What is the correct procedure?

[Camron Rust]

Originally Posted by Snaqwells

I don't think anyone has caught this and commented yet (I'm not sure, because my eyes started glazing over towards the end of the first page).
You had definite knowledge of 4 seconds to half-court. At minimum, you could have inbounded the ball at half-court with 4 seconds removed from the clock.

I agree. There are those that don't understand that definite knowledge is not the same as complete or exact and will assert that unless you know ALL the time that should have passed, you can't take anything off. All the rule requires is that you only take off as much as you KNOW and no more, no less. If you have counts adding up to 17 but have gaps in the middle of the count, you take off 17. You definitely know that those 17 seconds passed. You don't know how much else passed in the gaps, so you don't take off anything for the gaps.

[Mark Dexter]

Originally Posted by Jurassic Referee

Rule to back that up?

7-5-4.

Ball became live when it was touched inbounds (whether the clock started or not), A had control (team and player) and the ball became dead when the official sounded his whistle.

[legend]

You should know how much time would have run off the clock by your back court 10 sec. count, and yes the ball should have been taken out at mid-court or the closest point to where the ball was whistled dead.

[Jurassic Referee]

Originally Posted by dave30

Team A inbounds the ball at the baseline (backcourt). Player dribbles to midcourt. I notice that the clock never started. I take the ball back to the baseline and Team A throws the ball in again. Only this time, Team B decides to press. Team B steals the ball and scores. The coach argues that I should have taken some time off the clock and gave them the ball at midcourt since it wasn't their fault that the clock didn't start. He had a point. I told him I honestly didn't know the correct procedure, but did what I thought was correct. Was I wrong?

You could have used your 10-second backcourt count as "definite knowledge" in this situation. Blow the whistle as soon as you know the clock didn't start. Take off the number of seconds used according to your backcourt count at the time of your whistle. Give the team with the ball a throw-in at the spot closest to where the ball was when the whistle blew. Your butt is covered under NFHS rule 5-10.

If you don't blow your whistle until the ball is in the front court though, you can't reset the clock unless you had accurate knowledge somehow of how much time was used until you blew your whistle--example-> backcourt count followed by an immediate 5-second closely guarded count. If you don't have accurate knowledge, then you would have to go back to the original throw-in spot on the endline without taking any time off the clock.