Alcia Tally (center) is pictured trying to retain possession of the basketball as she is being chocked by a University player at the Southwestern (Shelby) Regional contest Saturday. (By Travis David/Greene County Daily World).

First off, I would like to start out by saying congratulations to the White River Valley girls basketball season for another outstanding season. The season may have ended a couple games sooner than what they would have wished for, but another conference title, sectional title and an 18-5 record is nothing to be ashamed of.

Now for the purpose of these words. I have been contemplating for some time now if high school basketball would benefit from having some sort of shot clock. After watching the Lady Wolverines have their season end for the second straight season at the hands of University at the Southwestern (Shelby) Regional Saturday morning, I pondered over this thought some more.

With the game tied at 46-apiece and just under four minutes remaining in the game, University choose to run a stall offense. Most teams run this offense with a lead late in the game to milk the clock, or to slow down a high-powered offense throughout the game. It can also be known as the Ron McBride offense (just kidding coach McBride). But University proceeded to run over two minutes off the clock before running any kind of motion offense or set play. The play did eventually work, as they ended up with a player slipping behind the Wolverines defense for an easy lay-up and a two point advantage.

Now coach Pigg could have chosen to use the same tactic and have one final shot with about 95 seconds left to force the game into overtime, but his offense went to work and quickly knotted the contest up with 1:23 left on the game clock.

So without saying, it was to no surprise that University would once again turn to their stall offense for a final shot to win the game. The LadyBlazers held the ball until about 10 seconds were left on the clock, fired a contested 3-pointer, got an offensive rebound and drew a foul with :0.6 remaining in the game. The University player calmly walked to the line and swished home the first attempt before intentionally missing the second for the game winning shot -- a shot that ended the season for the Wolverines.

Now I am not saying this is not smart coaching on the part of University -- it's actually pretty smart thinking and taking advantage of what I would call a broken system. In my opinion, there is a time limit set to inbound the ball and to bring the ball across the timeline and even a time limit to shoot a free-throw, so why not put a limit on getting a shot off,? Even if it's a 45 second shot clock.

You have a three referee system now, or three blind mice according to Joe Hart. You hear most critics claim that most of the time you have two refs making all the calls and the third ref just playing spectator cause it's not in "his area", who will occasionally blow his whistle because he feels he needs to do something. So monitoring a shot clock would be a good responsibility for this referee.

I am not saying that having a shot clock would have changed the outcome in Saturday's regional tilt for the Lady Wolverines, but I think it would make the game that much more interesting.

Another rule that I feel needs to go is the "held ball" or "jump ball rule". So many times you will see the ball change possessions because one player got out rebounded and they throw a hand on the ball and a jump ball is called and the ball goes to the team with the possession arrow in their favor. Many times in the process of an opponent latching onto the ball, secured by another player, there is a foul committed that is hardly ever called.

In the picture used for this column, WRV's Alicia Tally (middle) is pictured with possession of a loose ball. The picture also clears shows the University defender laying virtually on top of Tally with one had on the ball and her other arm in a choke hold position on Tally.

Even on the wrestling mat this technique would mostly be whistled by the referee. But you guessed it, in this circumstance there was not foul but instead a jump ball was ruled and the possession arrow was in favor of University.

Now I would not say that the rule needs to go completely, as the same rule is in place at the college level, but I would like to see more fouls called in this instance when a player is obviously out of control and just hoping for a jump ball to be called. Maybe a more logical scenario would be to have a real jump ball for all jump ball situations, like the way that professional basketball stills uses.

These are two rules in which will probably never get switched, but just thought I would share my two cents anyway.

Travis David is a sports writer at the Greene County Daily World and can be reached at (812) 847-4474 ext. 20 or at tdavid@gcdailyworld.com