Boys coaches, teams still adjusting to shot clock

By SCOTT SPRUILL
YAKIMA HERALD-REPUBLIC

On its first possession of its first game of the season, Grandview's boys basketball team committed a turnover. No big deal in a game with dozens, but this one was unprecedented.

The shot clock runs as Eisenhower plays West Valley earlier this month.   ANDY SAWYER/Yakima Herald-Republic

Not just for Grandview but -- in the late afternoon of the season's first full day of games -- perhaps the entire state.

Shot-clock violation.

Welcome to a new era.

For coach Roy Garcia, who already had concerns with how much the freshly implemented 35-second clock would affect his team, it was an ominous start. Even if the violation came against top-ranked Squalicum.

But fast-forwarding to the season's midpoint, Garcia sounds like most other coaches who have made adjustments to assimilate the clock and seen expected and unexpected scenarios unfold.

"Overall it hasn't affected us much as I thought it would," Garcia said. "We've had two or three (violations) and we've had to rush our offense at times. I'd like to have more patience in those situations, but the boys are getting accustomed to it."

A sampling of area coaches reveals that, like Grandview, teams have generally been hit with one to three violations through half the regular season. And a common theme for the greatest affect the clock is having is with how games are being finished.

Have a 56-50 lead with three minutes left? Well forget the corner spread to drain time and draw fouls.

"It definitely changes your options at the end of a game," said Eisenhower coach Pat Fitterer. "When you might have spread it out in the past with a lead, obviously now you just keep running your offense. It takes a little of the coaching and strategy out of it."

Like Fitterer, West Valley coach Jim Berndt voted against a shot clock last year and for essentially the same reasons.

"I'm a little bit of a purist. I like to see teams play with patience and run an offense," he said. "Plus, we've always been very skilled at milking the clock. In 13 years here if we had a lead with two or three minutes left we probably won 90 percent of those games."

While the clock allows 35 seconds before a shot must hit the rim, it's more like 25 because once inside 10 seconds most teams switch into a shot-clock offense. And for those with a skilled point guard, that means get the ball to him and create a shot or attack the lane.

"Most coaches have adapted very well with putting in plays that will get you a shot in the last seconds," noted Davis coach Eli Juarez. "We've had two violations, but I think the shot clock was long overdue and we need to continue to use it."

The Pirates have never had any trouble getting up and down the floor, and neither have most of the area's CWAC teams. Selah coach Kip Harris even jokes about thinking the clock wasn't going to be used until next season.

"Was that this year?," he said. "We've had no (violations) and I only remember the clock even being looked at maybe a few times for late shots."

Two programs that come quickly to mind as those most affected would be Riverside Christian and Sunnyside Christian, who have coaches highly adept at teaching slower-paced offenses that win in the 30s and 40s. Last Saturday offered a prime example as RC bested the Knights 41-35.

"A lot of folks thought the shot clock might put old-school coaches like me out to pasture," said RC's Bruce Siebol. "But it really hasn't been as big an issue for us as one might think. We've had two violations and maybe one or two real bad shots per game."

Sunnyside Christian coach Dean Wagenaar could write a book on how to win with 40 points or less -- his 2008 crew captured the 1B state title with 38 -- but the Knights have had only one violation in eight games.

"Would we have won at state (in 2008) with a shot clock? It certainly would have had an impact," Wagenaar said. "That year we didn't have the offense to run up and down the floor so we were very patient. Now what we see when the clock winds down is getting the ball to the best player so he can fly in there and force the official to make a call."

Siebol likes to credit the shot clock to his good friend at Mabton, Brock Ledgerwood. Three years ago in the 1A state tournament, Ledgerwood's undersized Vikings held the ball for nearly six minutes during the second quarter of a loser-out game against a bigger and taller Tonasket club.

"That's like running a stop light in front of a cop," Siebol joked. "You're going to get a ticket."

The tactic worked as Mabton won that game 38-33 and went on to earn a fifth-place trophy. Ledgerwood would have liked to have had that option last Friday when his team led Granger early in overtime before falling 74-70.

"I'm not sure if it was the difference, but there are different strategies in those situations now," he said.

Ledgerwood usually presides over a high-energy team that doesn't need much time to find a shot, and through 10 games the Vikings -- are you reading this Bruce? -- have yet to turn it over on a clock violation.

It's also important to consider the flipside of the issue. Instead of focusing on what the clock takes away from an offense, look at what it can add to a defense.

"We've had three shot-clock violations in 12 games, but at the same time we've caused six," noted White Swan coach Manuel Rangel. "In some cases we have used the shot clock to our advantage defensively."

What drives coaches nuts is when their defense forces a rushed shot to beat the clock and it goes in.

"We've held teams down to a second or two probably six times, and three times they've burped up a shot and it's gone in. Now that's frustrating," Fitterer said.

More than actual clock violations, it's those hasty, rushed shots in the final seconds that concern coaches.

"That's the impact from my perspective -- the types of shots that are being taken as the clock runs down," said Zillah coach Doug Burge. "They're generally hurried and not great percentage shots. The violations seldom happen, but there are more bad shots to avoid it."

There are other consequences, some have noticed, like larger winning margins when a superior team must continue shooting and higher scores in general.

"It's created a bigger gap between the haves and the have nots," observed Goldendale's Jay Thacker, whose team is off to a 9-2 start with no clock violations. "It's still taking time to get used to, especially for point guards, and how they handle it coming down the stretch will be important."

"Right now everybody's still adjusting to it," Wagenaar added. "We're using a clock more and more in practice as we get closer to the postseason. That's when this will really have a big-time impact, when each possession is huge."