit your backside on the way out.

Shot clocks are also being used this week in four-team tournaments at Totino-Grace (boys) and Rogers (girls). It had seemed reasonable that the experiment would include eight-team boys' tourneys at three colleges -- Bethel, Hamline and St. Thomas -- but not all the teams agreed, adding more namby to the pamby.

It's not likely that shot clocks will ever be mandated statewide, but I can imagine the two largest classes (4A and 3A) playing with clocks ... maybe just for the boys. That's because the clamor for them came from the boys' coaches while the girls' coaches made nary a peep.

The MSHSL requires coaches and officials to fill out a feedback form after every game in which shot clocks are used. They include three recommendations: 1) Keep the experiment; 2) Adopt this rule permanently; 3) Drop the experiment.

I would add another choice: 4) Make this an experiment that means something. Find several conferences that will use shot clocks for all their league games, resulting in some real feedback. Get serious about this thing, instead of having most teams play with shot clocks a little or not at all.

Otherwise, this half-baked experiment does nothing.

John Millea • jmillea@startribune.com