THE FRONT ROW WITH JASON ELLIOTT: The clock could be ticking in Idaho

In recent years, Timberlake High’s girls basketball program has been able to get a lot of different wins in a lot of different ways.

All of which have been done without the benefit of a shot clock.

“(Timberlake girls basketball coach) Matt (Miller) has had some stretches with some really good point guards,” Timberlake athletic director Tim Cronnelly said. “If you’re playing Timberlake, trailing by four points and it’s under a minute to go, they just had a way to move the ball around and run out the game.”

EARLIER THIS week, the Montana High School Association voted to add a shot clock for basketball starting next season.

The Idaho High School Activities Association, which discussed adding a 35-second shot clock during Wednesday’s board meeting, will hear a proposal at the April 6 meeting, and could approve it at the meeting.

If adopted, Idaho wouldn't move to a shot clock until the 2024-25 season at the earliest.

“We’re very much in favor of it,” Cronnelly said. “It’s kind of nice when you go to Washington and they use it. It’s good for us and it’s just better basketball. Until you take in a lot of games, you don’t realize it. The game changes so much late because of it.”

Last year, the National Federation of High Schools dropped its stance that if a state used a shot clock, it would lose their seat on voting matters.

“Idaho basketball coaches have been asking for a clock for a few years,” Cronnelly said. “Once they changed it, it kind of changed for the other states. We still want to have a voice on national rules, but now more and more states are going toward it. It’s been coming, and there’s no reason not to have it.”

Lake City boys basketball coach and athletic director Jim Winger feels the same way.

“Our league has been very supportive of a shot clock, but it never gets any traction,” Winger said. “We’re very supportive of it as long as it’s not required at the freshman and JV level.”

That’s more because of a staffing reason.

“It’s so hard to find people to help these days,” Winger said. “We play a lot of games in Washington, and if you get a person that’s not really good at running the clock, it stops the game all the time. Sometimes, doing the shot clock is harder than doing the regular clock. There’s no way we could cover all the things for all three levels. But I think it’s good for the game, and it should be there.”

Estimated costs for the clocks are $3,000 before installation.

“There’s going to be costs, but it’s important to the game and important to the kids,” Cronnelly said. “If that’s something we need to do, we’ll find a way to get it done. It’s one more thing, but we’ll find a way to get it done.”

As for the smaller schools ...

“It would be more of a headache for sure,” Mullan athletic director Stetson Spooner said. “As the AD, I end up doing the score clock 40% of the time anyway. I don’t really know the cost and haven’t done any of those numbers, but we just got new scoreboards and I don’t know that shot clocks would run off that or it would be the same clock, so we’d have to get another person to run that.”

Spooner added of the administrators he’s spoken with within the North Star League, not all are in favor of the shot clock.

“Our coach doesn’t want anything to do with a shot clock,” Spooner said. “I don’t know anyone that completely hates it, but I’m not certain it would make a difference in our league. I don’t think anyone dribbles in a half-court set for longer than 25 seconds.”

A shot clock has been used for years in high school boys and girls basketball games in Washington.

“If there’s an issue, we could just do it at the 4A/5A level,” Winger said. “It’s the same thing as the 3-man officials. North Idaho led the way with that, and now, it’s a no-brainer. If we can break the ice with that, I think it would catch on around the state and be fine.”

“It’s been a struggle to even get it to the table,” Winger said. “For a while, the biggest hurdle was it wasn’t supported by the national federation. Now that it’s changed, it’s not an issue anymore. I hope it gets some traction. It’s time. We support it and hope it gets traction this time.”

Jason Elliott is a sports writer for The Press. He can be reached by telephone at 208-664-8176, Ext. 2020 or via email at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @JECdAPress.