Are timers out of a job?

[Mark Dexter]

I'm watching the Miami-Golden State game on TNT, and between Q1 and 2, their sideline reporter was talking with one of the officials (I think it was Joe Crawford, but I'm not at all sure). He described a new system (to be used starting during the regular season) where there is a microphone on the lanyard. A whistle by the officials stops the clock, and by pressing a button on a belt pack, the officials start the clock.

Has anyone else heard about this? Anyone know where on the 'net I can read about this system? And does anyone see something like this at the HS level? Are timers THAT bad?

[Richard Kreimer]

Yes, I have heard of this system, a couple of H.S. associations are testing, but a timer also monitors in case of problems. The reason for the test is to get a better guage of when time stops when you blow the whistle versus the delay of the human touch. At the end of the period it is an automatic horn when time has officially runs out. Good Luck this season.

[Bradley Batt]

I used this system at a camp last summer - it is pretty impressive!

Basically, you were a device similar to something you would wear for a wireless microphone - a little bigger than a pager. A small wire runs up underneath your shirt and a microphone hooks into a clip on your lanyard.

When your whistle is blown (it must be a Fox40) it "listens" for 3 distinct tones of the whistle and stops the clock immediately! To start the clock there is a little button on the side of the little pager-like device. In the games that we used it in we had one of the off officials start the clock.

Incidentally, the same guy that invented this (a former NBA referee) is working on a system that will stop the clock when a goal is scored - for use in the last minutes of NCAA and NBA games.

I would expect to see this system used more and more often at the NBA and NCAA level - it gets rid of the issue of referees having to go back over to the table to add 0.7, 0.5, 1.2 seconds, etc. back onto the clock.

Like was stated previously, you would still want a timer there for backup - and they would also have to run the shot clock.

Later,
Brad