Inadvertant horn
 

Opening jump ball to start the game... clock operator mistakenly sounds the horn rather than starting the clock when the ball is touched. Then, realizing her error, she starts the clock.

Whatcha gonna do?

Watch the players stand around until they realize an official didn't blow a whistle. After all, they ball handler just might let the ball free so a defender can take control for an easy bucket.

Oh...and make sure the arrow is pointing in the correct direction.

Interesting enough, during a state final game the horn erroneously sounded with several seconds remaining in the game. The horn does not stop the game in this situation, only the whistle does. PLAY ON.

If you have "definitive" knowledge of the time, you can always adjust the play clock, but only if you have "definitive" knowledge.

Hope this helps.

Agree.

As to definitive knowledge, I'm assuming the timer realized her error pretty quickly and thus I doubt any official started a count here, so probably no "definitive" knowledge. Even if you did have a count, to make a correction here you'd have to blow it dead, take the time off, and then have a throw-in (or another jump ball if possession hadn't been established yet). I wouldn't go there.

I'm not going to split hairs if the game ends up being 32:02 long.

Had a weird play last year I'm still thinking about -- obviously.

There was 12.4 seconds left on the clock after a time out. A1 is trying to shake B1. The horn operator is from A's team. Horn goes off with 2 seconds remaining and B1 starts to celebrate. I instantly blew my whistle and then A1 shoots the ball and it goes in. I blew my whistle like a wild idiot and sold it. At the time, I had to think quickly and believed it looked really bad that the horn was operated by team A. It was most likely an accident, but I didn't want to end the game on even a minuscule chance that cheating was involved.

A's coach was angry and wanted more than 2 seconds on the clock when we resumed play.

Rules/case play says official should ignore a horn sounded during live ball if scoring play in progress. any other time he/she MAY stop play.

I'd have to be there and see where ball went on tip and how players react to the horn. I might play on or i might kill it. if i thought the horn gave one team an advantage id kill it. could not put time back on clock without definite knowledge.

Depends....what did the players do?

(If it affected the jump...I'd be tempted to put 18 minutes back up and throw it up again.)

I may be in the minority here, but if this happens in one of my games, if even a single player pauses for even a moment, I'm hitting my whistle and stopping play. I don't think it's fair if one team gains an advantage because players from the other team instinctively stop play, even if briefly. After all, if this happens mid quarter or so and the ball carrier picks up their dribble and begins to walk to me to hand me the ball, no way I'm calling them for a travel.

It did affect the jump... one of the jumpers basically stopped trying for the ball when the horn went off, and the rest of the players stopped playing.

And I did exactly what you suggest. (I was U1). I've never seen a clock operator so apologetic.

That means she cared. So she's welcome to work my table every day of the week and twice on Sundays.

It annoys me when you have timers and scorers, albeit who may do a very good job, but whose body language suggests it's the last place in the world they want to be.

Agreed.

And it could be worse... she could've sounded the horn while a visiting team player was in the midst of her free throw shooting motion (which did actually happen to me awhile back... I think there's a thread about it somewhere).

Let's Go To The videotape ...
 

2.11.3 SITUATION: When may the scorer signal? RULING: If the scorer desires
to call attention to a player who is illegally in the game, he/she may signal the official
when the ball is in control of that player’s team. If it is for a substitution, the
scorer may signal when the ball next becomes dead and the clock is stopped. If
it is for conferring with an official, he/she may signal when the ball is dead. If the
scorer signals while the ball is live, the official should ignore the signal if a
scoring play is in progress. Otherwise, the official may stop play to determine the
reason for the scorer’s signal.

Always listen to ... Hey? What happened to bob? Nice job BigCat.

I'm likely to blow it dead and redo.

I want the game to start correctly. If I'm the R or the U1 I'm blowing the play dead and starting over.

Happened to me tonight.... THEN, on the "re-jump" (yes, I killed it and we started over), my partner calls a violation because a jumper tapped the ball twice (showed him the book at half time) ... it was a long night.