Is running clock or three quarters better basketball mercy rule?

Blowouts in high school basketball are a fairly common occurrence.

There are nights like what Corbin faced against North Laurel, where desperation mode kicks in as a team tries to dig out from a nine or ten point deficit by throwing up bad shots, leading to an ever-increasing hole.

Then you have games like Thursday night between Corbin and Lynn Camp on the girls’ side where it is ugly early and only gets worse from there.

The Lady Redhounds ended up winning, 72-14.

Corbin put on a similar performance Friday night against Williamsburg, winning, 74-17.

On any given night, you can go down the statewide scoreboard on the Kentucky High School Athletic Association website scoreboard and find multiple lopsided scores.

Just looking at the boys’ action from Dec. 16, you see scores like: 75-37, 62-31, 85-45, 58-13…

You get the picture.

While there is a running clock mercy rule in basketball similar to football, the magic number start it is 35 points at halftime.

It may be time to revise that, or possibly, consider a mercy rule where the game ends after three quarters when the lead reaches a certain point.

Yes, losing builds character and players on the winning side need to be able to do it good character as well.

With few exceptions, because there are always exceptions, coaches of the winning team will use the blowout as an opportunity to empty the bench and get the younger players some varsity experience in a situation with no pressure, or allow the kids that are short on talent but long on heart some extended time on the floor.

Referees will let the game go to keep the clock moving once the game starts to get out of hand so long as there are no blatant or hard fouls.

But there has got to be a way to reach the end more quickly than playing out the four quarters, or, at least, starting the running clock sooner.

In a discussion in the newsroom, Editor Mark White suggested starting to run the clock when the deficit reaches 30.

I’m wondering about a rule similar to baseball and softball.

In those sports, the game is called at the end of the inning, or, if the visiting team is trailing, after they have been to the plate when the threshold is reached after three innings.

Emptying the bench isn’t an option for a number of teams in those sports, because the bench is pretty much empty when they take the field.

Could a blowout basketball game be called at the end of the third quarter if a team is leading by more than a certain margin?

The next question becomes what margin do you set that leads to the officials telling the coaches that the game will end after three quarters.

In football the magic number is 36 to kick in the running clock.

While the only thing certain in the sports world is that at any given moment or in any given competition, you are likely to see a first, including a team scoring five unanswered touchdowns to come back and tie the score after finding itself down by 36 points, it is very much unlikely.

The probability is, that if you continue to play the game normally, the winning team is going to be approaching a basketball scoring night. Someone would eventually, “flip the scoreboard,” by putting up over 99 points.

Assuming a team kicks the extra point on each possession, that would require 15 touchdowns over 32 minutes on the game clock in addition to the opposing team getting a possession in between.

Baseball and softball use the 10-run rule.

Double-digit comebacks happen in basketball on a fairly regular basis, especially with the three-point shot.

Would 30 points still be too high of a margin to reach before running the clock? Would 25 be too low?

Would you then see coaches leaving the starters in and bombing away in an attempt to hit that threshold?

Like everything else, I’m sure you could find some coaches that would see hitting the margin as a badge of honor for the team and striving for it.

Though I think most coaches know their own team could find themselves on the other side of the scoreboard on any given night and don’t want to invite smiting from the basketball gods.

Give credit to the high school athletes that know going in that they are likely going to lose the upcoming game, possibly badly, but go out onto the field or court fired up and ready to play.

But the mercy rule needs some tweaking.