Strangest ending?

[Raymond]

Camp game (Blue v. White)

Bonus not in effect until 10th foul. White up 3 points with about 20 seconds left after making free throws. White only has 4 team fouls. White commits 3 or 4 fouls that gets the clock down to around 7 seconds and the ensuing throw-in is still in backcourt near division line. B1 receives throw-in at midcourt and takes a dribble or 2 into frontcourt. W1 attempts to foul B1. Official does not blow whistle. B1, in reaction to the contact, throws up a shot from 40ft and basket goes in. Ball goes through hoops with about 3 seconds left on clock and then clock runs out. Confusion ensues. White coach is up in arms that foul wasn't called. Officials huddle, confirm no whistle was blown for foul, but that someone for White called a time-out after basket was made. (I'm watching from sidelines so I don't know actual conversation). 2.8 seconds is put back on the clock. White has throw-in from endline. White attempts throw-in to W2 at division line. Ball goes through his legs. B2 standing behind W2 picks up ball and throws up a prayer from midcourt....nothing but net as time expires.

[Texas Aggie]

Not so much strange, but unusual. I forgot the numbers, so everything is a guess, but Team A down by ~15 with less than 2 minutes left. They put in this kid who, well to be kind, looks like he has absolutely no athletic ability. They come down pass it to the kid who's wide open north of the 3 line (no defender is bothering covering him) and he launches one. Swish. Team B throw in, foul, miss free throws, again A down the court to the kid, swish. This happens at least 3 times. Now we have about a 4 or 5 point game with around 25 seconds. Someone calls timeout, and I hear the opposing coach instruct his kids to foul the guy -- or at least cover him! Team A lost, shooting for a tie at the end, I think, because the kid couldn't get open -- B had like 3 guys on him. I have no doubt the kid would have sunk one to win or tie!

Moral to coaches: get a kid with limited skills and during practice put him in a gym by himself with a manager doing absolutely nothing but shooting 3s for 2 hours a day. I might even hold tryouts for that job!

[Mark Padgett]

OK - here's the strangest ending I've had in a long time and it involved an intentional foul. I was working a girls HS camp and the game rules were as follows:

running clock

no timeouts, except for an officials timeout to correct something

no free throws - if a shooting foul, award the points, if the shot goes in, give the points and one - if a common foul, just give the ball back to the fouled team OOB

obviously, no bonus

This was an eval camp and they just wanted the kids to play and show off their skills to the college coaches who were watching. I guess they didn't care about free throw shooting skills.

Team A was up by one with less than a minute to go (oh yeah, no overtimes either ) Team B had the ball to inbound and coach A yelled at his team to just foul as soon as the ball was inbounded. This meant team B just kept inbounding with the clock running and no chance to score. It was a very clever strategy on the part of Coach A. The players on A either were actually making attempts on the ball or else they were darn good actors. However, with just under 10 seconds left, B1 inbounds to B2 and A1 just runs up and grabs her with both hands. I call the intentional and the clock runs out. According to the rules, team B automatically gets two points for the intentional and wins the game.

Here's the best part - no complaint from Coach A. He directed his disappointment toward A1 for committing the intentional foul.

My partner and I had a great time discussing this one before the next game started. In fact, I wound up explaining the ending to about 5 groups of parents and a few of the college coaches. Most of them just nodded their heads and said, "Oh, I see".

I loved those game rules, especially the running clock, the no team timeouts and the no overtimes and I think the NF should adopt them.

[Hugh Refner]

I don't know if this was the absolute strangest, but it was pretty weird. HS boys JV. Team A down by three in the final seconds. A1 launches a shot from about midcourt. B1 goaltends! At the same time, the horn goes off. I really couldn't tell if the shot was going to go in or not. Yeah, we had the dreaded OT and team B still won.