WOODBURY — As Nonnewaug basketball teams enter the home stretch of the winter season, Berkshire League rivalries are heating up, but all league members are adjusting to something new entirely: a shot clock. While the game, players, and rivalries remain the same, the addition of the shot clock has made a big impact.
The CIAC instituted a rule during the offseason that required a shot clock to be in place for the varsity levels of girls and boys high school basketball. The inclusion of a clock set a tone for the new level of play, not only for the players, but also for coaches.
“It definitely affects us,” said Nonnewaug girls basketball head coach Rebecca Pope. “For instance, if we have the ball for 51 seconds, last year I might have stalled; I was thinking about how we always count down from 10 and how last year there were only four times in a game — we only had to do that at the end of the quarters, but now it can be any time.”
While the adjustment was challenging for coaches, for players the change was one they took in stride.
“I thought it was going to be hard to adapt at first, but once we got on the court, it felt normal,” said sophomore guard Olivia Gwiazdoski.
The new normal in life with a shot clock has inevitably sped up game play.
“I think it speeds up the pace of play. It hasn’t affected us much this season so far,” said junior guard Lincoln Nichols. “I think it was a good addition because it prevents other teams from holding the ball.”
The shot clock is set to 35 seconds for a team to make a play and score a basket. If the ball hits the rim then the clock is to reset.
One challenging part of adding the shot clock is finding someone who runs it. For Nonnewaug, the job was handed to Kyle Brennan, an NHS faculty member and coach.
“You have to pay attention to the game in a lot of different ways than before,” said Brennan. “I have to watch the game by just looking to see when the ball is hitting the rim or when it is possessed by another team. You watch it differently than you would otherwise.”
Not only does the clock’s addition change the speed of the high school game, but it also prepares athletes for life beyond the BL since it more closely mimics the pacing of a college game.
“It changes the game, but it’s also fun,” said Pope, who anticipates some of her athletes participating at the college level. “It keeps it more exciting and prepares kids to play in college, so it’s good and bad.”
In addition to the new shot clock, there were also a couple of other rules that were changed. One of those rules concerns how fouls and team foul bonuses are handled.
Prior to this season, there were single-bonus situations when a defensive team accumulated a seventh foul in a half, giving the team a one-and-one free throw opportunity until the double bonus applied for the 10th foul of the half. Now, once a team hits five fouls in a quarter, the other team gets a chance to make two foul shots.
“It’s different and it’s an adjustment,” said Nonnewaug assistant girls basketball coach Toby Denman. “Guess what? Hit your free throws.”
