Buzzer favored home team.... Strange Situation

[just another ref]

Originally Posted by JugglingReferee

It almost makes you want to ask ahead of time if there are any known problems with the clock.

I routinely do that in pregame. Ask the home coach during pregame. Any special ground rules in this building? Clock/scoreboard issues? Overhangs? Dead spots?

[BillyMac]

Originally Posted by just another ref

Any special ground rules in this building? Clock/scoreboard issues? Overhangs? Dead spots?

If the ball rolls under the bleachers, it's a ground rule double.

[DesMoines]

Last night, GV. Small town in Iowa... which explains some of this.

As we were preparing to take the floor, the AD came in and told us that about half the town was without power. Luckily, there were two different feeds coming into the school and the gym did have power -- sort of. We started the game with only about 60% of the lights in the gym working (of 20, we had 6 on one end, 4 on the other) and only one scoreboard. We discussed it with everyone and they wanted to go, so we pre-gamed how to handle last shots, etc. and went to work.

With about 3 minutes to play in the game, the lights came back on, as did the other scoreboard... and the horn went off. Everybody freezes, but the ball was in the paint. Inappropriate advantage offense, because the defense stopped playing.

Thanks to this thread, I hit my whistle and blew it dead.

[Adam]

I have to ask, which schools? (PM me if you'd like.)

[SE Minnestoa Re]

I like to hit the whistle if everyone stops. It seems to be the fair thing to do.

[GoodwillRef]

Originally Posted by just another ref

I routinely do that in pregame. Ask the home coach during pregame. Any special ground rules in this building? Clock/scoreboard issues? Overhangs? Dead spots?

That is great to ask the question but it doesn't change the situation and the "unfair" advantage gained by the home team.