I guess I look at the game a little differently than many. I hated the 4 corner offense. Absolutely God awful to watch. However, a short shot clock does nothing but promote athleticism over basketball skill and removes coaching strategy from the game. It promotes a lot of one on one play, which I think is almost as boring to watch as the 4 corner. With a short shot clock, I'm not sure how a coach with inferior athletes comes up with a game plan to compete. I like the strategy side of the game. There is nothing wrong with a coach playing very patient to try and get high percentage shots and limiting the other teams number of possessions in order to try and win a game. I think the clock needs to be long enough to allow for coaching strategy, but short enough to prevent a complete slow down like the 4 corner offense. I think the current clock is getting to be a little short.
I know what you mean. I used to think that the college game was far superior to the NBA, because the NBA was very generic, whereas the college game often featured a true contrast in styles. There seemed to be more room for a wider range of strategies, and the game was less predictable.
I don't think that's really true any more, or has been true for at least a decade, but I also don't think there's really any way to fix it. There are a couple of truths that work against it. One is that coaches and players will always push the envelope, whatever the rules are. The 4 corners was a perfect example, and after the shot clock, the push was with physicality. If you really want to eliminate skill and strategy as much as possible, make the game a contest of sheer brute strength- and that's exactly the direction a lot of coaches went.
The other truth is tied into that, and it's that the pure athletic aspect of basketball has proven to be what sells. The whole physicality increase was really in response to a game that was making it ever easier for players to display pure athletic ability. It's push and pull. Michael Jordan comes along, and no one, under the rules of that time, can really guard him at all. So the Pistons (best example) start to bang on him as much as possible. It works, for the most part, so you eventually get a whole generation of NBA basketball built around the idea of playing bruising, physical defense. The game goes too far in that direction, and you have to tweak the rules to correct it.
Unfortunately, it's exceptionally difficult for college basketball to implement changes through officiating. Once a certain standard is set, it tends to stay (see the constant drift away from the emphasis on freedom of movement as the season progresses, for at least 3 year running now). The next best way is through the shot clock, and I do think it made for a much higher quality of game this year, even if it's not the ideal answer.
