Mar 19, 2018 4 min read

College basketball is not broken. As this year’s NCAA men’s tournament has proven, the game probably has never been better.

There are, however, a few tweeks that should be made. Quickly.

The glut of timeouts and video reviews in the final two minutes of close, tension-filled games are ruining what is easily one of the best sporting events.

You know the drill. The whistles blow. The play stops. The arena horn sounds. The student managers rush onto the court carrying padded chairs. The pep band begins playing. The madness grinds to a halt for several minutes.

It’s another timeout.

Repeat the process about a dozen times.

Start, stop. Start, stop.

There are eight media timeouts in every televised college basketball game. And each team can call up to four timeouts per game. That’s too many stoppages.

And let’s call these four built-in timeouts each half exactly what they are: commercial breaks. Calling them media timeouts makes it seem like every sportswriter and broadcaster has a tiny bladder. And there has never been a sportswriter working against a tight deadline who thought a timeout was a brilliant idea.

Let’s face it, college basketball is a slave to television. The NCAA takes the television networks’ big money, so it has to have commercial breaks.

With so many built-in stoppages, wouldn’t it make sense to reduce the number of timeouts each team can call? It was only a few years ago that the NCAA reduced timeouts for each team from five to four. Why stop there? How about three? Or two?

Wouldn’t it make sense that the better-prepared team would have an advantage with fewer timeouts?

Another change that should be made involves video replays. Officials can use video replays in the final two minutes of a game. Apparently, a botched call in the first 38 minutes is not important. The reviews are supposed to be quick fixes but they are dragging on for minutes at a time. Why not limit them to 30 or 60 seconds? If it takes more than a minute to see if a ball went off a player’s fingernail or not, then the play is not worth reviewing. It’s time to resume play.

Because of these too-frequent, too-lengthy video reviews, combined with coaches who have been hoarding their timeouts and feel compelled to use them to micromanage every detail and situation, the final two minutes of games can become a drag for fans. Because of timeouts and video reviews, the final minute of the Marshall-Wichita State game Friday took 18 minutes and 26 seconds to complete. That has to be a record. The last 1:52 of regulation in the Oklahoma-Rhode Island game lasted 19 minutes. And the final 2:06 of the thrilling Michigan-Houston game dragged on for more than 14 minutes.

And they say baseball is too slow.

It’s time to cut the number of timeouts and limit video reviews to 30 seconds.

• The PIAA boys and girls basketball semifinals began last night with 12 games. If you’re scoring at home, parochial or charter schools won six of those games. There are 12 more semifinal games tonight, including Class 4A girls and 2A boys, where each of the four finalists are private schools.

One of Monday’s winners was Neumann-Goretti in Class 3A girls. A Catholic school in Philadelphia, Neumann-Goretti recently added a player, sophomore guard Diamond Johnson, who averaged 33 points per game this season for a school in Virginia. The PIAA approved her transfer March 5.

The PIAA Board of Directors reportedly are in the process of amending the PIAA constitution “to address in-season transfers.” The amendment is scheduled to go into effect in July. The new rule will prevent transfers from playing for 21 calendar days before becoming eligible. Additionally, if the player was eligible to participate for 50 percent of the season at his/her original school, then they will not be eligible for the remainder of the PIAA season.

• The WPIAL softball finals, which have been hosted for many years by California University, will be played at Seton Hill this spring. Renovation at Cal’s Lilley Field forced the move. California, however, will be getting the WPIAL cross country championships next fall.

• Word is the Washington Wild Things are close to having a naming rights partner for their field. An announcement could come this week.

• The high school track and field, baseball, softball and lacrosse seasons begin Friday – weather permitting.

Sports editor Chris Dugan can be reached at dugan@observer-reporter.com.