Inboudn play with 2.8 seconds left

[Mark T. DeNucci, Sr.]

Originally posted by Jurassic Referee
The biggest problem with this play is still R5-10-1&2. Ms. Struckhoff said that you could take 0.2 to 0.4 seconds off of the clock. Those rules doesn't allow you to do that. Ever! You have to have an official's count or some other official information to put time back on, and you are very specifically not allowed to guess at how much actual time to put back on. You have to know the exact time. Her ruling does not allow for that.

Mark, you didn't point that out to Mary, and she's not rules-knowledgeable enough to connect the dots. She's an editor, not a rules-maker. That's why I'll wait until I see an actual ruling in the book before I'll accept her e-mail. Of course, if a ruling is put in the book affirming your stance, I'll acknowledge at that time that you were right too. But not until then.

JR:

I am not that crazy about taking time of the clock myself because the officials do have definite knowledge of the time left in the game and if I had been the Referee in the game I would have reset the clock to the time it showed when it was stopped for the timeout.

But the point that many people are missing is that R5-S9-A4 is the governing rule. It is first among equals. The game clock cannot start before the criteria of this rule is met. This criteria has to be met before the Trail or Timer can do anything. If the criteria of R5-S9-A4 are met, then for all intents and purposes, the clock starts then not before or later regardless of what the Trail or Timer did or did not do before the criteria of R5-S9-A4 are met.

When rules conflict, one rule has to take precedence over the other. A case in point was whether the line-up could be changed without penalty so that a substitute could shoot the free throws when the game is to start with a technical foul. One section says that anybody including incoming substitutes can shoot the free throws, but another section says that the starting lineup can't be changed without penalty, with exceptions. Well, the interpretation was that the incoming substitute could shoot the free throws and there would be no penalty for changing the starting lineup. The reasoning being that for all intents and purposes the game had in effect started for the purposes of changing the starting lineup when the technical foul was committed. Then a few years ago, the Rules Committee clarified that exception in the rules.

I cannot endorse your comment about Mary not being able to connect the dots. There have been times when I have disagreed with Mary over philosophy, I know for a fact that she is very open to discussion. I think that you are being very unfair with your comment.

MTD, Sr.