KHSAA board member from Lexington seeks further debate on basketball shot clock
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- The KHSAA board deferred a vote on basketball shot clocks to Sept. 18.
- Triennial survey showed 150 of 252 schools don’t support statewide shot clock use.
Although a majority of its member schools oppose the adoption of a shot clock in boys and girls basketball, the Kentucky High School Athletic Association Board of Control held off rejecting the game-management device outright for upcoming seasons during its regularly scheduled July meeting Friday at the Hyatt Regency in Louisville.
Board president-elect Damon Kelley, Paul Laurence Dunbar’s athletic director and a former West Jessamine boys basketball coach, made a motion to table a vote on the shot clock until the board reconvenes on Sept. 18.
“I think it’s time we (the board) take a vote on it. We’ve done nothing but surveys to this point,” Kelley told the Herald-Leader after the meeting adjourned. “I’m not speaking for the board. I’m speaking for myself. I think we need to move basketball forward in our state.”
Kelley said he would advocate for a broader debate about the shot clock by the board at its next meeting.
In the KHSAA’s latest triennial survey of its membership, 150 of 252 responding schools rejected statewide adoption of a shot clock unless the National Federation of State High School Associations makes it a nationwide mandate before the KHSAA’s next survey period. At the same time, those schools favored letting limited local experimentation with shot clocks continue.
The NFHS voted in 2021 to let its member associations adopt a shot clock for varsity and other levels. At the time, eight states had them in use. According to a Fox Sports report earlier this year, 31 states and Washington, D.C., will use a shot clock at least at some levels this coming season. Most states have adopted a 35-second clock.
“We are not on the cutting edge of this, but our schools don’t appear to want it, right now,” KHSAA commissioner Julian Tackett told the board during its Thursday work session, a day before Kelley’s motion. Tackett could not speculate on when the NFHS might make shot clocks universal. “But every year, the vote gets a little closer.”
Proponents of the shot clock argue it prevents stalling as a game strategy and better prepares players for its use at higher levels. The NCAA has had a shot clock since 1985.
Barriers to adoption of the shot clock include costs to purchase them and put them up at every school and the need for an additional official or volunteer to run them at each game.
“Maybe 40 years ago there were probably people against the 3-point line,” Kelley said. “(The shot clock) is out there. It’s an option. I think it’s time we see if the board is interested in going that route.”
Without a shot clock, Kentucky’s top 50 boys scoring teams averaged more than 68 points per 32-minute game last season, led by Martin County’s 79.9. The top 50 boys defensive teams held opponents to 55 points or less, led by Foundation Christian Academy’s 35.6. Only 15 of Kentucky’s 275 boys basketball playing schools held opponents to under 50 points per game.
As a point of comparison, NCAA Division I teams averaged 77 points scored and 73.7 points allowed per game last season over 40 minutes with a 30-second shot clock in use.
On the girls side, there were fewer points scored and allowed last season, but high school teams still let fly. The top 50 girls scoring teams averaged better than 57.7 points per game, led by Sacred Heart’s 72.6. The top 50 girls defenses allowed fewer than 44 points per game, led by Model at 32.8. Only 19 girls teams allowed fewer than 40 points per game last season.
Other decisions and considerations before the board this week included:
- Making way for the new NFHS mandated double first base for the 2026-27 baseball season. The double first base has already been phased in for softball as a safety measure to reduce collisions between runners and fielders. Kentucky schools can begin using them as soon as this season with consent from opponents. The KHSAA’s triennial survey already indicated broad support for the double bag with 135 schools in favor of adopting it for baseball next season. Another 32 were in favor of adopting it in two years. Only 70 voted against the measure.
- Tackett confirmed an agreement for Lexington Sporting Club to host the boys and girls state soccer championship games at its stadium this fall. A deal for a major college site to host the semifinal rounds for each gender will be finalized soon, Tackett said. Member schools favored by a vote of 142-72 keeping the semifinals at a “close to the center of the state” site rather than giving semifinal hosting rights based on how the brackets might turn out.
- The KHSAA will change the nomenclature of the boys and girls lacrosse postseasons to make the first two rounds of playoffs “district” rounds instead of regionals. The next round before the state semifinals will be declared the “region” championships, a structure similar to football. The new naming conventions do not change the actual structure of the postseasons as they existed in their first year of sanctioned play. Additionally, boys and girls lacrosse regular-season games that finish in a tie after regulation time will not go to a tiebreaker unless the game is part of an in-season tournament.
- The KHSAA staff will prepare proposals to divide the boys and girls state tennis championships into a state first round and state final round format to deal with scheduling issues and the declining number of suitable tennis facilities for the events in Central Kentucky. Scheduling and crowd concerns prompted the KHSAA to take similar measures for golf and swimming in recent years. Both golf and swimming hold state first round events at various sites around the state to group participating schools into geographic pods in order to narrow the fields for their respective state final rounds.
- The KHSAA determined via its triennial survey that there’s sufficient interest in girls flag football, pickleball and stunt (a type of cheerleading competition) to designate those sports as “candidacy” activities for future sanctioning. The board directed KHSAA staff to provide support and gather additional data from each sport’s organizers. A number of Louisville-area schools fielded girls flag football teams last fall and the triennial survey indicated 40 schools are interested in participating if the KHSAA sanctions it. Forty-two schools said they would enter a pickleball team if the sport was taken up by the KHSAA next year. Though only 27 schools expressed interest in stunt next session, the survey indicated those numbers might improve in the coming years.
- Backstroke wedges will be allowed at state championship races for swimming if all three state first round sites have them available next season. If one site cannot supply them, none of the sites will use them, KHSAA staff said. Backstroke wedges offer firmer footing off the wall at the start of the race.
- The Lexington Legends will be invited to a future meeting to present its plan to host future baseball state tournaments. The KHSAA is in the midst of a multi-year deal with the University of Kentucky. However, when UK advances in the NCAA postseason, it can create conflicts that have resulted in the KHSAA using Legends Field as an alternative site.
