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The officials need definite information as to how much time should be taken off, and when the whistle blew has got nothing to do with establishing that definite information. The actual time that elapsed between a legal touch in-bounds until the ball touched OOB is definite information.
But it is not the CORRECT information. The correct information is not the time that elapses between when the Memphis player touches the ball and when the ball is truly out of bounds. The correct information is the time that elapses between when the Memphis player touches the ball and when the official signaled to stop the clock either with his whistle or hand.
Section 5. Officials Use of Replay/Television Equipment
Art. 1. Officials may use official courtside replay equipment, videotape or television monitoring that is located on a designated courtside table (i.e., within approximately 3 to 12 feet of the playing court), when such equipment is available only in situations as follows:
f. A determination, based on the judgment of the official, that a timing
mistake has occurred in either starting or stopping the game clock.
After the ball is in play, such a mistake shall be corrected during the
first dead ball or during the next live ball but before the ball is touched
inbounds or out of bounds by a player. When the clock should have
been continuously running, the mistake shall be corrected before the
second live ball is touched inbounds or out of bounds by a player.
The fact that the point at which the official should end measured elapsed time is implied - it's when the official blows the whistle or signals for the game clock to be stopped. It's implied because the next paragraph implies it.
g. A determination of the correct time to be placed back on the game
clock when the referee blows the whistle, signals for the game clock
to be stopped, and in his/her judgment time has elapsed before the
game clock stopped.
Like I said, a different situation, but play (and elapsed time) stops on the whistle or signal, not when the ball goes out of bounds. The official must signal when the ball goes out of bounds or signal - no violation matters after the official. The fact that the clock did not start does not make the play following it any different. If a referee whistled and motioned for the clock to stop at 2.7 seconds, before a ball hit the OOB line at 2.0 seconds, then the clock would be stopped at 2.7 seconds - it's an official's mistake, and cannot be reviewed on the monitor. The fact that the timer also makes a mistake does not make this any different - measurement of time elapsed goes from signal to signal.
The whistle and signal matter. No violation itself stops the clock. A ball going OOB cannot stop the clock. Only a whistle/signal can. When the official whistled/signaled, the clock should have stopped had it been running - therefore the time that should have elapsed should be measured only until that point.
This is NOT and CANNOT be an inadvertent whistle. The ref had a call to make and he made it - he thought the ball was out of bounds early, and whistled the clock dead then. It makes no difference when measuring the time elapsed that the ball didn't truly go out of bounds for another however many tenths of a second (up to .5 maybe?)!!
The amount of time used, by rule, is the time lapsed from the ball being legally touched in-bounds by the Memphis player until the ball then touches something-anything-out of bounds.
NO! It's till the whistle. If it's early, well tough luck for Memphis, but it's till the whistle! The points at which the whistle blew and when the ball touched anything-out-of-bounds are different. There is no rule that says replay can be used to determine when the ball truly touched something out of bounds. Most times a ball going OOB and a ref's whistle are at approximately the same point - in this case, it obviously was not.
Not that any of this probably mattered in the game, it was probably a negligible less than .5 second difference... but this is an official's forum and this mistake could be made to an even greater degree where it really makes a 2 second or more difference.
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