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By ANDREW SIMONSON | Sports Editor

On Friday, Jan. 3, I stopped by Spain Park High School full of excitement for the start of basketball area play. And how could I not be excited? It was the opening night of Class 6A, Area 8, an all-Shelby County area sure to bring exciting matchups like that night’s between Spain Park and Pelham.

As I settled into my seat, I was impressed by both the Jags and Panthers in the varsity girls game. Spain Park had taken massive strides since the last time I saw them in 2024 and Pelham’s core had started to settle in around the always dangerous Tee King. Both defenses were on point and it was a great matchup.

That is, until the teams emerged from the halftime locker room.

Right after the teams broke their huddles for the second half to start, the Jags inbounded the ball and were content to dribble out the ball just past mid-court with the score tied up at 19-19.

Seconds turned into minutes as the Panthers refused to come out of their 2-3 zone, and for the first two minutes of the third quarter, the two county foes were locked in a Wild West-style stare down. It only ended when Pelham brought a defender up and then forced a missed shot from the Jags.

Fortunately for your enjoyment, I was on the Gameday SportsRadio live broadcast as a guest color commentator, so you can hear my descent into madness in real time as I watched the sequence.

The first point I want to make abundantly clear is that I do not blame Spain Park coach John Hadder for executing that strategy. Not one bit. He normally runs a fast-paced offense with lots of 3-pointers, and did just that multiple times in the game. More importantly though, he is a legend and future Hall-of-Famer, and you don’t earn those honors without getting a little creative within the framework of the rules.

Pelham also likes to play a faster style, even though in that moment, it admittedly could’ve put a defender on the ball much sooner than two minutes into the sequence. They shouldn’t have needed to though.

Which leads me to my second point: it’s past time for the rules to change on time-wasting. Such strategies hurt the overall entertainment value of the game. Luckily for us, we already found a solution. In fact, we found it 70 years ago.

Shot clocks are a surefire way to speed up pace of play and increase scoring. The NBA found this out back in 1954 when scoring increased nearly 18 percent in the first season that the shot clock was mandated.

While we’ve certainly come a long way since then with pace of play increasing through fast break points and 3-pointers, Alabama high school basketball can go back half a century at a coach’s whim simply because the rules allow them to hold possession until the end of a quarter.

With that said though, the state started taking steps in the right direction this past April. The AHSAA permitted shot clocks to be used in non-area games starting this season, provided schools with multiple options to purchase clocks and tested it out at the North-South All-Star Games in July.

It’s a step toward long overdue change. Key word, step.

While some schools around our area have already played with a shot clock, most notably Thompson’s varsity boys team at the Huntsville City Classic, it’s not mandated. Both coaches need to agree to its usage, and even then, schools can’t turn them on for the most important games of the season.

I surveyed multiple coaches while reporting on the shot clock’s limited addition to the state, and most of them even if they did wholeheartedly support it circled back to the same two concerns: money and people.

While some larger schools in our area can throw around money for gym video boards and indoor practice facilities, you can’t get around the fact that for some schools, spending an extra $1,500 on a shot clock and either hiring an official to work it or finding a local volunteer to take their place is a tough ask.

Those concerns are valid, but to me, it simply delays change to the point where it could be completely denied. And sometimes, the only way to get people to change is to force them to.

The same coaches I surveyed admitted that many schools would not adopt a shot clock until they were required to. Vincent’s Seth Ford even said on the record that the school would likely not buy one until a mandate arrives.

That’s why it’s crucial to drop the hammer ahead of next season and implement a shot clock mandate for all AHSAA high schools. Who knows how long this tentative arrangement will last if those in charge are scared to act, especially after the years of lobbying it took to even get a limited shot clock policy?

Will there be growing pains? Absolutely. Will some schools have to get creative with how to raise the funds and run it? Definitely. Will there be a high-profile incident where a shot clock is operated incorrectly to impact a game? Probably, because humans make mistakes and others love to get mad when they do.

That said, we can’t let the fear of failure paralyze us from change that will positively impact those who play and follow basketball. It’s time to eliminate the loopholes that slow down pace of play and put a stain on our state with a solution that has existed for decades.

Four nights later, I attended Shelby County’s area opener against Briarwood Christian, and in both varsity games, but in particular the boys game, both teams set out to get up and down the floor, even without a shot clock. While sloppy at times, it was thoroughly entertaining and a reminder of why basketball was one of the first sports I loved.

It was also a reminder of what basketball can be and should be when the rules prevent coaches from slowing the game down. Let’s make that idea a reality with a mandatory shot clock.