Girls JV game. It started a little ratty - about what you might expect this early in the season - but both teams were well coached, and quickly settled in and played a pretty good competitive game.

So we're coming out of a time out, 26 sec left in the 4th, visitors up by 6. I'm the L and my partner administers the ball for inbound near mid-court. Ball is inbounded. clock starts, then we're both busy with the furball as the home team is aggressively defending trying to force a turnover. I hear someone yelling "clock, clock". My partner is on the ball, so I quickly look up at it to see 33,34,35... my mental reaction was "what the heck..." then I blew the whistle to stop it - clock reads 36. I walk over to the table & say "uh, guys, why is the clock counting up?". Operator has no idea. There's no count up/down switch - this is one of the newer computerized units where all that is done in the initial setup programming when you first turn it on.

End result was I had them reinitialize the clock, verified it was in fact counting down, then had it set to 16 seconds. We resumed the game & ended without further incident.

I've seen clocks that you have to set the clock mode button. Usually it will show a U or D on the screen so that you know if it is going to wind up or down. You must have had a couple of near 5 second counts in order to know to take 10 seconds off??????

Only seen this in one gym this year. But whenever you call a TO. Whether it is 30 or 60, it puts the time up on the clock and counts down then at 15 seconds automatic sounds the horn. The thing that bothers me is: what if it messes up and screws up the game time? How are we suppose to know and how are we suppose to fix it if the scorer hasn't been keeping track?

Yeah, I've seen those too, but this is one of the newer fully computerized style where all that is set up in an interactive menu when you first turn it on - no button to set.

Taking 10 seconds off was easy. I knew for fact the clock read 00:26 before the inbound was administered. It started when my partner signaled & ended at 00:36 when I realized it was counting up & blew the whistle. Net difference - 10 seconds. The ball was inbounded into back court & my partner indicated his count was at 7 when they brought it across the division line. My whistle was 2 to 3 seconds after that, so that's good enough verification of "specific knowledge" for me. After fixing the clock I called both coaches over & gave them the explanation - all either said was "OK, thanks".

Time Out Countdown
 

I usually try to glance at clock to see time when we call TO..last night worked a game with the TO count-down working..and I really didn't notice it first couple of times because I checked clock when TO was requested but when we went to blocks for the TO I never really looked at the clock until we were ready to start after the second horn.

I do kind of like the TO countdown, but you do then lose the chance to check time and discuss any time related play issues with your partner based on remaining time, that is if you don't see the time on the clock, just the TO countdown.

With to TO counting down at least you know table is on top of watching the length of the TO.

Are you sure it was the net difference? I'm thinking it's the gross difference... :p

LOL! :)

It was Lakeridge at Central...Rams got behind in the 3rd, but were slowly crawling back. We figured that maybe the home fans were praying so hard for a comeback win that some external force reached in and flipped a bit in the microchip....if you get my drift..:p