Timer assumes ball goes out of bounds and stops the clock. A1 retrieves ball, clock restarts, but now A1 has enough time to go all the way down the court and score at the buzzer. Officials don't allow the score. Overtime.

If the clock had never been stopped, A1 would have shot a half court shot. Seems like Team A was penalized by the ruling, but Team B would have been penalized if the basket was allowed.

Refs let the players decide the game by going to OT. Not a bad decision in my book. Oh, this game was highlighted on Sportscenter.

But wait! They can't do that!! What about 5 dash something and 2 dot something else??!!! What other rules are they gonna set aside???!!!! :rolleyes:

(Great job by that crew IMO.)

I loved how the coach ran his players off the court after the basket in regulation; as if the refs would say, "You know, we should go to OT, but since the howlermonkey pulled his team off the court, we'll just give them the basket."

Had a situation like this earlier in the season. Team B scores with about 3 seconds left. Quickly calls time out (they are now down by 2), I blow my whistle and I'm watching the clock (when I blow it dead there's 2.2 seconds left), the horn sounds. The home team, who was by 2, goes out onto the court, however their coach very very quickly starts grabbing his players one by one and throwing them back over towards their bench whenever he saw that time was going to be put back on the clock. It was actually kind of funny how quickly he was doing this. I call my partner over (he's R) and tell him we are going to put time back on the clock. He says that we'll go with what I've got. Anyways, we put 1.2 back on, and the game was quickly over, home team still won by 2. Great game!

OOPS!!!

You should have put 2.2 seconds back on the clock.

You are absolutely right. But I feel a related rant coming on....

Don't get me started on how inconsistent this all is -- if the timer can stop it before it gets lower than 1.2 we call it "lag time" and let it alone. If it gets to 1.1 seconds, however, we put it all the way up to 2.2.

I know that's the right procedure, but there's something quite wrong about it.

--Rich

If it goes to 1.1, I ain't touchin' it. :)

And we all know what to do if it stops at 2.8, right?

Next stop.....

http://www.ritilan.com/archives/imag...zone_remix.JPG

Got a good twilight zone timer story....

After half time, I see the clock show:

7:00
6:59
99:99
99:98

Whistle. By the time the clock is stopped, of course it shows 6:56. Everyone in the gym is wondering why I stopped the game. I ask the timer (starting to doubt that I actually saw 99), if something funny happened to the clock?

He says, "it does that". We continue. My partner, the fans, and the players are looking at me like I rode the short bus to the game. I got a good chuckle out of it.

I don't feel well today, Snaq. So I guess I'm not thinking straight. Help me out.

2.8 seconds seems to be the magic time at which weird plays happen. The original "official-wrongly-chops-in-time" play started with 2.8 seconds left. And I believe there have been a few others that started with 2.8 ticks left.
The consensus here after the 2nd or 3rd one was that if I'm ever reffing a close game and the clock stops at 2.8, it's time to seriously consider an alternate escape route.

I agree Rich. What I see from this is that the timer's thumb is allowed lag time, by our eyes are not.

I had a final a month ago (JR: at ASC with John L.) and the coach who was losing calls a TO right after he scores. Clock reads 0.2s when it stopped. As the old lead (new trail after the made basket), I knew the request was coming, so I was looking right at the clock when the whistle went. It said 0.8s. Perfect. After I see the clock stop correctly, I then signal the timeout.

My P asked me after the game why did I not signal the TO right away. I told him that the only element that would get us in trouble was a mishandled clock. The girls on the clock were excellent all weekend. Delaying the TO signal is nothing compared to knowing the entire clock situation. Had a coach complained, I have all definite knowledge I need to properly rule.

Funny thing was the team winning by 2 commits a throw-in violation, and now B has a chance to tie/win. With just 0.2s, the game was over when B player caught the pass.

If I was A, I would have just thrown to ball to B on my initial possession. B would not be expecting it, and human reaction would say he would catch the ball. Oh darn, game over. Even if the ball goes in. LOL

Tony, normally you are correct on every post, but I think on this one, you must reset to 1.2. If tenths of a second don't count for much, they why do we measure them?

I think that in a game where the last possession can win the game, an official knowingly not resetting the clock to it's proper value by rule, has done a disservice to the game, even if the official is the only one that knows.

He CAN'T reset to 1.2 in NFHS rules -- he MUST reset to 2.2 if more than one second lagged off. THAT's the rule.

My bad. Typo. Seriously.

Between all these posts with seconds and parts of a second in my head, I may not yet total a 10-second count, but it is enough to get my wires crossed.

Jug, if you can look at a clock that's ticking down and know whether it's at 2.2 or 2.1 at the exact moment that you look at it, then you're vision is a helluva a lot better than mine.

Plus, as Rich said, if it's greater than 1 second, then you have to reset it to what you thought you saw, 2.2, 2.1, whatever. If he doesn't stop it within 1 second, then it's a timing error. You ignore the lag time and rest to what you thought you saw.

That's why I'm not splitting hairs on .1. Besides that, can anyone here reset a clock to 2.2. I've yet to find a timer who can.

See above post. You are a timer, aren't you? I certainly am.

Since you asked, I actually can see what the exact tenths of a second is when I blow my whistle. Providing, of course, that tenths of a second are displayed. :)

I'm speaking mechanically with regard to resetting the clock. i've yet to see a timer who could reset to exact tenths. I've emailed the company who manufactures most of the consoles in this area and asked them to send instructions, so I won't have the same problem I had a few weeks ago.

And as I said, I'm not going through all that for .1.

I can reset it to 2.2. I have been doing a fair number of clocks this season (knee injury) and I've gotten pretty good at it -- no brag, just fact.

Just have them set it to 3.0 and start the clock .8 before the ball is touched on the court. ;)

Seriously, even if the console can't be set to 2.2, you can set it to 3.0 and run it down. Use both thumbs on the switch (one on each side) and turn it on-off as quickly as possible. That's .1 or less each time -- do it 8 times (or so) in your example and put the ball in play.

I've used the procedure several times and never had a problem.