Video reviews have unintended negative impacts on the game
I understand the desire to get things right, but something has to be done about the situation with so many video reviews at the end of games. It disrupts the flow of the game. It adds time to the game. Coaches use them as free time out, which is unfair if they don't have any. And when the refs review clock changes, I often wonder if it's worth the time to figure out if there's 14:01 left or 14:04 left, for example. I think there has to be a balance between getting things right and the unintended impacts of trying to get things right.
I have some suggestions:
1. When there is a video review, don't allow the players to go to their benches. Kind of like boxing, they should go to a neutral location. My suggestion would be for players to go to the foul line circle diagonally opposite their bench. This reduces the advantage that teams without timeouts get. And it would also mean teams are more ready to play when the refs make decisions. Now they have to call the teams from their benches, which adds more time. I know teams may then have some kind of signaling to their teams. But that would be set plays, as they could not draw something up on the fly on a whiteboard.
2. Clock problems that require review need to be egregious, like more than 2 seconds left, if there's a lot of time left on the game clock - maybe at least 5 minutes left on the game clock. It often seems the decision on the play is made right away, then the refs go back and forth for longer just trying to figure out if the clock should be adjusted by a second or two. All time is critical, but until there's AI linking the ball to the sidelines, whistles, buzzers, etc. then we need to understand humans are imperfect, and taking so much more time to try to be perfect isn't always necessary.
3. If no other changes are made, then at least reduce 1 timeout per team per game. Only have 3 timeouts, and don't have a use it or lose it timeout in the first half. Teams know they will probably gain a free timeout as I outlined above anyway.
Open to other suggestions.
9F
I will never talk about That Game. GTHC.