A humble plea for the shot clock

There’s few things I hate more in sports than seeing time drag on. Maybe that’s one of the reasons why I have a hard time watching baseball. It seems that it takes over a minute for a pitcher to gather his thoughts and throw the ball, which makes games stretch on for hours.

Now, as someone who loves to watch tennis, I can admit that it is a bit time consuming watching an hours long match at the French Open or Australian Open. However, the action is much more dynamic.

Players are sprinting towards the ball and coming up with sensational shots. I was lucky enough to see that for myself the past two weeks as I watched Australia host its premier tennis event.

It culminated in two heavy favorites picking up the title - Novak Djokovic on the men’s side, and Naomi Osaka on the women’s side.

The biggest thing that stood out to me was seeing peopleinthestands,cheeringontheirfavorite players. After a year of COVID-19, it was jarring, almost disconcerting to see that. But Australia’s coronavirus cases are down. The same is true in Wisconsin, and much of the United States.

There’s just a different energy to a match or game when people are cheering. That was certainly the case over the weekend as I covered boys and girls basketball games.

Sadly, my Colby and Abbotsford boys teams got knocked out of the playoffs. I will miss seeing Cade Faber play for Abbotsford, but I’m happy I got to see him soar through the air multiple times for slam dunks. I’ll miss seeing Ryan Gunderson shoot from Down Town and miss seeing Colby’s Mason Schmutzler slash his way to the rim.

But to get back to my original point, about wasted time. At the professional level there are penalties for time delays. In tennis, if a player takes too long between serves there’s a point penalty. In football there’s a delay of game penalty. In college and pro basketball a shot clock violation gives the other team the ball.

I wish there had been a shot clock at the Edgar girls versus Fall Creek girls basketball game. The Wildcats were down just seven points, having clawed back from a 19 point deficit. But with six minutes to go Fall Creek milked the clock, forcing Edgar to foul, and Fall Creek won.

I hated every second of it. Basketball, and sports, should encourage action and reward teams for making a comeback. Not to mention that at the college level there will be a shot clock. There very nearly was a shot clock in Wisconsin.

At the moment, eight states use a shot clock at the high school level. Wisconsin was supposed to join the list in 2019-20 season. In 2017 the WIAA Board of Control stirred things up when they voted 6-4 to approve the use of shot clocks at high school basketball games.

The decision came as a surprise to a lot of coaches and players, and I remember looking forward to it. Unfortunately, money and personnel proved to be a deterrent.

Most schools have a hard enough time finding someone to work the scoreboard, and the costs of a shot clock caused some concern. Ultimately, the plan was scrapped. But I can’t help but wonder, how many teams would still be playing if that shot clock was in place?

M USINGS AND G RUMBLINGS

ROSS PATTERMANN REPORTER