Speaking of Sports

By John Fragodt, Sports Reporter

Addition of the shot clock — Boy, I wish I were playing basketball right now.  When I was playing, it seemed like the game went by so fast and would always end too early.  Back in the late 1970s and into 1980, we played four quarters of eight minutes each.  Invariably, the game would start out slow as the team that won the opening tap would slowly set up its offense, pass the ball around and maybe take the first shot after a minute or two had elapsed.

And, when there were 1-2 minutes left in each quarter, teams would hold on to the ball for a last shot a lot of times.  That would mean there would normally be about 4-5 minutes of actual playing time in each quarter, or about 16-18 minutes total for the game.

A while back, high schools went from four 8-minute quarters for varsity basketball to two 18-minute halves, or from 32 total minutes to 36 minutes.  The change to halves also meant there was less holding the ball for a last shot in each quarter and tended to give the teams at least 30-32 minutes of actual playing time for each game.  No wonder the number of 1,000-point scorers goes up so fast each year, especially when you add in the fact that teams are playing 25-30 games each year now compared to about 18-20 games a few decades ago.

Well, players are even luckier now as a 35-second shot clock has been added to high school basketball.  Minnewaska Area will be using the shot clock for all home games this year and will also be using it for all conference games.

The MSHSL voted to implement the shot clock for all high school games starting in 2023-24 and for this year, it is optional.  Minnesota is the 13th state association to adopt a shot clock for varsity-level games.

That means no more holding the ball at the start and end of each half and it also means there will be a lot more scoring and a lot more action for basketball fans.

Boy, I’d love to be back playing high school basketball right now.

•  Benson out of girls WCC basketball — The Benson girls basketball team will not be playing in the WCC this season due to a lack of players.  The Braves have only seven varsity players this season, including three who haven’t been out for a the sport in the past couple years, and do not have any B-squad or C-squad team.  The Braves had sought to get out of the WCC for all sports starting next year, but were denied by the Camden North Conference.

Benson has 11 non-conference games on its schedule, and will look to add a few more non-conference games, while the rest of the WCC teams will have to try and find replacements for the two dates with Benson.

For Minnewaska Area, the Lakers were set to play at Benson, Jan. 19, and host the Braves, Feb. 7.

“We feel like this is the best decision for our program and the right decision for our girls,” Benson first-year head coach Renee Helgenset said to the WC Tribune.  “We feel that working on skills and gaining experience with more practice time would be a better route to take rather than playing in games that were highly unlikely to be competitive.”

•  Speaking of girls basketball, the Lakers were ranked 17th in the Class AA preseason rankings put out by Minnesota Basketball News. The Lakers opened up the season with a loss to Lac qui Parle, which was ranked 11th in Class A in the preseason rankings.

Following the loss, the Lakers moved out of the top-20 rankings while LQP stayed at No. 11.  BOLD, which beat the Lakers in their second game, was ranked ninth in Class A during the first-week’s rankings after missing out on the top-20 in the preseason rankings.

Hancock, which won last year’s Class A girls’ title, is ranked first in Class A, while BBE is eighth and Wheaton-HN is 12th.  In Class 2A, Sauk Centre is seventh, Albany is eighth, Montevideo is ninth and NLS is ranked 11th.

•  College football playoffs — I’ll admit I’m excited about the College Football Playoffs expanding to 12 teams in the near future.  The current format has four teams selected to play in the CFP at the end of the season and before that, there were two teams selected to play in the college championship game.  If you go back even further, there was no college championship game and the national champion was determined on a vote after all the Bowl games were played.

I’m not sure if four, six, or even 12 teams is the best way to decide the eventual college football champion, but it sure adds to the excitement for the season to keep so many teams in the title hunt.

This year, Georgia and Michigan were locks to be among the top-four going into the final weekend, but I felt TCU and USC needed to win their games or be passed over by Ohio State and Alabama.  Well, TCU and USC both lost their conference championship games, but TCU stayed at No. 3, while Ohio State leapfrogged over USC into the fourth and final berth.

I’m really surprised Alabama did not overtake TCU for the fourth spot, and I have to think there are not too many teams in the nation that would want to play Alabama right now.  Either way, it looks like it could be a great finish for the Big Ten.  Go Michigan!