College Basketball: Would Shortening the Shot Clock Improve Men's College Hoops?

There's something about watching college basketball that can be so intriguing. 

Whether it's watching boys become men, looking for the next NBA star or simply enjoying a little ball, March Madness is more than just a time killer between football seasons.

However, after watching UConn and Butler grind it out for the NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship in an otherwise uninspiring game, something painfully obvious but typically ignored stuck out like a sore thumb.

The next night, a high-scoring and exciting game between Texas A&M and Notre Dame for the women's national championship made the men's game an afterthought to those who truly appreciated the tempo of the game (and not the gender).

So, what makes men's hoops such a drag at times? 

For starters, it's the long, drawn-out possessions thanks to a 35-second shot clock. That's a long time to set up a play compared to the 30 seconds the women have and an even bigger leap to the NBA's 24-second shot clock.

In men's hoops, the team on offense has 10 seconds to cross the half-court line, still leaving them with 25 more seconds to make a play. 

The result: Players just dribbling and passing around for 15-20 seconds before even considering taking a shot.

At its slowest, men's games tend to hover around only 68 possessions per game compared to 80 for women and 100 in the NBA (per 40 minutes).

Another problem with such a long shot clock is the outcome of the game is generally decided earlier. 

In the NBA, teams can be down by seven to nine points with two minutes left and still stand a decent chance to come back because they still have potentially four or five possessions left.

In college, being down by that much typically means the game is over. Winning teams can hold the ball a lot longer resulting in earlier fouling and more free throws. 

Why should teams who are within single digits have to start fouling at the two-minute mark? The answer to that is they only have two or three possessions left.

One other thing that would make the games flow faster in college is if the shot clock didn't jump all the way back to 35 seconds after a foul. 

In the NBA, if a kicked ball, a punched ball, a common foul requiring no free-throw attempts or an illegal defense requiring no free-throw attempts occurs before the 14-second mark, the clock stays the same. If there's less than 14 seconds left on the shot clock, it is put back on 14 seconds, not 24.

In college, a defensive foul moves the clock all the way back to 35 seconds leading to another long, drawn-out possession where players can waste even more time just standing and dribbling around.

Moving the clock back to perhaps 20 seconds if it's already past that mark would help move the game along faster and possibly add a little more intrigue at the end of games.

In the end, basketball is one of the most exciting sports to watch in college. The fact that 68 teams get a chance to earn a national championship adds a lot more intrigue than football (where a committee determines which two teams get to play for a championship, and it often depends more on who will draw more viewers).

However, it's time the NCAA considered a few changes to add a little more excitement to the game. 

Simply changing the shot clock from 35 to 30 seconds would make all the difference in the world without much sacrifice.

As popular as college hoops and March Madness are, imagine how much better it would be with quicker-paced games and more anxiety in the final few minutes of close games. 

What do you think?