The college basketball shot clock will likely be reduced from 35 to 30 seconds. That's not good enough for Jim Boeheim.
The NCAA will likely reduce the men's college basketball shot clock from 35 to 30 seconds, rules committee chair Rick Byrd told ESPN yesterday. But don't expect that change to satisfy Syracuse Orange head coach Jim Boeheim.
Boeheim has long been a proponent of reducing the shot clock to 24 seconds, and again expressed that view on Saturday before the 16th annual "Basket Ball" gala. The coach was asked about Game 3 of the NBA's first round playoff series between the Golden State Warriors and New Orleans Pelicans, a game the Warriors won despite trailing by 20 points after three quarters.
"Yeah, I saw that," he told syracuse.com. "The NBA is never over... That's why we should have a 24-second clock in college. We'd have a lot more of those games."
This past fall, SU and other ACC teams played with a 30-second shot clock in their preseason exhibition games. In July, Boeheim called it "a compromise."
"We can't sell 24 because every college coach doesn't think he has enough players to play that," he told ESPN's Andy Katz. "If you want more scoring in the game, shorten the clock. That's all you have to do."
Boeheim's Orange averaged 68.4 possessions per game during the 2014-15 season, according to teamrankings.com. That was good for 113th among Division I teams. North Carolina led the ACC with 71.6 possessions per game, and Virginia averaged 60.2 -- the least in the conference and 348th in the nation.
A reduced shot clock would, at least in theory, result in both more possessions per game and more scoring. Women's college basketball already uses a 30-second clock, and the men's game further experimented with it during the CBI, CIT, and NIT 2015 postseason tournaments.
The NCAA's rules committee will meet May 12-15 to consider potential changes.
