last second shot

[M&M Guy]

I agree with Mark - you need to stay focused on the shooter. In the beginning I used to be caught up in looking back and forth between the clock and the players, and I used to miss things all the time. That was when I was taught about just being aware of the clock instead of watching the clock. Communicate with your partner(s) during a dead ball, change of possession, maybe a lull in the action, when you are at 1 minute left, or maybe 30 sec. left. Talk about how you will communicate this during your pre-game. If you know you're getting close, and you have the last shot, listen for the horn while concentrating on where the ball is. I had a sitch where the clock was winding down, 4th qtr., tie game, home team has the ball for the final shot. I have the last shot, and I'm watching and listening, and my partner has a shooting foul just when I thought the horn was going to go off. (It was obvious - no one argued the foul.) However, when I looked up, the clock said 0:00! (This scoreboard clock did not show tenths.) But I knew I didn't hear the horn, even in that loud gym. Of course, the visiting coach thought he heard the horn, and would've been happy going to overtime instead of home team shooting free throws. The way we ended up convincing him the game wasn't over was having the clock operator turn on the clock, and a fraction of a second later the horn went off. We ended up putting 1 sec. back on the clock and shot the free throws. Of course, the guy misses the first one, but thankfully made the second one, and the game was over after a wild shot. But I had been confident enough with my knowledge that the horn had not gone off because I was concentrating on listening for it. If I had been just watching the clock, I might've seen the 0's and waved off the foul and worked an overtime for free.