LaxTV Forums | A Forum About The MCLA

October 13, 2005
Mike Keegan

It’s not an official rule, and the NCAA didn’t ask them to experiment with it.

So it was simply out of their own curiosity that the teams at the MRB Buckeye Classic at “The Ohio State University” played their games with a 60-second shot clock, no substitution horns, and timeouts could be called anywhere on the field.

OSU coach Joe Breschi, who’s Buckeyes played Maryland and the Michigan USLIA team, said it pushed the pace of the game and increased the shot totals for both teams, much to the enjoyment of the fans in attendance.

“I thought [the shot clock] was great,” says Breschi. “One common thought for [Terps coach] Dave Cottle and me is that it should be a little longer, maybe 90 seconds instead if 60. Once you’ve finished clearing and making substitutions, you’ve only got about 20 seconds left, so there wasn’t much continuity on offense.”

Even with increased shot totals, it didn’t dramatically increase the scoring in the game. In fact, Maryland and Ohio State tied 7-7 with a shot clock. A week later, when the Terps and Buckeyes met again in St. Louis without a shot clock, the score was 10-7.

Both Cottle and Butler coach Stan Ross—whose Bulldogs also played at the Classic—felt something else was needed to help the offense. If a team rides hard, it could take 20 seconds to clear the ball. That doesn’t leave much time to get into a rhythm on offense. Then when the shot clock winds down, defenses could settle into a tight zone, forcing a low-percentage outside shot. Both Cottle and Ross mentioned a two-point shot as a possibility to help discourage defenses from packing it in. Ross mentioned removing the longstick midfielder as a possibility, but added that he’d hate to see that happen.

“If you took the pole away it would help the offense,” says Ross. “But that would take something away from the game.”