TERRY COLUMN: Get the lead out, Montana

The basketball season is over in Montana but the games are just beginning.

While the winter’s hoopers transition to other sports or work on their jump shots in the offseason, the Montana High School Association is tinkering with the game itself.

It happens every offseason, whether to emphasize a new rule or add restrictions, as a way to keep competition up to date with the times.

And time seems to be on the docket this offseason.

The MHSA will reportedly poll schools on adding a shot clock this offseason, as it has the last few years.

The National Federation of State High School Associations doesn’t have a universal rule for shot clocks, leaving the debate to the states to pursue individually. Without the mandate, most states have yet to act, with only eight states installing them at some level, a few in the immediate vicinity in North and South Dakota and Washington state. Most use a 30- or 35-second shot clock, similar to the 30-second clock used in collegiate basketball.

Montana schools have consistently voted down the measure, though to fading resistance.

In this observer’s opinion, it’s past due for the Treasure State to be put on the clock.

Yes, I understand the pitfalls.

Costs for installing shot clocks would run around $5,000 per school, a not small cost even as a one-time addition. It would also take time to train operators and officials, not to mention a buffer period for teams to get used to the time restriction.

But, those are all hurdles that can be cleared relatively easily.

More importantly is to make basketball in the state fun. The sport has stagnated in the state, if not getting less fun to play, getting less fun to watch as teams slog along playing for a win in the low 50s.

The national average for per-game scoring rests around 60 points for boys teams, an amount that averages out to around two points per minute of game time. One basket a minute isn’t too much to ask.

Yet most of the play in our area slogged along this year.

The Class AA and A boys teams in the Northwest averaged a shade over 51 points per game this winter, with only Polson (at 64 ppg) averaging more than 50. Statewide the average didn’t rise much higher.

In one of the starkest examples, the Glacier boys beat top-ranked Helena High 37-36 on a buzzer-beating 3-pointer at the final horn. In a varsity game. Yes, it was exciting, if not so fun to watch.

In multiple games on the girls side, teams held the ball, or attempted to hold the ball, for more than two minutes at the end of a quarter to play for a final shot.

There’s no proof that a shot clock would increase scoring. In fact, with so few states having implemented a shot clock most current studies are inconclusive. But, at minimum, a shot clock would force teams to play basketball.

Which, as an observer, is all I ask.

It wouldn’t necessarily take out stalling tactics completely. Games can still be slowed down from a frantic pace when limited to 35-second possessions and a good offensive rebounding team could, in theory, still possess the ball far more than its opponents.

Any idea that kids couldn’t adjust to the faster play is also absurd, seeing as most “one-shot” plays run in the state don’t begin until fewer than 15 seconds are on the clock. If you don’t think it’s possible to run a play in 35 seconds, you probably need to find a better coach.

There would be other benefits than preventing games of keep away, however. The few kids that actually progress their games to the next level would already be adjusted to a finite time per possession. The others would still improve by learning to run plays with more urgency and working under pressure situations. The latter is especially important if you’re into sports teaching life lessons.

Most importantly, it would force basketball teams to actually play basketball.

It would force them to try to put the ball in the hoop. Which, ultimately, is the point.

Time isn’t running out. The state is still unlikely to pass a rule enforcing shot clocks, at least until more opinion slides toward the side of speed.

I can only hope the time for that decision strikes soon.