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65 °F Forecast | Road Cams Sunday, September 12, 2004 Today's News | Classifieds | Autos | Homes | Jobs | Tempo | Health | Community | Home Delivery SECTIONS Home Page Local News Sports Business Obituaries Life Opinion - Politics Tempo AP News Weather Classified Archives Site Map SPECIAL SECTIONS Since We Asked Outdoor Journal Prime Times Wellness Connection Readers' Choice Real Estate Showcase Joy Magazine Homelife Magazine Wedding Guide Rogue Valley's Finest EXTRA Newspaper in Education Personals Movie Times TV Times E The People MARKETPLACE Find a Car Find a Home Find a Job Classifieds Place an ad eSouthernOregon Automotive Communities Entertainment Publications Recreation Calendar CUSTOMER SERVICE Frequent Questions Advertising Information Home Delivery Employment Contact Us Media Kit Network Affiliate Oregon Road Conditions & Cams Email Story to a Friend January 13, 2004 Stalling strategy took game from kids Prep Notebook By DON HUNT Mail Tribune One of the more dramatic basketball games I’ve seen on television occurred on Jan. 28, 1980, at Palo Alto, Calif. The Oregon State Beavers were in their heyday under legendary coach Ralph Miller. They would win the first of three straight Pac-10 Conference championships that season with an overall record of 26-4. The Beavers’ opponent that day was Stanford, a huge underdog which, realistically, had little chance of winning. But with no shot clock in place, the Cardinal went to a delay game and kept it close throughout before the Beavers squeaked out an 18-16 victory. Later that season in Corvallis, OSU romped to an 85-57 victory. Advertisement Of course, you wouldn’t see such a low-scoring college game now with a 35-second shot clock preventing teams from stalling. But there is no shot clock in Oregon high school basketball, and Ashland High coach Rick Cornelius decided to try his hand at it during the Grizzlies’ matchup against No. 2-ranked South Medford last Friday. The strategy worked well early in the game. Ashland trailed just 8-4 after one period and then scored the first basket of the second quarter to make it 8-6. But South Medford began to force numerous turnovers and went on a 20-4 run to close the first half. The Panthers led 43- 14 after three quarters and eventually posted a 59-26 victory. Unlike most coaches, Cornelius kept his team in a stalling mode even when the Grizzlies fell hopelessly behind. With his team trailing by 29 points, it stalled out the final 1:43 of the third period and didn’t even attempt a shot. What on earth was going on out there? In a nutshell, Cornelius feels as though the Panthers have been having a little too much fun at other teams’ expense. Too many dunks and too much extended pressure when games have gotten out of hand. Cornelius didn’t want his players subjected to such an atmosphere, and if that meant stalling with a 30-point deficit, then so be it. "We didn’t care to be on the receiving end of a 95-31 shellacking, with a full crowd cheering," Cornelius said in reference to South Medford’s 64-point win over North Medford on Dec. 31. "And without the ball, they (South Medford) couldn’t do that." Cornelius said he doesn’t feel a need to defend himself or apologize, and that his players got something out of Friday’s game. "I know that probably doesn’t translate for their fans or coach (Dennis Murphy), but we did some things well," said Cornelius, adding that one of Ashland’s goals was to hold South Medford under 60 points. While I respect Cornelius for his stick-to-itiveness — I’ve never before seen a team stall when trailing by 30 points — I can’t agree with his philosophy. When the verdict is inevitable, let the kids play. I don’t think it matters much to them if they lose by 25 or 50. A day or two later, they’ll be as good as new. Six days after its 64-point loss to South Medford, a fired-up Black Tornado led for much of the first period and late into the first half when it met the Panthers in its conference-opener. WHILE A SHOT CLOCK would reduce the chances of a team like Ashland becoming a giant-killer, I believe most fans and players would favor one. I would guess most high school coaches oppose a clock because it negates one of their strategies. Even Murphy is lukewarm to the idea. But who is the game played for? One coach who likes the clock is Stan Twitchell of Red Bluff High in Northern California. That state uses a 35-second clock. "It’s not so short that it causes chaos or the tempo of a normal game to change, but it’s short enough that a team can’t just stand there and hold the ball," Twitchell says. "Our philosophy is to attack on the fastbreak, and if we don’t get one, then we’ll execute our set (play). You have plenty of time. "Defensively, we tell our kids to play tough defense for 25 seconds, knowing at that point that the other team has to make a move. "The clock doesn’t come into play very often, but a team can still slow a game down tremendously if they choose to. If you take the clock down to five or six seconds on every possession, you could still get the other team out of rhythm." Only seven states — California, Washington, North Dakota, Massachusetts, New York, Rhode Island and Maryland — use a shot clock for high school basketball. Maybe Oregon should become the eighth. Reach reporter Don Hunt at 776-4469, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life Opinion - Politics | AP News | Archives | Site Map E Southern Oregon | Classified Copyright © 1997-2004 Mail Tribune. All rights reserved. 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