SHOT CLOCK DOWN TO 35 NEXT SEASON

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, April 15, 1993                   TAG: 9304150113
SECTION: SPORTS                    PAGE: B1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: KANSAS CITY, MO.                                LENGTH: Medium
SHOT CLOCK DOWN TO 35 NEXT SEASON
The NCAA, in an attempt to speed play in men's basketball and reduce excessive fouling in the last minutes, voted Wednesday to reduce the shot clock from 45 to 35 seconds.
Members of the men's basketball rules committee admitted they don't think many coaches will be happy.
"Through the years, if the rules committee had waited for a mandate . . . there would hardly have been any rules changes," said Hank Nichols, secretary-rules editor of the committee. "We think it will pick up the excitement and maybe take the game to a higher level of continuous action."
The 45-second clock was introduced in the 1985-86 season in a move that virtually eliminated stall tactics.
"The committee believes that 35 seconds on the shot clock will keep game action more continuous, and at the same time allow more conservative teams to still use ball control," Nichols said.
The women's committee voted to retain the 30-second shot clock it has used since 1969.
Nichols said the committee voted to keep the 3-point arc at its present 19 feet, 9 inches, but predicted it will eventually be moved back.
Besides chopping 10 seconds off the shot clock, the committee voted to stop the game clock after each field goal in the last minute of the regulation game or the last minute of overtime. It also deleted the five-second dribbling violation while closely guarded.
Substitutions will not be allowed to enter the game in dead-ball situations when the game clock stops after a made field goal in the final minute.
Both the men's and women's committees voted that when a defensive player forces a held ball, the shot clock will not be reset if the offensive team retains possession by the alternating-possession arrow.
University of Southern California coach George Raveling, a member of the men's committee, said he does not think the 35-second shot clock will bring great change in strategy.
"There will be some initial resistance in some pockets of the coaching profession," he said. "But it's the committee's feeling that when you reduce the clock to 35 seconds, eliminate the 5-second closely guarded dribbling violation and stop the clock after a made field goal in the last minute, it will help better administer the last one or two minutes of a game.
"Right now, we feel that's perhaps the most paramount problem facing college basketball, what to do with the last two minutes of the game to smooth it out. I don't think it's going to take a great adjustment."
Nichols said the committee may be criticized for its tinkering.
"In all these years in which we've tried to address the end-of-game problems . . . we've never come up with the answer," he said. "It's the first move the committee has been able to make addressing the end-of-game situation, which seems to be one of the major problems facing intercollegiate basketball, if you listen to fans, media and everybody else."

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB