Bilas on the shot clock/10 second call

[rulesmaven]

Bilas made the comment last night during Duke/LSU that it's easy to tell whether there has been a 10 second violation by looking at the shot clock.

A couple of thoughts on that. First, I wonder whether NCAA refs actually use the shot clock for this purpose. If the trailing official has not actually seen the clock reset on change of possesion, does he just defer to the clock operator and assume that it started exactly at the point of possession? And if so, why does he count it off -- why not just let the shot clock do the work. Tradition?

Second, and more important, what Bilas said was something like, "when the clock gets to 25 it's clear that it's a 10 second violation." Actually, isn't that wrong? I assume the shot clock works like the game clock, so that when it scrolls from 26 to 25, really only 9 seconds have elapsed. It's not until the instant that it changes from 25 to 24 that 10 seconds have elapsed.

Anyway, sort of a pin-headed question, but I thought it was an interesting comment.