[Mark T. DeNucci, Sr.]

I am going to confine my comments to NFHS rules and assume that the crowd noise is such that it does not cause a problem for the officials to hear it.

Paragraph 282 of the 2003-05 NFHS Basketball Officials Manual states: "The Trail official is primarily responsible for the last second shot. On a fast break, the Lead should be ready to assist if asked by the responsible official. The Referee will make the final decision in case of disagreement between the two officials or if it is necessary to consult the timer."

First a couple of comments.

1) Paragraph 282 gives the officials a good foundation for handling last second shots.

2) NFHS R1-S14 allows for a red light that is sychronized with game clock to be placed behind the backboard, but the horn and not the red light is what ends the period under NFHS rules.

The important thing in covering last second shots with a two man crew is that on-ball and off-ball coverage should not change because of a last second shot. If the Lead has on-ball coverage he needs to stay with it during the entire play and the Trail needs to stay with his off-ball coverage duties during the entire play. Both officials should be aware of the clock and should be listening for the horn.

It is not good officiating for the Trail to be watching the ball during a last second shot when the ball is in the Lead's area deep in the corner across the court from the Trail. If I am the Trail in the situation I am going to be listening for two things. The horn and my partner's whistle. If the horn sounds and my partner does not sound his whistle, he is telling me that the ball was released before the horn; if he sounds his whistle, he is telling me that the ball was not released before the horn. With this information I can take care of business.

The officials also need to be aware of who has a good view of the clock. If one is lucky to be officiating on a court that has clocks at both ends of the court, the official who has off ball coverage can get a good look at the clock. In the play described in the original post, where the players are strung out the length of the court and the Trail has off ball coverage in this situation and the Lead is right on top of the play, I would expect the Lead to be sounding his whistle if the ball had not been released before the horn sounded.

I pregame this with my partners and trust my partner in these situations.