The half ended on a shot clock violation, there's a contradictory effect of supposedly brilliant basketball innovation as the latest rage at the high school level of the sport.
But it's exactly what happened during Class 4A Prairie Grove's 73-35 nonconference loss at Class 6A Fayetteville on Tuesday, Nov. 24.
With time running out in the first half, Prairie Grove senior guard Eli Fisk squared up and launched a 3-pointer that wasn't going to count because the ball hadn't yet left his hands when that dastardly little hour glass known in the basketball realm as the "shot clock" ran out -- sort of a twisted fairytale gone wrong, leaving viewers demanding a rewriting of the script.
According to Dr. James Naismith, inventor of basketball in 1891, Regulations No. 12 and 13 in his original 13 rules of basketball, "The time shall be two 15-minute halves with five minutes' rest between" and "The side making the most goals in that time shall be declared the winners."
No shot clock, the idea Naismith presented means putting the ball in the hoop more often than one's opponent.
Ironically, in a world filled with technological inventions the official timekeepers could not put half-a second or :00.5 as the brief time span appears in decimal form back on the clock. They could get the clock to show five seconds, but not five tenths of a second. The moment was gone forever and there would be no alternate ending.
Referees conferred with both Fayetteville coach Brad Stamps and Prairie Grove coach Steve Edmiston. Neither objected to concluding the half.
That :00.5 second of basketball time was not so important that shot clock violation rules mandated the teams play half a second without a clock in contrast to the game of football, which occasionally gets played without a functioning clock with referees keeping time on the field.
One of the purported benefits of implementing a shot clock into high school basketball is that it will prepare athletes for what they'll see in college, but that argument doesn't hold water considering the minute percentage of high school athletes who actually wind up playing college basketball.
Proponents claim shot clock could possibly reduce the number of fouls called late in games when, as they phrase it, "some teams prefer to run the clock out." If one truly wants to test the validity of that theory just watch an NBA game. Adding a shot clock is credited with saving professional basketball in the United States, but the odds of a high school player attaining that level doesn't merit bringing a shot clock into high school basketball -- and even with a shot clock fouls rack up rapidly in the fourth quarter of professional basketball.
Naismith also wrote Regulation No. 9 in his original 13 rules of basketball, which states, "If any side persists in delaying the game, the umpire shall call a foul on them."
That stipulation, however, did not implement a shot clock, which showed up 63 years later as the brainchild of NBA owner, Danny Biasone, of the Syracuse Nationals, who proposed the rule change at the annual NBA owners' meeting. The shot clock debuted as a new basketball technology on Oct. 30, 1954, with the Rochester Royals defeating the Boston Celtics, 98-95.
Professional basketball needs a shot clock.
High school basketball does not.
It's a double-headed dragon, which translates to the Arkansas Activities Association mimicking what the British did to the American colonies portrayed dramatically in the AMC television series Turn -- laying a burdensome tax on the smaller schools and taking away choice or "freedom of expression" by forcing all basketball teams to play "life in the fast lane."
It's shocking that Arkansas high schools voted to subject themselves under the dominion of a shot clock, which apparently happened during the AAA summer meeting by a 183-69 margin.
At the high school level, the inclusion of a shot clock on Tuesday, Nov. 24, only served to increase an already unlevel playing field helping a big school, Class 6A Fayetteville beat up on a smaller school, Class 4A Prairie Grove.
It brings to mind an unusual conversation with two of my high school buddies decades ago. Jeff, a member of the junior class during my senior year, took to reading a novel set in Hades and he wanted to tell us about some of the dialogue between various characters in that setting.
One quote Jeff attributed to the time-keeper, to which Ryan, a sophomore during my senior year, immediately shot that down.
"What do you need a time-keeper for where time is eternal?"
End of discussion.
Mark Humphrey is a sports writer for the Enterprise-Leader. The opinions are his own.
