Quote:
Originally Posted by billyu2
The absence of a whistle (as we have we have been instructed) communicates nothing has occurred just prior to the horn and so the quarter is now over. Sounding the whistle, on the other hand, communicates something HAS occurred just prior to the horn and so the quarter may not yet be over.
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Sounding the whistle doesn't necessarily mean that something has occurred, for example, blowing to start a quarter, or to get teams out of a timeout huddle on occasion, but I actually see your point in this case. Let me ask this question to all, what do you do when an inexperienced score keeper randomly blows the horn at the wrong time? Personally, if I think it has ANY impact on the game, I blow it dead, and we go POI. However, if it happens in the backcourt and the offensive player is still dribbling, I routinely see guys say out loud, "Play On!" or something. My point is this, in those situations, the horn isn't signaling the end of the quarter, or for that matter, even signaling the ball to become dead. The whistle just seems like a more consistent method, because it always stops play (yeah, yeah, I know, continuous motion, blah blah blah!!) But even in the case of continuous motion the players still know to stop.