Wednesday’s KHSAA Board of Control meeting showed the state is no closer to a shot clock in basketball.
In fact, it’s trending the other way.
High school basketball coaches across the state were surveyed and asked to respond with a yes or no on the implementation of a 35-second shot clock. The boys coaches voted no by a tally of 137-100, the girls coaches voting no by a margin of 141-91. The same survey was sent out last year, the boys coaches voting no to a shot clock with a 115-97 vote and the girls coaches voting no 117-88.
As it stands right now, 17 states have a shot clock for high school basketball, before last year, eight states had a shot clock. The National Federation of State High School Association’s announced in May of 2021 it would allow individual states to decide if they wanted to add a 35-second shot clock.
So over the course of a year, the no vote increased from 54% to 57% in boys and the no vote increasing in girls from 57% to 60%.
Other matters discussed at the Board of Control meeting:
— Boys and girls team tennis championships will be introduced for the 2023-24 school year and boys volleyball for 2024-25. Those two sports are added on to girls wrestling in 2023-24 and boys and girls lacrosse in 2024-25.
— KHSAA will go back to a one-weekend tournament for state wrestling to be held at Kentucky Horse Park (Alltech Arena) in 2024 and 2025. In a survey to wrestling coaches, the coaches prefer going back to 32 wrestlers per class at one final site. The way things are set up now is a sectional that leads to the state tournament, which had been held at George Rogers Clark the past few years.
— The release of proposed cross country and track and field realignment for the next four seasons. You can find the proposed alignment here: file:///C:/Users/edenn/Downloads/7_5_4_DraftTrackAndFieldCrossCountryAlignmentOfTeams202324To202627_0%20(1).pdf
— Swim coaches prefer in a survey more guaranteed qualifiers from each region over a straight to state approach.