With the NJSIAA instituting a statewide running clock mercy rule in high school basketball – standardizing the previously-optional rule across New Jersey – it will certainly have effects on many games and programs this winter.
The intent, of course, is to prevent mammoth blowouts, or at least keep them from getting further out of hand.. Now, when a score differential reaches 35 points in the second half, the clock will run continuously, only to be stopped for time outs, injuries, technical fouls, or officials’ stoppages. It will only return to normal if the game reaches overtime, which is a longshot.
But there are other effects, too. We’ve seen a couple running clock games in recent years, since the Skyland Conference already had such a rule, and the Greater Middlesex Conference was set to institute it this year, albeit at 30 points. (Now, 35 will be the statewide standard.)
For one, the games now go a lot faster. But that also means there’s less time to get bench players in the game, which could hinder development.
We asked a few coaches in the GMC and Somerset County what they thought of the rule, and many seem to be in favor of it.
One of the reasons the GMC decided to forge ahead was the many blowouts – even with bench players in – that St. Thomas Aquinas had been involved in. Winners of the last six GMC Tournament titles, they’ve dominated the league for years, but last year, it became a different story. Against seven other division opponents – Colonia, East Brunswick, Monroe, North Plainfield, Old Bridge, Piscataway and South Brunswick – they won by 45.1 points per game, on average. And in four GMC Tournament games, their average margin of victory was 59.5 points.
Head coach Tim Corrigan says it likely won’t affect his team in non-conference play, but it will in their league.
“Overall, it’s probably a good thing,” Corrigan tells Central Jersey Sports Radio. “The only downside to it that I see is the playing time for JV/swing players could be cut short as the clock runs in the second half.”
Overall, Corrigan believes the change is a “net positive” and “35 points is a reasonable number.”
The Monroe girls faced St. Thomas twice in the regular season and once in the GMCT final. And they came closer to Aquinas than anyone else in the Red Division.
Their first meeting – a 59-28 Aquinas win on January fourth – was STA’s sixth lowest point total of the season and second lowest scoring output in a win. The 29-point margin was their only Red Division game won by fewer than 30 points, and the game never reached 35. In fact, the deficit was just 12 going into the fourth quarter.
Monroe also beat Colonia by 33 (57-24) and Highland Park by 32 (66-34). So head coach Brian Hinz has seen it from both angles. Their two losses to Aquinas came by a 90-33 score in their second meeting, and 93-34 in the GMC Championship game.
“Having been on both sides of a blowout, I understand the need for a rule like this,” Hinz tells CJSR. “It’s not like the game just ends,” he notes, like it does in baseball.
“It still allows you to go deeper into your bench and help develop your players who look forward to and deserve those minutes in a lopsided game,” Hinz says.
“It will allow us as coaches to get out kids off the court quicker and into the locker room, where we can learn from it and move on to our next opponent,” Hinz added.
Kris Grundy, the boys’ coach at Montgomery – who also is the Cougars’ Athletic Director – considers another angle, too, saying it should also alleviate crowd issues. He says sometimes it can get tense in a blowout.
“We have all been there in those types of environments when teams feel embarrassed by the score and the clock seems to be standing still,” Grundy says. “It is ion those moments where that emotion can spill out onto the playing surface.”
“Hopefully, the running clock will help mitigate those types of situations for all as the second half will go extremely quickly.
