Shot clock coming to high school basketball in Illinois

Perhaps the most inclusive change that IHSA disclosed last Tuesday morning is that the shot clock to be used will be 35 seconds and this change will take effect from the 2026-27 academic year in both boys’ basketball and girls’ basketball.

“The IHSA has permitted the shot clock in tournaments and shootouts of the past two seasons, and almost all the coaches appear to be a fan for incorporating the shot clock in all varsity games,” said IHSA Executive Director Craig Anderson. “We are optimistic that the two-season lead time will allow our schools enough time to fit the shot clocks and be at ease using the devices from a coaching and / or games management point of view. ”

The change will be implemented at the varsity level meaning that usage of shot clock for the lower level games such lower than varsity level such as for freshmen, sophomore and junior varsity will be as per the conferences or even through mutual consensus by the teams in other conferences games.

The IHSA also stated changes to state tournament with new ones starting with the 2025 state tournaments. The IHSA boys’ basketball state tournament over the last three years, has been hosted at State Farm Center in Champaign with all four classes undertaking a three-day tournament featuring 16 games.

The three-days edition will be retained alongside the 16 games within the three-days, the previous arrangement of six games on Thursday and Friday and four state championships on four different sites on Saturday will be replaced by six games on Thursday, five games on Friday and five games on Saturday.

The biggest change is to enable the teams to have two days trip in the course of state’s tournament. In the past three years, if a team is eliminated from state’s semifinal game it has to compete in a third place match that very night.

The Thursday programs will consist of Semifinal and Championship matches in Class 1A and Class 2A and Semifinal matches in Class 3A. The 1A state semifinal games will start at 9:The 2A state semifinal games will begin at 2:00 p. m. , while the 3A state semifinal games will begin at 6:00 p. sl.

On Friday, third-place games in 1A, 2A and 3A will take place during the day, starting at 9:The first one will start at 11:30 p. m. The second day is reserved for the two Class 4A state semifinal games on Friday evening starting 6:00 p. m.

On Saturday, the day will start at 9:Both broadcasts start at 12:30 p. m. with the third place game of the 4A before the four state title games happen in the afternoon and at night-3 p. Schedule of games: The 1A state title game – 1 p. m. / 2A state title game. The 3A state championship game is scheduled for 6. 00 p. m. , then the 4A state championship game will take place.

The same format will be primarily utilised at the IHSA girls’ basketball state tournament located in the CEFCU Arena, Normal on the Illinois State University campus. That is the only refreshing as the two Class 4A state semifinal games are scheduled in late Friday morning up to mid Friday afternoon. The IHSA said this change is made so that schools, whether the girls’ basketball team is in state final, boys’ team is in sectional championship that same night can attend both.

This Anderson stressed has elicited consensus among the public especially the Illinois high school basketball fraternity regarding the success of the state tournament mainly because of the change to a one weekend tournament. “This has been supported by our coaches as they continue to say that the new schedule will make it even better for all the student athletes, coaches and fans out there,” said Dr. He also went on to say that they are looking forward to it to be seen when America’s Original March Madness will be taking place next winter.