Sweet Sixteen

[Oz Referee]

Hi all,

Just finished refereeing a couple of games today in Australi's equivalent to the "Sweet 16" - The Australian National University Games. No where near as importnant as the NCAA Finals, but still some good refereeing experience - especially for the new season starting in about 8 weeks.

Anyway, had two games, one guys and one girls. My partner and I (yes 2 man) had one interesting situation, and I would apprecate feedback on how you would handle it (keep in mind we use FEEBLE rules).

Team A inbounds the ball after timeout, proceeds up the court, uses approximately 15 seconds of the shot clock and then releases a shot. After the shot is released, the scorer's horn sounds, and I stop play. Basket goes in. Turns out that the timekeeper forgot to restart the game clock after the timeout. Coach B immediately demands that the basket by Team A be disqualified as the clock was not running - therefore the ball is dead.

Had my evaluator watching the game, and my partner and I also discussed this sit with him before making a ruling. We came up with two possible courses of action:

i) Cancel the basket, Coach B is correct - can't score with a dead ball, return ball to Team A and start play with inbound as if the 15 seconds never occurred.

ii) Count the basket. Ignore the extra few seconds of time played, and Team B inbounds as per normal play.


I am really keen to hear what you think, and how you would handle this (according to NCAA, NBA, High School, FIBA, or just gut instinct).

I'll post what we did, and why, in about 24 hours.

Duane Galle
http://www.Ref-Basketball.com