City of Basketball Love

Joseph Santoliquito (@JSantoliquito)

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Mike Doyle remembers sitting at home watching ESPN during spring break his sophomore year at Philadelphia Textile (now currently Thomas Jefferson University) in the mid-1980s. It was then that it struck the legendary Penncrest coach the seismic hoops news that scrolled across the ticker at the bottom of the screen that the NCAA would be implementing the three-point shot.

A few minutes later, Doyle received a call from Textile Hall of Fame coach Herb Magee, telling him to be at the school gym the next morning. At 8 a.m., the pair got out a 12-inch ruler to measure out 19-feet, 9-inches, the distance the NCAA would originally put on the three-point arc. Magee then proceeded to hit about a hundred shots in a row.

So, on Wednesday, July 16, when the seismic news hit that the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association (PIAA) would possibly be instituting a 35-second shot clock starting in the 2028-29 season, the area’s top coaches knew quickly how to react.

The PIAA Board of Directors approved a shot clock by a 22-9 vote on a first reading on an amendment to its bylaws. In 2021, a National Federation of State High School Associations committee voted to adopt a 35-second shot clock, though allowed individual state associations to choose for themselves.

Pennsylvania has been lagging woefully behind the rest of the country, with 31 states playing with a shot clock, and Washington, D.C. about to join them for the 2026-27 season.

In 2022, the PIAA voted against adding the shot clock. As recently as last month, the PIAA basketball steering committee voted down the idea of a shot clock.

Even though the July 16 vote passed, it does not necessarily mean the PIAA will move to a shot clock for all varsity and junior varsity games.

The shot clock motion still must pass two more readings.

As a precaution, Doyle, like many other area coaches, is preparing for life with the shot clock.

“Coaches always adjust to rule changes and I’m taking the same approach today Coach Magee took then,” said Doyle, who will have a very good team back this season. “We’re already thinking about ways to make our team better. I can’t remember any committee ever in my life going against a steering committee in any area of life, business, sports or otherwise. That came as a bit of a surprise. But we’re ready for it. We knew it was coming, and we have been tinkering with ideas as a staff how we will play with the shot clock.”

Doyle feels there will be a big learning curve at first in dealing with the shot clock. In 2020, the Inter-Academic League introduced a 30-second shot clock.

Malvern Prep’s Paul Romanczuk is entering his fifth season as Friars’ head coach and feels the shot clock should not make that much of a difference in how today’s game is played.

The shot clock is at every level of basketball, and is used internationally.

“I don’t think you have to change your coaching philosophy by much,” Romanczuk said about playing with the shot clock. “Coaches will have to release a little control to the players to go make plays. They will need to speed things up. Slow offenses that work the (game) clock until a defense makes a mistake, those days will be gone pretty much.

“I don’t think coaches will have to completely overhaul what they do. I don’t think the shot clock does not play a huge factor. When we play, I would say that there is less than one shot clock violation a game, but then, the Inter-Ac has been playing with it for the last five years. There will be a learning curve at first, and you don’t have to foul as early when you’re down late.”

Romanczuk made an interesting point about a bigger picture here that relates to being a high school coach.

“I think the biggest job for us as coaches is to prepare our players for the next level, and that’s college, and for life,” he said. “The best way to prepare them is to play a similar game as they do in college. I think we would be doing these kids a disservice if we didn’t play with a shot clock.”

Some coaches have questioned why the wait until the 2028-29 season. 

The biggest reason is it could be a costly proposition. According to numerous athletic directors, along with published reports, implementing the equipment for a shot clock could run in the range of $5,000 to $20,000, which depends on how advanced the shot clock system is.

Then, there is the cost of paying someone who knows basketball and knows how to operate the shot clock.

Ben Dubin, the Public League Chairman and Frankford’s Athletic Director, realizes the financial shortcomings the Philadelphia Public League faces. He likes the idea of a shot clock. He feels there may be a way to implement a shot clock at much cheaper costs.

“Ultimately, if this passes, everyone will have to find a way to make it work,” said Dubin, who has been Public League Chairman for about a decade. “I think, generally speaking, a shot clock is good for high school basketball. Knowing the Philadelphia Public League and how teams play, I don’t think a shot clock will come into play that often.

“I will say there are teams outside of the Public League where the ball is held for minutes at a time, and that will benefit our teams when they reach the state tournament. I can’t imagine the cost of the shot clock will fall on individual schools. We are up 69 schools in the Public League right now.

“There will be no way around this. We’ll make it work. We have time to make this happen.”

Chris Roantree, head coach of the defending Philadelphia Catholic League and PIAA Class 6A state champion Father Judge, has been a long proponent of the shot clock. Roantree said the Catholic League coaches had two chances to vote on a shot clock before the PIAA began this move, and voted it down.

“I think it’s good for the game, and good for the kids, because every level of basketball plays with a shot clock,” he said. “We have had experience playing with shot clocks, playing sometimes out of league games. I’m personally in favor of the shot clock. It doesn’t allow teams to play stall ball, which you don’t see much of in the Catholic League. I think it will help the end of games, where if you take a lead into the fourth quarter, it doesn’t allow you to bleed leads.

“It will streamline the game. The difference will come in the end of games.”

Like Roantree, Imhotep Charter renowned coach Andre Noble has wanted to play with a shot clock for years. Noble, owner of over 500 career victories, 10 state championships, four-straight Philadelphia Public League and District 12 titles, and an all-time Philadelphia Public League high 13 championships in the last 16 years, sees a far better game played under a shot clock.

“I’m cautiously optimistic, because two more votes have to happen,” he said. “There are two more reads, which are required, so this isn’t over yet. It’s not a done deal. But I am very much in favor of the shot clock. I think playing with a shot clock is closer to the game. We play so many games where we play chase, and we’re not playing basketball.

“I am not mad at playing chase. Hey, we’re guilty of it, too, when teams are packing it in. But it’s not basketball. When we get up, and we force teams to come out, that’s not basketball. It’s why I am pro shot clock.

“Games are so much cleaner and better with a shot clock, and both teams have to play. It would make zones more effective. What bothers me is people think the shot clock favors more athletic teams. Teams that play pack-line styles, tight in gaps, it forces more athletic teams to shoot. If you’re a heavy zone team, more athletic teams can’t hold the ball. They have to shoot. It forces coaches and players to make more adjustments and actually play the game of basketball—and not play chase.”

The legendary Gregg Downer, among the deans of area coaches and winner of over 700 games at Lower Merion, three PIAA state championships and the last District 1 boys’ team to win a state title, is okay with the shot clock. Getting the high school game universal is important.

“In our case, we play fast and there will be minor adjustments in games with a shot clock,” Downer said. “I have a long history of deflating the ball, shortening the game, and running a lot of four corners, but they came in games where I thought we were eight- to 12-point underdogs. Straight up, we play plenty fast where the shot clock should not be an issue.

“I believe the shot clock will happen. There is an expense to this. We knew it was coming. People don’t want to sit through deflated clocks and ball control. I had a sense the shot clock was coming sooner. Coaches adjust. I watched some films of Inter-Ac games.”

Like Magee grabbing a ruler 40 years ago to measure out the three-point line.

The great ones adjust.

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Joseph Santoliquito is an award-winning sportswriter based in the Philadelphia area who began writing for CoBL in 2021 and is the president of the Boxing Writers Association of America. He can be followed on BlueSky here.