Poll: Should basketball be played in quarters or halves?

In March, Winning Hoops asked coaches whether they preferred basketball at their level to be played in quarters or halves. Over the past five years, some states have switched from one to the other for high school basketball, and the NCAA in 2015 adopted 10-minute quarters for women’s basketball.

Wisconsin made the switch two years ago, dropping eight-minute quarters for 18-minute halves. In part, the idea was to improve the flow of the game (teams would no longer stall their offense for the last shot of the quarter). But according to our survey, the majority of coaches prefer to play in quarters.

In last month’s poll, 67.9% of readers said that high school and college basketball should be played in quarters. At the pro level, 82.1% believed quarters were best.

“(High school basketball) is not played on TV, so there’s no media timeouts granted,” said one reader. “The coach/players have to strategize when to call them during different points in the game. Don’t change it.”

The NCAA experimented with quarters in men’s basketball during this year’s NIT. The association planned to analyze the results to determine whether it’s worth making a permanent switch. West Virginia coach Bob Huggins wasn’t a fan.

“I think we ought to stop having rules committee meetings in Palm Springs. They keep making changes to justify their existence. What’s wrong with our game? I think they should meet here in Buffalo. In February,” Huggins said last month. “I mean, I don’t know what’s wrong with our game. Why do we need four quarters? I think everybody plays four quarters in high school and they can’t wait to get into college and play halves.”