For a person who’s rarely short of opinions, I can’t determine if I’m for or against a recent decision adopted by the Minnesota State High School League.The MSHSL Board of Directors passed a motion to lengthen high school basketball games starting next winter.Instead of playing 32-minute games divided into four eight-minute quarters, teams in the state will compete in 36-minute games that will consist of two 18-minute halves.The games will be four minutes longer, with the only break coming at halftime, with the exception of timeouts allotted to the teams. My initial reaction was, "Here we go again." The MSHSL doesn’t have a perfect track record when it comes to tinkering with the game of basketball (the ill-fated no-foul-out rule in the early 1980s, and the Sweet 16 state tournament format in the 1990s come to mind).So, naturally I was skeptical when I heard the winds of change were blowing through the MSHSL’s Board of Directors’ room once again.However, after talking with two area coaches (one who likes the change and another who is undecided), I can’t decide which side of the fence I fall on with this issue.It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out the new format will favor the bigger schools with a larger talent pool to draw from. The more depth a team has, the more successful it will be in longer games.Yet, after talking to Adrian’s Randy Strand, the head coach of a girls’ basketball program that competes in the state’s smallest class, I was surprised to find out he has embraced the change."I like it," Strand went on record to say."We’re using it (18-minutes halves) in our summer league right now. It will be an opportunity to get more kids some playing time."Strand would have liked the MSHSL to give coaches an extra timeout or two as a part of the new deal (teams still will be awarded three full timeouts and two 30-second timeouts each game), but that didn’t happen.Now that the squads will be asked to play longer games with fewer breaks, improving the physical endurance of each player and building team depth with be top priorities for coaching staffs throughout the state."You won’t get quarter breaks any more, and there will be no more timeouts available to you, so you’ll have to cover yourself in that respect. The kids will just have to be in better shape. As a coach, you better start building some depth," Strand said.After guiding the Luverne Cardinals to a third-place finish in the Class AA state tournament last March, LHS boys’ coach Tom Rops has mixed feelings about the timing format."I’m not opposed to it, but 18-minute halves are plenty long," he said."It will give more kids playing time, and it will change coaching strategy a little bit. But I thought the system we had was working pretty good."Rops thinks playing 18-minute halves may have worked against his Cardinals last season.When LHS played Benson in the section championship game, the Cardinals found themselves on the short end of some physical match-ups in the paint. Luverne was able to overcome a six-point deficit in the final six minutes of play by hitting some crucial shots and draining clutch free throws, but the Cards didn’t have to protect the lead they gained late in the game two minutes longer like they would have under the new system."It possibly could have (influenced our team last season), Rops said. "Benson had a lot of horses down low, and we would’ve had to play against them for four more minutes. It might have made a difference."Like Strand, Rops feels the teams with more depth will be the ones to benefit from playing 38-minute games next winter. The way he sees it, Luverne should be one of those teams.Rops, however, doesn’t have a short memory.It wasn’t so long ago when LHS wasn’t able to reach the .500 mark during the basketball season, and some of those trying campaigns would have been even more challenging if the games were four minutes longer."I think it will hurt the chances of upsets happening. The teams that have the athletes will be fine. The teams that don’t have the athletes will have to play well for a longer period of time to get their upset. In the David and Goliath match-ups, it’s going to be harder for David to win," he said.After discussing the issue of expanded play with Rops and Strand, I still can’t decide if the new system will be good or bad for the game.On one hand, I like the idea of having more athletes playing a role of a team’s fortune on the court. On the other hand, I don’t think playing longer games will be fair for the smaller schools. Many area teams find it hard to put together a seven- or eight-player rotation for 32-minute games. Adding more minutes to a game will work against those teams.As for you casual basketball fans, let me plant two seeds in your minds before deciding which side of the fence you fall on concerning this issue.You will get the chance to watch your favorite team compete four minutes longer every time you attend a game. During the course of that game, you’re only going to get two chances (instead of four) to witness the players attempt those last-second shots that seem to capture everyone’s attention on winter nights.
