By MIKE COURSON
Great Bend Post
The game of basketball has seen its share of changes since James Naismith invented it in 1891; most notably, the American Basketball League officially adopted the 3-point line in 1961. This winter, the sport will look different in Kansas high schools after the Kansas State High School Activities Association approved a trial run of the 35-second shot clock. Panther boys' coach Kyle Kriegh said the change has impacted the first two weeks of practice.
"We've definitely been using it in practice and implementing it in drills," he said. "I think, naturally, we have a team that wants to score the ball pretty quickly. Even though we've been using it in practice, we've only had a fraction of our possessions actually make it to the last 10 seconds of the shot clock."
Kriegh's Panthers finished last season at 17-6 and advanced to the state tournament for the first time in 14 years. Teams that are not impacted by the shot clock on the offensive end can still utilize the new rule on the other end of the court.
"That's definitely something we focus on during practice is trying to get it to where the other team is at the last 10 seconds or so of the shot clock, and just doing some different things differently to use it to our advantage," Kriegh said.
Though all schools in Kansas have the option of using the shot clock, none are required to use the technology in the trial run. Schools that choose to use the clocks must use them during all home varsity basketball games though post-season tournaments will not utilize the clocks. All five Western Athletic Conference schools have opted to try out the new rule for the 2024-25 season.
While the shot clock will undoubtedly impact how the high school game is played, it may not happen in 2024. Great Bend High School is set up for the new technology but the clocks have not yet arrived ahead of Friday's season-opener against Salina South. The Panthers then travel to Kingman for tournament action and close out the 2024 portion of the schedule at Pratt. Neither Kingman nor Pratt will have shot clocks.