Danny Biasone was the owner of a pro basketball l team, Syracuse Nationals Without the clock teams could pass and dribble for ever and attempt to take a winning shot. He had players run drills to see how long a decent setup should take. He figured 60 shots per team was about right. Then divided by seconds in the game (2880) by 120 and came up with 24.
He then pressured the other owners into adopting it. They did and basketball was saved.
If basketball before the clock is not in your memory banks ,just picture games 17 to 16 or about that. College was even worse. UCLA was so good ,teams would try to win 2 to zip. It never worked but that was their aim and only chance.