COMMENTARY: Forget the shot clock, let’s bring some better fixes to high school basketball

Posted: March 25th 2026

By BRIAN CUNNIFF

CapeAtlanticLive.com 

A shot clock is probably coming to New Jersey high school basketball.

A vote is coming soon. Thoughts on the matter seem to be that more people want it than not and that its implementation will be sometime in the near future, perhaps as soon as the 2027-28 season.

While many advocate for a 30-second shot clock for high school basketball, I’d like to see studies on just how many possessions in a high school game actually take 30 seconds or longer. In most games it’s probably less than 10 combined for each team.

Many have debated about whether a shot clock will improve basketball at the high school level. Perhaps it will, perhaps it won’t. Personally, I like the game the way it is without a shot clock.

But now that we’re talking about potentially drastically changing high school basketball in this state with the addition of a shot clock, let’s look at some other things that could be changed to improve the game.

Remember, these are just the opinions of one person who’s been around South Jersey high school basketball for more than 30 years.

Power points: I know there’s been a little tweak to account for strength of schedule, but why under the current power-point system does a team get more points for beating a 3-13 team by one point than it does by losing to a 15-1 team by one point? We need more encouragement for good teams to play other good teams and not just try to schedule bad/mediocre teams that have a lot of wins.

Five-quarter rule: Currently, basketball players are not permitted to compete in more than five quarters in a given day. This needs to be changed to six quarters. We’re seeing too many subvarsity games involving smaller schools canceled because teams cite the lack of available players. Freshmen and sophomores (and even juniors) not yet good enough to contribute to the varsity teams need game experience, too.

Three games in a row: High school basketball teams in New Jersey aren’t permitted to play games on three consecutive days. This rule should be lifted over Christmas break. It would save money for teams going away for tournaments (because they wouldn’t have to stay an extra day to have an off day between one of their games). With the players not in school at that time, there’s no reason they can’t play games on three straight days. Each practice is longer than a game anyway, right?

CAL playoff seeding: The seeding meeting for the Cape-Atlantic League Tournament should not be held until after all CAL games are complete. Often we see teams overseeded or underseeded for the tournament because their full body of work can’t be considered.

Time off: Basketball season is a long, massive grind. All coaches should be mandated to give players one weekend day off per week without a game or practice. Some athletic directors cite that this is already in the NJSIAA rules, but I’ve yet to see it explicitly stated in writing. There are many programs out there who think nothing of going 13, 14 or more days in a row without a day off. Trust me, not having practice on a Sunday in early February when your next game isn’t until Tuesday isn’t going to mean the difference between winning and losing. If it does, then you didn’t do your job as a coach in December and January.

Allow dunking during pre-game and halftime warmups: Don’t understand why it’s still a technical foul to dunk in warmups. The rule was put in place a long time ago to protect the equipment before the development of breakaway rims. The rule should be eliminated. Let the kids have fun. Isn’t that why they play in the first place?

Go play on your own: We have more players competing in AAU and going to personal trainers than ever before, yet the overall talent level of South Jersey high school basketball has never been lower. Players need to get back to going to the playground or the local rec center and playing pickup games and working out on their own. It builds better competitiveness and a greater fear of losing. If you want to still play AAU and/or attend sessions run by personal trainers, that’s fine. But find the AAU clubs focused on development over winning and the personal trainers who will challenge you by making you work on your weaknesses and not just your strengths. And stay away from the trainers telling you or your parents what you want to hear simply because you’re paying them.

Leaving the bench/fight rule: The NJSIAA (actually the National Federation of High Schools since the NJSIAA is following their guidance) needs to overhaul its rules on leaving the bench for a potential altercation or fight. Currently, any player who leaves the bench is ejected. Three ejections in a season and a team is disqualified from competing in the state tournament. So if I’m sitting on the bench and seven feet in front of me an opponent starts slugging my teammate and has him on the ground and is causing physical harm to him I’m supposed to stay seated, not break it up and watch him get pummeled? Or, in another circumstance, I can’t come two feet onto the floor to pull my teammate away from a potential fight and prevent a bad scene without being ejected? With every game on video in some shape or form these days, these situations can be litigated separately, rather than by a hard policy without any flexibility.

Transfers: This doesn’t apply only to basketball, but transferring has gotten out of hand. Allowing free player movement from one school to another as long as the transfer occurs before senior year has gotten outrageous. Here’s one thought – let’s allow one free transfer after freshman year only. Any transfer after that time should come with an eight-game sitout. A second transfer? 12 games. Forget 22 days, or 30 days, because teams are now manipulating their schedules so their prized transfers miss as little playing time as possible. Make the sitout period games instead of days.

Flop rule: This new flop warning rule for faking being fouled needs to go. Quickly. A flop with contact should be called a block. A blatant flop without contact should be a technical foul. Period. End of story.

State playoff game times: This past season, we saw a number of state playoff games on Saturdays scheduled before noon, some as early as 10 a.m. Let’s remember that high school basketball is about the kids and not about the adults running things who want to get in and out on a Saturday. You can’t be asking teams to, in some cases, travel well over an hour on a Saturday morning to play the most important game of the season at 10, 11 or 11:30 a.m. Not at the end of a long season when the players are already fighting fatigue. Let’s be better in this area.

Sectional title game schedules: The NJSIAA has done a terrific job tweaking its playoff schedule in recent years. The every-other-day schedule of games, which left little time to celebrate a big victory, get proper rest and prepare for the next opponent, has mostly been eliminated. The schedule in recent seasons also has sectional finals played on Fridays and Saturdays, allowing for a better fan and player experience. But, it’s really a shame to have sectional title games for boys and girls now scheduled on the same day for the same groups. Fan bases shouldn’t have to choose which game to attend if the boys and girls teams from their school both reach the sectional title round and aren't playing at the same site. Let’s get the sectional title games for the same groups onto different days for the boys and girls.

Run-stopping timeouts: I’ll lob this one directly at the coaches – stop calling timeouts to end your own runs. Why would you want to stop play when your team has just scored six, eight or 10 straight points? You’re overcoaching.

Preseason: Currently, any practices held on the three days prior to Thanksgiving are considered tryouts and not official practices, so they don’t count toward the six practices needed before teams can scrimmage. Let’s make these workouts prior to Thanksgiving count as practices so teams can get to their scrimmage schedules earlier.

And speaking of the preseason, it’s less than 35 weeks to the start of next season.

(Direct any comments via email to cmcgazettesports@yahoo.com)