It’s that time of year again.  The 2023 NCAA basketball tournament brackets are out, and it’s time to enter a bracket contest and make your picks.  While this will be the third consecutive year that I am posting something on this blog related to March Madness, I wanted to introduce a new concept here for you to think about when you are watching the games.  While the format of college basketball games remains unchanged with two 20-minute halves, an idea regarding a new way to end basketball games in the future seems to be quietly gaining some traction.  This alternative, known as the Elam Ending, has me wondering what would happen if the NCAA used this method at the end of the game.

Before I get into the Elam Ending, I would at least like to take a moment to mention my previous March Madness entries on this blog.  My March Madness post from 2021 focuses on the long-standing tradition between my friend Brian and myself of picking winners based entirely on which school’s mascot would beat the other school’s mascot.  (For example, who would win between a Wildcat and an Aggie?)  And my March Madness post from 2022 provides other lessons on how to predict the winners (such as picking teams that wear blue, or picking the Peacocks to win on National Peacock Day).  Feel free to re-visit these posts for general tips on how to fill out your 2023 bracket.  But, after you fill out your bracket and the games actually start, here’s some more food for thought for when you are watching the end of one of the upcoming NCAA tournament games…

As great as basketball is, there is one aspect about the end of a game that can be frustrating to watch.  In many games, one team is behind by a few points and resorts to fouling the other team several times, thus dragging out the end of the game unnecessarily in a futile attempt to come back.  How often do we see one team ahead by 6 points or so with about a minute left, and then the last minute of the game drags on for over 10 minutes with an endless parade of free throws and timeouts?  Generally (not always, but generally), this endless string of fouls and free throws does nothing to change the outcome of the game – it just delays the inevitable for several minutes before the clock eventually runs out and the team that was ahead that entire time finally wins.  One basketball fan named Nick Elam, a former high school math teacher and now a professor at Ball State University, became frustrated with these sorts of late-game situations, and decided to do something about it.  He has introduced his own version of basketball game endings, known as the Elam Ending.

While the Elam Ending is not actually a part of NCAA basketball, here is how it would work if it was implemented:

1. At the first stoppage of play with under 4 minutes remaining in the 2^nd half, take note of what the score is.  For example, suppose Team A is beating Team B by a score of 64-58 at the first whistle with under 4 minutes left in the game.
2. Turn the game clock off.  That’s right – the rest of the game will be played without the game clock.
3. Add 7 points to the current score of the team that is ahead.  In the example above, if Team A is ahead 64-58, add 7 points to their score, which is 71.
4. That is now the target score for both teams.  So, in this example, the game resumes with the score 64-58, but the first team to get to 71 points (or more) wins the game.

Of course, the specifics of the Elam Ending can always be tweaked.  While Elam himself proposed the last 4 minutes of a game and adding 7 points for a target score in men’s college basketball, the idea can be modified to where, for example, the ending starts with 3 minutes left, or by adding 8 points for the target score.  But hopefully the general idea is clear.  Under the Elam Ending, two teams would play until the clock reaches a certain point, then have the game clock turned off, add X points to the winning team’s score to determine a target score, and play until one team reaches (or passes) that score to win the game.

This certainly changes things, doesn’t it?  Under this proposal, since the game clock gets turned off, there would no longer be any buzzer-beaters.  No games would go into overtime.  From that aspect, I would not be in favor of this proposal.  I think the clock should be a part of the game at the end.  It seems like a strange idea to play with a clock for 90% of the game and then turn it off.  I want to see games end on a last-second shot.

So then, why would we end games like this?  While the idea seems strange, I will concede there are some advantages to this format.  Mainly, the team that is behind would stop intentionally fouling at the end of the game and essentially giving points to the other team.  Instead of fouling and lengthening the game with free throws, they would just continue to play normal basketball and still have a chance to win by beating their opponent to the target score.  Games such as the March 10, 2023 contest between Purdue and Rutgers will not take a ridiculous 32 minutes of real time to play the last 4 minutes of game time – they would be resolved much earlier.  Also, all games under this format would end on a made basket, regardless if the game was close or a blowout.  In a close game, that might be exciting.  Imagine the tension of a 73-72 barnburner with a target score of 74, as both teams miss a potential game-winning shot, until finally one team sinks the dramatic game-winning shot.  Although there would also be the possibility an anti-climactic game-winning free throw.

Overall, while I still think shutting off the game clock strikes me as too much of a gimmick, I am intrigued at the idea of introducing a target score at the end of the game.  I might even be in favor of a rule where, at the end of the game, the teams would play until either one team reaches a target score or until the clock runs out, whichever comes first.  That way, if the team that is behind starts fouling, the team that is ahead can just end the game quickly.  But this idea would still make it possible for close games to be decided naturally, on a last-second shot, whether on a make or a miss.  It might even add a little extra drama if the target score is within one possession in the final minute.  So, that would be my idea.

Before you say to yourself, nobody will never actually use the Elam Ending, I would not rule it out.  So far, a version of the format has been adopted by ESPN’s The Basketball Tournament, the CEBL (a Canadian league), and overtime games for the NBA’s G-League.  Most notably, the NBA itself has even picked up on it, using a version of the Elam Ending for the 2020 NBA All-Star Game (played right before COVID shut everything down that year). That year, the All-Star Game was played under a format where the first three quarters of the game were normal 12-minute quarters, but the entire 4th quarter had no game clock.  Instead, the teams played to a target score that was set at the winning team’s score at the end of the 3^rd quarter, plus 24 (to honor the late Kobe Bryant, who wore #24).  The NBA has continued to use this All-Star Game format since then.  Sure, this format has so far only been used for all-star games and lower-level professional leagues…at least for now.  But it makes me wonder whether we will eventually see the day when the NBA, and maybe even college basketball, adopts this format for regular games.  No, this will not happen anytime soon.  But I wonder if it will eventually happen at some point – even if it’s many years from now.

Why do I bring this up here on a March Madness post, when college basketball does not even use such a format, nor will they anytime soon?  Ever since I learned about the Elam Ending, I sometimes try a little mental exercise when watching the end of a college basketball game.  Perhaps you’d like to try this yourself for any NCAA tournament games you might be watching this year:

First, I try to pay attention to when there are four minutes left in the game.  Or more accurately, the first stoppage of play under 4:00, which leads to a TV timeout.  The game clock could be, say, 3:38 at the TV timeout, but whenever they first go to a commercial break with under 4 minutes left.  At that point, I like to take a mental note of the score, then add 7 points to the winning team’s score and pretend it’s the target score.  Then if one team reaches the target score, I remark, “Okay, the game should be over now. Why are you still playing?”  Essentially, I try to determine if the game played under the Elam Ending would have turned out differently or made the game shorter.  Of course, I recognize that a different format might change some late-game strategy and the course of events in a close game, but to keep things simple, I just pretend that everything would have played out the same, whether or not that’s actually true.

So, if you are watching the end of an NCAA tournament basketball game this year, perhaps you’d like to try this yourself.  Just take note of the score at the first commercial break with under 4 minutes left.  Then answer the following questions as you go:

1. What is the target score?
2. Is the target score reached by one or both teams?  Or neither team?
3. If both teams reach the target score, does the first team to reach this score still win the game?
4. Bonus question – About how long does it in real time take to play the last 4 minutes of game time?

Perhaps this will be a fun way to watch the end of games.  Although it’s unlikely that the rules of college basketball change to incorporate the Elam Ending, it might be interesting to think about how a game could be affected by such an ending.  Would the game have been longer or shorter?  How long do the end of these games really take?  Would a team’s late-game strategy likely have changed?  How many tournament buzzer-beaters would the Elam Ending take away from us?  These might be interesting questions for the basketball fan to wrestle with.

In the meantime, let’s hope for an exciting 2023 tournament.  May there be lots of buzzer-beating game-winners, upsets (but only the ones I pick), a big tournament run by the Hoosiers, and games that take an appropriate amount of time to finish with absolutely no monitor reviews.

Go Hoosiers!

For anyone interested in filling out their 2023 tournament bracket based on their nicknames, see a complete list of American college and university nicknames here: List of college team nicknames in the United States – Wikipedia

For more background information about the Elam Ending, see his website here: Home – Elam Ending