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Originally Posted by stripes2255
Looking for some opinions on whether my partner and I handled an end of game situation correctly or not. Holiday Tournament 2-man crew, 3 point game with 5.3 seconds left. Team behind throwing the ball inbounds front court end line. I am the trail and the inbounds pass goes to a player in my primary who then passes to a shooter that misses the shot, gets the rebound and passes is out for another 3 point shot that goes in at the buzzer.
The defensive team complains that the clock did not start when the first offensive player caught the ball. My partner and I speak with the clock keeper who says he agrees that it didn’t start on time but doesn’t know how much time elapsed before he did start it. My partner and I don’t know how much time elapsed either so off to OT we go. Did we do this correctly by allowing the three point shot?
A couple thoughts, usually I may peek to see if the clock starts in that situation but the initial offensive player was dangerously close to the three point line and I wanted to make sure he wasn’t on the line if he took the shot. Also, after we got into the locker room my partner says that he noticed the clock hadn’t started after the pass was being made to the first three point try. If he would have stopped it then, what options do we have here? Start the play over at 5.3 seconds or run off the necessary time and inbound the ball at POI?
In the end the team up by three to start this whole mess won easily in OT so I felt like there was a bullet dodged but looking for opinions to handle a situation I hope doesn’t happen again. Sorry for this being lengthy but felt I needed to get all of the info explained properly.
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Great stuff. Game awareness is very underrated. The ball was inbounded to someone, the non-primary official is the best one to ensure the clock started. He has two choices: stop the play if it did not start, or keep his own count mentally. If the first shot goes in, there really is no issue, but he can take more time off due to "definite knowledge" at his discretion. (I would not do that.) If the first shot is missed, he then has the chance to blow the whistle and say the game ended when his "definite knowledge" hit 5.3. The tricik here is you better be right and not early. Being right makes you unbelievably good; being wrong makes you the guy from RichMSN's video.
Very tough to do, which is why officating is such a challenge. You have to be hyperaware, very quick mentally to process all of this, integrate with your partner, be 100% correct, make a decision, and sell it confidently, all within a short period of time.
You did not screw anything up, IMO. We cannot always control the table, and they do make some mistakes. That's why the big boys have the TV replay.