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Originally Posted by Scrapper1
JBC, welcome to the forum. Glad you've joined us.
I don't think anybody here is trying to pin the outcome of the game on the officials. Nobody thinks that the refs cost Clemson the game. But we are trying to figure out the best way to handle this bad situation and what to do if something similar should ever happen to us.
Even if the officials had taken more time off the clock, Duke still might've scored by running a different play. The real question is what we are supposed to do when the clock doesn't start properly.
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This is precisely the point one of the Sports Center commentators made -- you are absolutely right.
Here's a thought -- but don't laugh please.
It seems to me that it would feasible, at least for portions of the game, to have the timing started and stopped automatically. I haven't thought this through entirely but here goes.
Instrument the ball with an identification device, the basket with a "reader", and the end and sidelines with "readers" -- so that when the ball goes through the hoop the clock stops, when it is tossed in across the end line it starts - automatically. When it goes out on the sidelines it similarly stops, and starts automatically when inbounded. Referees would have a device (with whistle?) to stop the clock during penalties, timeouts, etc. You could have a redundant manual system at the scorers table, and when there is a discrepancy between the automatic and manual system of some specified amount (1/2 sec, 1 sec, e.g.) it would trigger a review at that very moment.
Given the capability we have to monitor tennis matches (challenge system electronics) and football (yellow, blue, red lines) this is certainly technically possible. I'm sure I haven't thought about everything, but who knows it might be doable.