Late clock start - again
 

In a previous thread, it was concluded that the referee should keep the time on the clock in their head if the scorer did not start the clock properly. For example, 4 seconds on the clock on the in bounds. A couple of seconds go by, and the ref yells to start the clock, but is already counting down in his head. After the clock finally starts late, a player looks at the clock to see 3 seconds are remaining, so instead of shooting, he makes one more pass in order to get a better shot. Then the ref blows the whistle to end the quarter with 2 seconds left on the clock. Should the players not rely on the clock in situations like this?

I don't think they can.

There's no good way out when something goes wrong at the end of the game. All we can do is the best we can do (following the rules).

Where are we in the game when this happens?
It would be best IMHO to stop the game and either correct the time or restart the inbound at the 4 second mark early in the game. This shows you are on top of the game and the timing situations. It may prevent a problem late in the game on a possession that could change the out come of the game when you least want to have to deal with a clock problem.

NO! The official should visibly count the final seconds.

IMHO that is never the correct thing to do. I'm one of those who doesn't believe in do-overs in NFHS games.

The January issue of Referee has a good article on this...........