Is it time for a shot clock?

The NBA has a shot clock. So do all levels of college basketball and at least some travel leagues.

But should high school have one?

A few local coaches and a couple of star players would like it. At least one coach questions its implementation.

The National Federation of State High School Associations Basketball Rules Committee did not approve a national rule mandating a shot clock or allowing individual states to adopt a shot clock at its annual meeting.

“The committee will continue to explore the shot clock issue,” Theresia Wynns, NFHS director of sports and liaison to the Basketball Rules Committee, said in a statement on the NFHS website.

The WIAA Board of Control in 2017 approved a 35-second shot clock on a 6-4 vote, then rescinded the move on a 7-3 vote. It would have been implemented in the 2019-2020 season.

Grafton High School boys’ basketball coach Damon James, who coached with a shot clock at Division I and II college teams, supports adding one to high school.

“I definitely would love to see the high school game process to kind of be parallel to the college game,” he said.

James said 35 seconds would be long enough at the high school level. The NBA has a 24-second clock, and college has had a 30-second clock since 2016. A 45-second clock was implemented in 1985 and shortened to 35 in 1993.

“It continues to grow the game from a mindset of learning how to play basketball,” James said. “From a coaching standpoint, I would love to do it ... talk about adding more schemes to games.”

James’ best player in the four years he has coached the Black Hawks agrees.

Alex Huibregtse, named the North Shore Conference Player of the Year who averaged 24.2 points per game during his senior season, supports a limit on how much time it takes for a team to run an offense in high school.

 “I think it would speed the game up a lot,” he said. “There would be no stall ball, which is a huge thing here in Wisconsin. It kind of takes away the fun of the game.”

 Clock or not, slow, methodical play is not the Hawks’ strategy under James.

“We like to get up and down the court and let the kids play,” James said. “That’s just the team we were, the team we had.”

Despite playing fast, Huibregtse still sunk two-thirds of his two-pointers and nearly half of this three-pointers. He believes a 30 or 35-second clock would suffice at the high-school level.

 Huibregtse will play at Wright State in Dayton, Ohio, next season, and already has experience with a shot clock during summers with the Wisconsin Youth Basketball League.

“It was really fun. You just get up and down. Players have to play with good instincts,” he said.

 Beyond the players and coaches, a clock would offer another benefit, he said.

“I think it would get a lot more fans to games. It would be more entertaining,” Huibregtse said.

One of the players Huibregtse faced in high school is on the same side on this issue. Port Washington graduate Evan Lilly, who will play for the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse next season, wants a shot clock as well. He averaged 15.5 points per game, set school single-season and career records for three-pointers and made the NSC third team.

 “Honestly, I think it would be pretty beneficial for everyone. A lot of teams play at the pace where a 30-second shot clock wouldn’t matter,” he said.

For the teams to whom it would make a difference, “I think you’d see a lot more high-scoring games, more possessions,” Lilly said.

 Lilly would have enjoyed that.

“I’d never pass up more shots,” he said.

 Ozaukee High School boys’ coach Bob Domach said a shot clock wouldn’t change the game much.

“If you break down game film, the majority of teams shoot in almost 15 to 17 seconds,” he said. “There are very few teams at the high school level that grind it out.”

The proposals Domach has heard only implement the clock at the varsity level. If a shot clock is adopted, Domach said, he wants to see it at all high school levels, from junior varsity through varsity, especially since some players see game time at multiple levels during the week.

Without a shot clock, however, small schools have a better shot against larger and more skilled teams, reminiscent of legendary Dick Bennett’s UW-Green Bay teams knocking off big-time programs.

“If you run 45 seconds off the clock every time and shoot well, you’ve got a chance to beat them,” Domach said.

The issue for a small school such as Ozaukee, he said, is staffing and money. Sometimes, it’s hard enough just to get someone to run the clock. Adding a person to monitor the shot clock and paying them an estimated $40 per game would be a challenge.

“These school districts don’t have endless cash,” he said.

Cedar Grove-Belgium High School boys’ coach Josh Ketterhagen is in favor of a shot clock, although he agreed that equipping the gyms with clocks and paying someone to run them would be a concern.

“It would be fun to coach in that type of environment,” Ketterhagen said.

 But he isn’t convinced it would lead to higher-scoring games.

“I think there would be a lower field goal percentage. Until people figured it out, you’d see a lot more shots that are not very good shots,” he said.

Grafton High School girls’ coach Matt D’Amato coached a college club team with a 35-second clock and would like one in high school.

“It would be good to have one for nothing less than just to stop those situations where certain teams get a lead and they just dribble the rest of the half out,” he said.

“It makes me cringe when you see those videos It’s sacrificing the competitiveness of the game just to get a win. My opinion is to just let them play.”

Knowing a clock is ticking, D’Amato said, defenses would press more to slow down teams. The point guard may be under more pressure to get the team into a rhythm, and all the players would have to be able to handle the ball.

For most teams, it wouldn’t be a big deal, D’Amato said. His college club team got about one shot clock violation every three games. If the clock forces bad shots, then the focus would be on rebounding, he said.

And adopting a shot clock in high school would help players prepare for the next level.

“There’s a shot clock in college. At least have the concept of a shot clock ready so it’s not completely foreign to them,” D’Amato said.

One of the biggest changes a shot clock would bring is at end of games when teams can’t just run out the clock and may instead try to get off a quick shot knowing they’ll get the ball back again for the final possession. Coaches agreed adding that layer of strategy would be a blast.

“That’s when it really gets fun. As coaches we really would just have to grow in our craft,” James said.