Correctable error fixed during halftime of Big East game
 

http://sports.yahoo.com/ncaab/recap?gid=200803050508

The most memorable part of the game was the start of the second half and left Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim shaking his head. A late run that Greene started with consecutive 3-pointers gave Syracuse what seemed to be a 48-31 halftime lead. The last two points came when Scoop Jardine hit 2 of 3 free throws with less than a second to play.
Jardine had picked up a loose ball in the closing seconds, dribbled down the court and tossed up a shot just before the buzzer. Tim Higgins called a foul.
After reviewing the videotape, the officials decided the shot came before the buzzer and was outside the 3-point ring.
When the officials came on the floor for the second half, Higgins and fellow officials Bryan Kersey and Brian O’Connell watched the tape again and noticed the clock had stopped momentarily with about four seconds remaining. They ruled that Jardine never would have gotten his shot off and deducted two points, determining the error was correctable.

Jess Kersey's son?

How many times is the clock going to accidentally stop near the end of a game or a half? Not sure what is up with this... I don't remember this problem in years past.

And it only seems to be happening at home games, too.










Somewhere, fanboys are reading this and shaking their heads, going "yup, yup, yup, it's true".:D

Yes - and a great person who has taken the time to mentor many of us in the Hampton Roads area of Virginia.

I agree that this is occurring far too frequently. The NCAA should take a look into this matter.

It really seems that the Precision Timing is the issue, but it could be something else such as a programming bug in the clock system itself.

I wonder if the microphones on the officials are reacting to something that they shouldn't be (heavy breathing/crowd noise), the officials are absent mindedly or as a nervous tick clicking the switch, or perhaps the wireless transmission system is getting interference from other devices (cell phones, TV/radio transmission) in the arena.

The device can react to heavy breathing and also to the official's voice. I know there have been times when I have said oooo or oh in response to a play. The manufacturer issued instructions to have all officials take the whistle out when talking to players.

Thanks for confirming one of the possibilities, but I don't see how removing the whistle from one's mouth would prevent a problem.

If my understanding of the device is correct, the microphone attaches either to the collar of the official's shirt or to the lanyard. So moving the whistle 2-3 inches while talking wouldn't seem to move the microphone very much if at all.

Perhaps you could further help me out here.

I've never used PTS, but I've been told by those who have (while discussing this very topic) that the microphone specifically picks up the sound of air moving through the Fox 40 whistle - not just any sound. So, if you talk with the whistle in your mouth, while it may not blow out loud, the small amount of air moving through the whistle may be enough at that specific frequency or pitch or whatever it is that is special about the whistle to trigger the microphone. Taking the whistle out of the mouth eliminates this problem. The actual positioning of the microphone is secondary.

Thanks
 

Thanks JDW for saying it more eloquently. Also, that's why it is that much more important to be in shape.....less heavy breathing. ;)

Seems to me they need to dial-down the sensitivity.

I'll bet the company has a kit schools can buy to fix the issue.;)

That's as reasonable an explanation as I could have hoped to hear.

I understand physics at a fairly high level, and what it seems that you are saying is that the sensor is set to detect a certain range of sound wave frequency, which is really nothing more than some air getting pushed around as it exits the whistle's chambers.

So if that is the case, we have wonder what else is in that frequency range which could be interfering.

That's exactly the way I understand it.

Yes, or how many of the officials choose the last minute of the game to breathe too heavily. :D

Is it only happening in the last minute of the game, or is it only being noticed in the last few seconds because of the increased scrutiny?

I think that it is only being noticed in the final minute of each half because that is when the clock displays tenths of a second. The rest of the game it is hard to tell if the clock has a slight pause.

That's another good point.

One other thing that would explain some of it - it doesn't make a lot of sense that all these errors have been because of the microphone or button being triggered - as the pauses are very short and someone (an official or the scorer) would have to restart the clock if the system tripped.

Most of these appear to be pauses that nobody recognizes, so therefore nobody is restarting the clock. It appears the clock is stopping and starting on its own. Could still be the PTS, but it seems to be a malfunction rather than the signal being tripped accidentally.

Then we are talking software or hardware problem and that is difficult to pinpoint and fix.

AFAIK, the PTS not only detects one frequency but all three frequencies coming out of the whistle. Not only does it detect their presence but it reacts to a sudden increase in their level. So, noise around the arena shouldn't both contain substantial amounts of the three frequencies of the Fox40 and suddenly increase in intensity at the same time.

My guess, as and Engineer, is that it is not the sound that is being mis-detected but a malfunction somewhere else in the system.

Also, given that PTS only stops the clock on the whistle, what makes it start back????

Could it be that switches in the belt packs, which have buttons to start/stop the clock, are starting to fail after a few years of use....from years of vibrations from running up/down the floor and getting tossed around after the game.

It could also be radio interference....but it short pauses would not be likely.

My best guess would be that the clock operator is resting his finger on the button ready press it and, accidentally or deliberately, slightly presses the button such that it both stops then re-starts the clock. It does seem to have only happened when the clock operator's team has the ball in the closing seconds of a close game where the home team was trying to tie/win the game on a last second shot.

I have been thinking along the same lines. If PTS were erroneously picking up a whistle, it would stop the clock. You'd see very lengthy pauses as the clock remains stopped until somebody notices and restarts it.

Also, my understanding of PTS is that the switch on the belt pack only starts the clock. It will not stop it. So it shouldn't be anything like a nervous rookie fiddling with the switch.

Since the belt pack is capable of sending both the start and stop signal, it could still be something going on inside a belt pack that's starting to go south after a few years of being jogged around so much. But it would be remarkable indeed for it be sending a stop then start every time.

Could be in the PTS receiver. Could be in the clock itself. Could be in the timer's controller.

Could be the home school timer.

It could also be the case that all these timing issues we're suddenly seeing are merely a result of being aware of the issue and looking to find them where we never did before. Perhaps they are happening way more often than we think, but we have just never looked to see if the clock "lost" a second somewhere in the first half.

The exact same thing happened in one of the ESPN games last night, but in the first few seconds of the second half.

Basically, with 19:45 to go, team inbounds at their backcourt endline. The clock started and I saw the T with his hand on the belt pack, so I believe he started the clock correctly. The clock counted down to 19:44, then stopped.

About the time the team got to halfcourt, the L saw the stopped clock and whistled play dead. At around this same time, the clock actually started and ran for several seconds before someone got it stopped again.

The bottom line was that now the clock was about right, so they just inbounded the ball and everything worked fine from then on. But, there was definitely an odd pause of several seconds. I assumed that the clock had one of these mystery stops and someone noticed and got it restarted right about the time the L noticed and blew the play dead. At the beginning of the second half, it's not such a big deal, but the way it's been happening at the end of games is a real problem.

JT