[rojas]

Its not about speeding up the game, its about getting teams to play ball.

If there is 45 second left, and your a high school team, you HAVE to foul if your down. With a shot clock, you can play a solid round of defense and get atleast 10 seconds back on the game clock to score.

One of the many reasons I quit watching high school basketball was because of this very reason. Mountain teams play like idiots when it comes to running clock. It also HAS to speed up the game some. I don't care what the stats say. Right now a team can hold a ball for a minute if they want. With the shot clock, they cant, thus SPEEDING up the game.

Only if you are a zone team do you have to foul with 45 seconds to play and down 1 or 2. If you are a trapping, hard nosed man-to-man team, it's tough for a team to hold the ball on you for 45 seconds. A man-to-man team can always play zone but a primarily zone team can't play man-to-man. You have to play man-to-man everyday to be good at it.

Of course, if you are a zone team you may as well wear skirts and lipstick anyway.