THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT 
              Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Saturday, January 19, 1997            TAG: 9701210113
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON   PAGE: 18   EDITION: FINAL 
SOURCE: Paul White 
                                            LENGTH:   57 lines

BLACK AND WHITE: HIGH SCHOOL SHOT CLOCK? NO: LETS CONTINUE TO GIVE PLAYERS AND COACHES ALL THE OPTION

A shot clock for high school basketball? Sure, why not? And while we're at it, let's widen the rim, allow three steps on the drive and install a 4-point shot.

Let the pros and the colleges endure time-regulated offense. The high school game doesn't need this gimmick.

Fear of losing market share on TV ratings, one of the reasons the colleges went with a shot clock in the mid-80s, doesn't apply here. And I don't think there'd be a stampede of new fans in the stands if teams had to shoot every 30 seconds.

Even if it did, who cares? Pro and college basketball, for better or worse, is big business. That some might find a delay tactic boring is beside the point. The high school game is mainly for the kids.

A shot clock might be nice for those players who'll move on to college ball, but how many kids are we talking about? The vast majority of high school players will never set foot on a college basketball court.

And just where is it written that basketball's not basketball unless there's a certain amount of shot attempts? The object is to finish with more points than the other team, pure and simple. By any means necessary. A shot clock limits the options available to a team to get this done.

Fellow scribe James Black and other proponents like to cite the 1988 Eastern Region affair in which Indian River and Maury combined for just 39 points in a triple-overtime game.

But the fact that Black has to go back to 1988 to make his case is sort of like the prosecution calling Mark Fuhrman to testify at the O.J. trial - it blows the whole case.

Indeed, the biggest flaw in the shot clock argument is that nobody's really stalling without it. I've been to about 20 games this season, and I've yet to see a team successfully hold the ball for more than 90 seconds.

``Successfully'' is the key word here. To run a four-corners style offense, you need to have at least four players on the floor who can handle and pass the ball. Some coaches in this area would kill for one. A delay-oriented team needs good free-throw shooters, but only five public school teams in South Hampton Roads shoot better than 60 percent from the line.

No, the only time anyone in this area has cause to clamor for a shot clock is when a great and skillful team meets another great, skillful team that also has a dominant, future NBA star center.

As best I can tell, we won't be seeing this scenario around here anytime soon.

In the meantime, let's let Cox beat teams by scoring 35 points, Oscar Smith prevail by getting the game in the 90s and everything in between.

There are a lot of ways to play this game. Let's not allow a shot clock to eliminate some of them. MEMO: Paul White is sports editor of the Portsmouth Currents; James

Black is sports editor of the Suffolk Sun. Periodically, they will take

opposing views on topics of interest.