Last second situations

[rfp]

I believe it's considered an officiating best practice that in the closing seconds of a close game, where the amount of time remaining is extremely important, that the officials should immediately look at the clock after the whistle is blown so they have definite knowledge of time remaining and can adjust the clock if necessary.

In practice (2-man), however, I've found this very challenging. In end game situations, it's also extremely important to do a bunch of other things:

- make sure you identify the correct shooter
- determine whether a foul is in the act of shooting or not
- be aware of whether a shot beat the horn or not
- make sure there's no extra-curricular activity after the call
- and a bunch of other things, I'm sure, to be certain you get the call right

I've had trouble forcing myself to put checking the clock at the top of the list.

Is it mainly the responsibility of the non-calling official to check the clock?

Suggestions?

[JugglingReferee]

Originally Posted by rfp

I believe it's considered an officiating best practice that in the closing seconds of a close game, where the amount of time remaining is extremely important, that the officials should immediately look at the clock after the whistle is blown so they have definite knowledge of time remaining and can adjust the clock if necessary.

In practice (2-man), however, I've found this very challenging. In end game situations, it's also extremely important to do a bunch of other things:

- make sure you identify the correct shooter
- determine whether a foul is in the act of shooting or not
- be aware of whether a shot beat the horn or not
- make sure there's no extra-curricular activity after the call
- and a bunch of other things, I'm sure, to be certain you get the call right

I've had trouble forcing myself to put checking the clock at the top of the list.

Is it mainly the responsibility of the non-calling official to check the clock?

Suggestions?

In late game sitchs, the calling official should definitely grab both the fouler and foulee. The non-calling official should grab the time, especially in the case of a close game. The look at the clock only takes a second. Look at it, grab the time that you see, then look back to the extra-cirricular stuff.