New high school varsity format is a one-year trial
The WIAA voted to change high school basketball from quarters to halves Thursday.
The new format to two 18-minute halves – from 8-minute quarters – adds four minutes to the game, but the rule isn’t set in stone. This is a one-year trial. The WIAA Board of Control passed the change on a 7-4 vote.
The new format makes sense – except for it being on a trial basis – as it brings the high school game closer to the college and club levels.
This, however, isn’t the first time Wisconsin has tried this experiment. In 2009-10, the WIAA gave coaches the option of using 16-minute halves for regular season, nonconference games.
“There wasn’t a widespread use of the experiment option that year,” WIAA associate director Deb Hauser, who overseas basketball, told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “Those who tried it liked it.”
It’s only taken Wisconsin a decade to catch up to Minnesota with 18-minute halves. The MSHSL changed to this rule nearly a decade ago with no problems.
Not much changes about the game, except that coaches will have to be savvier with timeouts. The four extended minutes means very little in the grand scheme, as it’s just two minutes per half.
Parents won’t have to worry about games going longer into the night, either, as those quarter breaks take more time than an extra two minutes a half.
The flow of the game could also improve without those breaks. It also ends teams holding the ball for the final minute of those quarters, as often happens.