End of game rules - thoughts

[Hall2012]

http://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/19760667/is-ditch-game-clock-closing-minutes

Very interesting article on how TBT has been ending basketball games.

Long story short, to get rid of the endless free throw parades that regularly appear at the end of games, TBT eliminates the game clock for the last 4 minutes. After the under 4 timeout, the game clock is turned off and a "winning score" is set. The winning score is 7 points higher than the leading team's current score. So, for example, if the score is 63-58 at the U-4, the first team to 70 wins. This changes the focus of the team in need of a comeback from fouling to preserve as much clock as possible to playing better defense to get stops.

Any thoughts on this? Would you like to see college hoops take inspiration from this? It would be the end of buzzer beaters as we know them, but every game would now end on a "walk-off."

[admin]

I can't imagine it would ever get mainstream traction, but it's a fascinating idea.

[jfan]

I don't like it. It seems to address a problem that is not a big issue for me. It could also eliminate comebacks that make for some of the most entertaining moments in basketball!

[Fieldhouse Flyer]

To get rid of the endless free throw parades that regularly appear at the end of games, eliminate the game clock for the last 4 minutes.

Any thoughts on this?

I don't see the NCAA Rules Committee nor basketball coaches nor TV networks favoring this approach.

If the objective is to get rid of the endless free throw parades at the end of games, simply award 3 free throws for every personal foul in the last 2:00 minutes of the game, which would add a different type of excitement to the end of the game.

Such a rule change would encourage clean defense and many drives to the basket. The downside is that too many games would be decided by the officials.

I don't see the NCAA Rules Committee nor basketball coaches nor TV networks favoring this approach either, and the officials certainly would not like it.

[Hall2012]

I agree, I don't think it'll ever happen - and I'm not sure I want it to, I see both positives and negatives. I don't think it would eliminate comebacks though. I think it would actually increase comebacks, especially against strong free throw shooting teams, by increasing the odds of the trailing team getting a full stop. What we would lose is the rush the ball up the court and try to beat the clock scenario. I think the 3 free throw rule would actually do a lot more to eliminate comebacks as it would leave trailing teams with 2 bad options - play defense and run out the clock on yourself, or risk giving the opponent 3 points.

[sciencejay]

http://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/19760667/is-ditch-game-clock-closing-minutes

Very interesting article on how TBT has been ending basketball games.

Long story short, to get rid of the endless free throw parades that regularly appear at the end of games, TBT eliminates the game clock for the last 4 minutes. After the under 4 timeout, the game clock is turned off and a "winning score" is set. The winning score is 7 points higher than the leading team's current score. So, for example, if the score is 63-58 at the U-4, the first team to 70 wins. This changes the focus of the team in need of a comeback from fouling to preserve as much clock as possible to playing better defense to get stops.

Any thoughts on this? Would you like to see college hoops take inspiration from this? It would be the end of buzzer beaters as we know them, but every game would now end on a "walk-off."

Intriguing idea for sure. I'm typically a traditionalist--I'd rather see 'bigs' get better from the free throw line to prevent late game fouling rather than this or other changes to elicit the same effect, but I do think this would eliminate the current state of hack-a-whoever.

Interesting that they came to "add 7 points to the lead team's score for the final point target". I guess that would equate to a 70 point game (7 points in 4 min ~ 70 points in 40 min), so it seems reasonable.

I think the general opinion of it would be "I don't like it" for a while, but then fans would get used to it and it would probably be pretty cool.

[EMT]

I love the idea. The intrigue of a comeback with a tie game with next basket wins? And the teams go a couple of possessions without scoring?

I'm in....

[billyjack]

I totally dislike this rule.

I would support that every foul committed by the losing team under 2 minutes results in 7 seconds being taken off the clock.

[stever20]

I hope people understand there is going to be no changes at all to the end of game rules. None. They aren't going to make it where comebacks will be harder to make. Period. TV won't allow it and the competition committee would never even remotely consider it for even 1 millisecond. Bottom line.

[GreatDaneAttorney]

Tremendous, innovative idea. The trouble with the basketball "purists" that want big guys to improve their free-throw shooting, is that a team can still come back by heaving up 3-pointers. A team can literally make every free throw on every possession and still lose a game--that implies there's an issue with the rules. Having open-ended "bonus time" would be the fairest approach and make for a cleaner game.