Does the Ending Need Rewriting?

Louisville’s Edgar Sosa, left, and Purdue’s Chris Kramer reacting to foul calls. Some argue that fouls called in the final minutes disrupt the fluidity of the game.

By RAY GLIER
NYT

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A team is ahead by 10 points with 1 minute 30 seconds remaining, and what follows can be a messy, disjointed, dragged-out display of basketball. The losing team starts to foul and there is a parade to the free-throw line, a stream of timeouts and a groan from the crowd.

Then again, that last 90 seconds can be a riveting spectacle as an opponent claws back after refusing to surrender.

Does that last minute or two in a college basketball game need more regulation against foul-for-profit tactics? Should more intentional fouls be called, so the team that is winning and being fouled, well, intentionally, receives two free throws and the ball as its reward?

Should the shot clock start its countdown from 24 seconds instead of 35 seconds in the game’s final minute so there are more possessions and the trailing team is more inclined to play defense than foul?

(More here.)