When it comes to basketball, hot shooters can rain 3s, and our readers can certainly rain pleas.

Some of their ideas indeed sound more like pleas, simply because they’re passionate about this game. Even with all the other entertainment options out there, they don’t want high school basketball to just survive, but thrive.

That clearly came across through some of what they wrote in response to a recent Twine Line that proposed five ideas to improve the game. Readers were invited to respond to those and/or offer up some of their own.

Some already weighed in through the comments section to that original column if you want to check it out online.

Here, though, we’ll share the responses that came by email.

First, in case you missed it, idea No. 1 regarded class basketball, and we already detailed former Central coach Mike Drews’ sound reasoning for a compromise last week. The online version of that column shared not only his thoughts, but those of other readers about class basketball.

So onward now to all things non-class-related. Promise.

No. 2 explained why Twine wishes fans would quit cheering blocked shots so feverishly. It also produced the funniest comment from anybody who wrote back.

“I wholeheartedly agree,” Tony Miller of Goshen wrote. “The block out of bounds is basketball’s equivalent of a flasher on the sidewalk: It comes as a surprise, startles you for a few seconds, and ultimately leaves you free to continue on your way. Heck, with those three criteria, why don’t we cheer the substitution horn?”

Hilariously well said, Tony, although on the other hand ...

“I agree in principle,” Steve Sittler of Nappanee wrote, “but if the kids like to chant ‘You got swatted!’ and have fun, more power to them. We need more of the enthusiastic cheering sections.”

“As annoying as the chants can be, they are fun for the kids,” Chris Gill of Goshen concurred. “Let them chant if that means they’ll come to the game.”

No. 3 dealt with penalizing trailing teams more severely for late fouls intended to stop the clock.

“Something definitely needs to be done there,” Elkhart’s Jim Eger wrote. “There are so many intentional fouls at the end of a lost game that the referees refuse to call (as intentional).”

“While I see your point, once at the East Noble Sectional, when Brian Bechtel played for me, we were down 18 points with under two minutes to play,” ex-Fairfield coach and current Wawasee athletic director Steve Wiktorowski wrote. “With three seconds left, Brian took a 3-pointer that would have sent the game to OT. Unfortunately, it rimmed out, but such comebacks are possible in big games.”

Wiktorowski says one way to eliminate some of the late fouls might be “to change the 10-second line to an 8-second line. Seldom is 10 seconds called now, and I think it would give teams a viable alternative strategy to fouling. I think it would also be entertaining for the whole game since so many teams are going to a faster pace of play” anyway.

Nevertheless, reader Bruce Cashbaugh not only liked Twine’s proposal, but took it a step further.

“Make all fouls in the last two minutes two shots and possession (regardless of score),” Cashbaugh wrote. “Basketball games devolve into hack-and-shoot-free-throws the last two minutes, often when alternate tactics were required with five or six minutes left, not two. If you make it all fouls, the refs will have an easier time, players will not be subject to injury and everyone will be playing basketball to the end.”

No. 4 suggested lengthening quarters to nine minutes for a couple reasons that were outlined.

“I like the idea of longer games,” Gill responded, “(but) I’d start with making the frosh and JV games eight-minute quarters like the varsity. We don’t play shorter quarters in JV football or run a shorter race for freshman track runners.”

No. 5, which explained why players shouldn’t foul out once they reach a certain number of fouls, drew varied responses.

“I like the idea, but there has to be a special penalty for fouls committed over five, or whatever number you choose, such as two shots and the ball,” Sittler wrote. “Otherwise, people would just go hog-wild, especially penetrators and power posts who would just bash their way to the goal knowing that if they got a foul it would not be a shooting foul (because it’s a player-control foul).”

“You need a limit,” Gill wrote, “otherwise the Jason Spriggses of the world would push the midgets down all night, and as you mentioned, some fickle refs would never call the fouls, and even if they did, it wouldn’t matter (in terms of fouling out).”

As for readers’ own ideas, Gill, a native of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, suggested that more Indiana conferences start playing home-and-home, double round-robin.

On the one hand, it would produce a truer league race. On the other, most coaches don’t like playing the same team multiple times during the regular season. You’d get some resistance there.

Nappanee’s John Leavitt wants schools to schedule more weekend games, for both boys and girls basketball. He points out that those other nights are school nights for the students and work nights for the fans, thereby hurting both studies and attendance.

“I look at this whole stupid mess and say that it is currently bad for the kids, bad for the fans and bad for the finances,” Leavitt wrote. “What is there to like about taking your cash cow and ruining it by scheduling at a time that nobody prefers? I don’t even mind watching kids bat blocked shots into the stands if it is on a Friday or Saturday night.”

Anthony Anderson is The Elkhart Truth’s assistant sports editor. Contact him at aanderson@etruth.com.

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