Quote:
Originally Posted by crosscountry55
Definitive knowledge is fine. And good officials are awesome at glancing at the board upon whistle (especially in the closing minute/seconds). And I’m sure many officials who don’t have definitive knowledge in those moments lie and pretend they do, all under the guise of this mentality that has trickled down from college assigners that it is taboo to shoot FTs with the lane cleared on a foul at the buzzer.
I am not one of those officials. I strive to have definitive knowledge, but if I don’t, under NFHS, I’m following the appropriate NFHS case play that is very much alive and well in the case book (I’ll look it up after work).
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I do not think definite knowledge is a very specific or defined thing. It is general. If you know your whistle came before the horn, that is definite knowledge. Even when you look at a clock your eye only is going to catch a moment and not the actual time something took place. Unless we have replay, we are still going to have to take some kind of "guess" as to when something took place. Even replay situations have flaws which is why the NCAA has had to standardize the usage of replay for specific situations.
So again not sure what I said was against what the NF said other than they use these general terms that often are never defined. If you know the call took place before the horn, you know that you have to put something on the clock. Will you be 100 percent accurate? Nope. But you will know it should not be 0:00 on the clock. And we can give the best estimate as well as to what that is and that is better than just saying, "Well I did not see the clock so I have no idea." That is why as a crew you get together and discuss information to make a decision.
I have been doing this for 25 years now. I did not just come up with my standard overnight and never change. Many conversations about situations that have never happen to me or are so rare that when things happen I have a starting point. If you want to only go buy the NF stated position, that is fine, but remembers there are things the NF has addressed or other training materials have addressed with these situations. Just like when we talk about contact above the shoulders, the NF has published (through NASO) a standard of what to do and then never mentioned it again in their rulebooks or interpretations. This to me is the same way and if I know something took place before the horn, I am putting time on the clock even if that is .1 just for some standard. Just like if I know the clock did not move after the ball properly touched, I will make a reasonable deduction that some time had to come off the clock even if it is .3. So until the NF defines what "definite knowledge" is and when it does nor does not apply, then I will use some level of common sense to draw some conclusions. Again not asking for agreement, just saying what I will do and others will do. The NCAA just addresses issues more and has a system in place to figure out the best solution. So the circle back I wasn't stating something that was related to any level, but I do not officiate differently in principle at any level. I do the same basic things if there are gray areas or not stated or not even defined. Take the advice for what it is worth and do what you feel is best. At the end of the day, we do not work for the same people and I am sure we would have different conversations with our supervisors or assignors based on what they feel is best. I will say this again, "I DO NOT WORK FOR THE NATIONAL FEDERATION AT ANY GAME." I do not care what some guy out west says to do in a situation in my backyard.
Peace