Elam Ending

[coasterville95]

While brushing up ahead of the TBT at the Tas next week - I noted they will be using the Elam Ending.

In brief, the Elam is designed to keep the endings of games exciting by eliminating the standard free throw parade that makes the final few minutes take forever, ruins the pacing of the game, and in general just delays the inevitable. The guy who invented it reviewed numerous games and determined the trailing team has only ever come back and won 1.5% of the time.

To fix this the game plays as normal until the final media timeout - at which time the game clock (but not the shot clock) is turned off, and a goal score is established (for the TBT the goal score is leading teams score plus 8) first team to reach or exceed the goal score wins. And to discourage fouling the non shooting foul penalty becomes 1 free throw AND the ball. They say this makes endings more exciting as teams have to resort to pure basketball all the way to the final point.

I also suspect it helps keep a tournament on schedule as you have eliminated any chance of overtime (and unfortunately also any last second buzzer beaters), then they are cutting halftime to 10 minutes, going from 2 20 minute halves to 4 9 minute quarters.

So anybody experienced the Elam Ending before - and are you for or against!


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[X-band '01]

I'd love this if I were a bad free-throw shooting team in the endgame (and vice versa if I were on a good FT-shooting team).



And then there's this comeback by Herd That (a team of Marshall alums) - they were down 11 points going into the Elam Ending before pulling off what I believe is the biggest comeback in the EE.

The NBA All-Star Game used this a while back, although they added 24 points (in honor of Kobe Bryant) as their target score when they implemented the Elam Ending.

[atljar]

I love it and wish it was used in all basketball games. Zip em up!

[nuts4xu]

Elam ending is a happy ending. It really changes the game and how to approach the final minutes. I think they establish the "goal score" with about 4 minutes left in the game. There have been a few times the past 2 years where the team who was behind when the score was set actually won the game.

I love it. No ties, no overtime, and it is an exciting finish.

[MauriceX]

I also suspect it helps keep a tournament on schedule as you have eliminated any chance of overtime (and unfortunately also any last second buzzer beaters).

While it does eliminate "buzzer beaters" in the traditional sense, it guarantees that every single game ends with a made basket, which is way cooler than someone dribbling out the clock.

[smileyy]

Love it