Clock does not start properly
 

Situation 1:
5:25 left in the second quarter on an inbounds play. Ball is inbounded to A2 and the clock does not start properly. What is your procedure.

Situation 2:
6 seconds left in the fourth quarter with game tied on an inbounds play. Ball is inbounded to A2 and the clock does not start properly. What is your procedure?

Situation 3:
Same as above but the ball gets stolen by B1 on the inbounds.

Situation 4:
Same as above and the ball gets stolen by B1 with a clear lane to the hoop.

First of all I would stop play immediately on all situations. In situation 3 and 4 I will give the ball to team B.

Secondly I would make sure during the latter part of the game to communicate with the clock keeper on who they should be looking at to chop the clock in play.

I wanted to see if anyone would handle this differently. Situation 3 and 4 you could let the play go but then you would not be treating it the same as you would at the beginning of the game. What are your thoughts?

Early in the game, middle of a quarter, you get the timer's attention and tell him to start the clock. If you had a count going and know how much time elapsed you make an adjustment on the next dead ball.

End of quarter, you need to have a count going just for this purpose until you see that the clock has started.

I would never kill the play to make a clock adjustment when a player has a clear path to the basket.

Situation 1: Tell the timer to start the clock. If they don't, blow the whistle and tell them to start the clock when you chop time in. Make any adjustments needed to the clock if you have a count to do so....I may not bother if it is only 2-3 seconds and in the middle of the quarter.


Situation 2:
No pressure, no immediate attack....almost the same as #1 except that I'll skip to the point of blowing the whistle right away.

Situation 3:
No pressure, no immediate attack....almost the same as #1 except that I'll skip to the point of blowing the whistle right away.

Situation 4:
Count the time in my head and let B score or miss then deal with the clock.

Blow your whistle as loud as you can in the timer's ear... because they need to wake up!

Seriously... early in the game I would try to get them to start the clock with out stopping play. At the end of the game, you have to intervene immediately if it doesn't start/stop properly.

I Know, I'm A Bad Boy ...
 

What? In your head? Didn't we have an esteemed Forum member tell us a few weeks ago that we had to have a visible count?

We may have, but there is no requirement by rule to do so. The only visible counts I have are 5's and 10's.

Yep

Yep

I thought he suggested a visible count was better. I know for me, with ten seconds or less left, I always have a visible count until I verify the clock has started properly. If I'm going to potentially do something crazy like declare the quarter over with time on the clock, I'm going to use a visible count.

Like others have said, if there is an imminent opportunity to score or that time is so low (ie. 2 seconds or less and offense is running a crucial play) I WILL let it play out, keep track of the time in my head, and fix the cluster F later.

Other than that, blow the play dead ASAP, yell at the timer, T up the cheerleaders, eat a slice of pizza and put the ball in play.