before the horn?
 

Working a VG game this past week, just before halftime, I'm lead on 2man and there is about 5 seconds before the half. Team A has been looking for the last shot before the buzzer. They throw one in to the low post and she kicks it back out to the corner, then they throw to the top and Girl gets a 3 point shot off. I'm not really watching the action that closely, but She gets off a shot at the buzzer. It goes in and my partner counts the goal. I did not echo his signal. Home team coach is livid that the ball was not clearly out of the hand. We meet at the circle and wait for both teams to clear. As we get to the table, he ask me, what do you think. I say nothing. As we get away, I tell him that I wasn't watching the action that close. I tell him, I expected the horn to go off before the shot, since they had passed the ball so many times. When we get out of the gym, he tells me that it sometimes is really hard to make that call at the horn. I give him my tip for last minute shots. I always use the finger snap. I snap my finger when the ball is clearly away. Makes it easier to determine when the horn sounded. works for me.

That is good, as you know.

Interesting. I do believe that decisions based on the order of occurance of two events can be helped with something like a snap of the fingers - your brain can determine if it heard the snap before or after the horn. I might try this trick.

I had a similar situation yesterday.

Team A is inbounding the ball, on the baseline nearest their basket, with 0.4 remaining on the clock. I am Trail in a 2-Whistle crew.

The pass comes in and immediately the ball is up, off the glass, and in the goal as the horn sounds. Count the basket.

Coach from Team B is upset that I counted the basket, claiming it is not possible for the girl to score in 0.4 seconds. I tell her that if the time was 0.3 or under, only a tip could potentially count. It seems like there might have been a small delay in starting the clock, but the ball was off the girls hand when the horn sounded. I had to count the basket. My partner, on the baseline, allowed me to decide whether to count the basket or not. In the locker room, my partner agreed with my ruling.