ADVERTISEMENT

How do we get the Elam Ending in C. Basketball?

I agree with you as far as that being one of the root causes, but as a purist I wanted pitchers to hit even if they sucked at it. I didn't care about their batting average. And working around it by having them bunt or making a double switch was a fun part of managing a complicated NL game. And if you happened to have a couple legit athletes in your rotation it was an extra weapon. It's not like I would quit watching MLB over it (I watch just as much as I used to). I'm just disappointed.

The Elam ending is an interesting idea for a silly side tournament but I would hate switching to that for college basketball.

I don't like or watch the NBA much so whatever they do, who cares.
The NBA did it for their all star game a few years ago. It was the best all star game in years because guys actually played hard when it came down to it instead of dunks and half court shots. I agree that it might not be the right system for NCAA, but is fun for game like the NBA all star game.
 
Love the Elam Ending. Imagine a game where you're focused on getting stops and scoring baskets instead of milking the clock or hacking and fouling to extend the game.

Exactly this.

The last 2 minutes of a close college basketball game is really boring when the foul and extend the game thing starts. I hate it, especially when a team down 14 starts doing it.
 
Sounds like bullshit to me. Take that convention backwards through time over 100+ years and it erases an insanely huge amount of beautiful, edge-of-your-seat basketball in the last ten clock minutes. Including all the best action of our famous v—Duke game.

PLUS it also basically annihilates strategies (such as pressing ) which work their biggest effect by wearing down opponents physically and mentally (and sometimes applies roster pressure: who hasn’t fouled out) over the course of a game but generally don’t have worthwhile effect until the final five minutes.

I have to give up all that because some people don’t like the fact that some coaches (and frankly precious few of them anymore) draw out games at the end? (In a way that frankly generally does heighten the excitement even though it’s a pain for fans of the leading team.)

Honestly, the ELAM thing doesn’t sound terrible and it does sound like an interesting game——IT’S JUST NOT COLLEGE BASKETBALL. For my money people are welcome to go to town trying something like that and I hope it takes off and I might even start tuning into it. But get your own damn game to do it with. That’s not what college basketball is.

It’s been 35+ years since college basketball was at its peak in the late 80s/early 90s and in all that time we STILL haven’t learned that that model wasn’t broke so we should never have tried to fix it. Today’s model is inferior even after you subtract OAD and NIL and portal dancing. When will someone in charge finally realize there’s a connection between screwing with a good thing and the thing not being as good any more? Shouldn’t take Richard Feynman to see that connection.
it would have stopped the UC vs UK in the 80s 4 corners game. Game would have been low scoring but with 4 minutes left uk up 25 to 18, the game now has a shot clock and each possession you can run out your clock or score.

i am a traditionalist but you have to admit college games are horrible down the stretch. foul foul foul foul foul foul. I watched the end of the game before lafamila last night. At 350 mark the game got real good. one team down by 10 plus points and the final score was a 2 pt game. Yes please. i was on the edge of my seat on that game. so at the 4 minute mark of 2nd half or 4th quarter, no time on clock, shot clock as normal, if a team is up 70 to 66 the goal is 78 points first to 78 wins. it might take longer than a game with overtime or it might now but no matter each possession means a ton.

i could see a rule (like this making college basketball a great game again).
 
So, all the things it seeks to eliminate -- fouling to stop the clock, forcing bad free-throw shooters to the line, the winning team looking just to run out the clock to preserve a lead -- would happen at the END OF THE THIRD QUARTER to keep the "pre-ending" score close, or stretch it out, rather than at the end of the fourth quarter.

Think about it: Five minutes to go in the third quarter and you are down 12 points. You'd employ all the tactics you now use to close a gap and have a shot at winning in the fourth quarter in order to keep the game close at the end of the third quarter before the Elam Ending. You'd have even more incentive to do so because now some games are basically conceded by the last 3-5 minutes. But with the Elam Ending, you'd always want to at least try to narrow the score to keep the game alive as long as possible.

The Elam Ending only SEEMS to work occasionally now because lots of coaches haven't figured out how to manipulate it. In the end, it'd have the same flaws while eliminating exciting overtimes and last minute drama. Sounds like a plan created by a subcommittee of bureaucrats in Washington.

The Marshall team came back on the Auburn team to win during the Elam portion of the game. It doesn't help or hurt either team. If you hit shots and defend, you'll win.

The current end of game tactics are all about the time remaining. Getting more possessions via fouling. Limiting possessions by playing stall-ball. The Elam ending, to me at least, seems to force teams to play the same way they have been throughout the game.
 
Elam is fine for games or tournaments that are not "professional".

I would never support it being used for an NBA or NCAA game.
 
  • Like
Reactions: KFuqua
They should do both.
If game is close with 4 minutes left, play to buzzer.
If it's a blowout, then you Elam and get on home.

I watched the game where Auburn alums choked 9 point lead away. It was strangely dull. It doesn't work on close games. But it is more exciting on big leads. The final basket is celebrated and get the game over with already. Traditionalists shouldn't care how a 15 point loss ends. Old shyts would just find something else to butch about.

And of course, nothing beats a buzzer beater. Close games, I want to see a heave or clear out. Strategy of going for win or tie. Overtimes.
 
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT