Fewer timeouts should lead to more time playing, not waiting
The NCAA quietly chopped two timeouts from each men’s basketball game last week, one for each coach in the second half, which could be, what, about six minutes saved?
It doesn’t sound like much, but it’s a step toward making the game more enjoyable for those who buy tickets at McKale Center or watch on TV.
At last season’s Arizona-Gonzaga game, 10 timeouts were called in the first 30 minutes. Then this happened:
TV timeout at 7:58.
Arizona timeout at 3:57.
TV timeout at 3:32.
Arizona timeout at 1:44.
Gonzaga timeout at 1:13.
Arizona timeout at 0:40.
Gonzaga timeout at 0:10.
Gonzaga timeout at 0:09.
And then the game went into overtime when another TV timeout and two more team timeouts were called. Total: 21 timeouts in a 45-minute game.
Worse, the game was stopped to shoot foul shots eight times in that stretch.
One thing the NCAA pledged to do last week was empower referees to end the dawdling and impromptu team huddles and player rituals that can take up to 10 seconds per shot — that sometimes require about a minute to get a player to the foul line and complete a simple free throw.
TV programmers, and especially the Pac-12 Networks, allocate two-hour windows for men’s college basketball. The games rarely end in less than 2:10. The rule changes should help shorten games that have become cluttered with too much wasted time.
And it wasn’t just the Arizona-Gonzaga game.
The UA-ASU game in Tempe had 17 timeouts, including seven in the final 7:56. The Arizona-UCLA game at the Pac-12 tournament was a 17-timeout marathon, including three occasions in which UCLA coach Steve Alford and Arizona’s Sean Miller called a timeout within 30 seconds of a scheduled TV timeout, which had the effect of creating a nine-minute lull in the action.
The NCAA has now abolished those double timeout stoppages.
As for diminishing the shot clock from 35 to 30 seconds, its effect is likely to be minimal. The big change came in 1993-94 when the shot clock was reduced from 45 to 35 seconds. Arizona’s scoring jumped from 83 to 89 points a game that season.
It’s a different game now. Most teams average close to 66 possessions a game. Maybe it’ll be 68 possessions now, but perhaps the rest of the game will move at a quicker pace.
