Possible Human Error Caused Clock Malfunction

According to ESPN.com, there was possible human error which may have caused the clock malfunction in last night's Rutgers / Tennessee woman's basketball game.

Precision Time Systems inventor and president Michael Costabile said there is plenty of room for human error in running the game clock. At issue is whether Rutgers' Kia Vaughn fouled Nicky Anosike before time expired.

The Precision Time device, which keeps time for all NBA games and many at the college level, uses small microphones attached to the referees' whistles that communicate wirelessly to devices worn on the referees' belts. The devices start and stop the game clock. When the device picks up sound from the whistle, the clock stops.

Costabile said because the clock seemed to pause before reaching zero indicates to him that either an official or the timekeeper may have stopped the clock, anticipating Anosike would be fouled, and then restarted it when that wasn't immediately the case.

It's unfortunate the officials were put in this situation. I heard Chris Myers talking about this today on his radio show, and they were asking why the officials didn't review the play, and rule the game was over. Well, according to this report:

Officials replayed the video and ruled the foul came just before the buzzer. Anosike stepped up and hit the two free throws to take the victory.

I have to ask. If a whistle or clock operator stopped the clock inadvertantly - they must have caught their mistake and quickly restarted it - just enough time to get the foul in. That has conspiracy written all over it. My impression is if it's a home game - and the home court's clock fails like that - they should not have been rewarded in that case. The officials should have reviewed it more closely and ruled the game over. But, either way - tough position for those officials to be in at that point in time.

Just in case you haven't seen it. Here's the video:

Home Court Advantage?

The Tennessee woman's basketball team beat Rutgers tonight in Knoxville by 1 point. The game ended on a very controversial play that left the Scarlet Knights feeling a little bit cheated. Here's how it was explained at ESPN.com

Trailing 58-57, Anosike [on Tennessee] grabbed an offensive rebound and was grabbed by Kia Vaughn from behind. Unclear whether the foul had come before time expired, the Rutgers bench began to celebrate, but officials reviewed the play and determined that the foul had been committed just before the buzzer.

Television replays showed the game clock seemed to pause as Anosike came down with the ball and two-tenths remained on the clock, leading to the controversial finish.

Basically, what happened is that what the first shot was missed, the clock stopped at 0.2, allowed enough time for Anosike to grab the rebound, and get fouled, and then the clock started back up.

While watching highlights on ESPN, they said it was a "glitch", but I don't know - just seems a little fishy to me.

Anosike would sink both free throws to give Tennessee the lead, and the win.

Apparently, the Scarlet Knights also had a Villanova moment earlier in the year:

It wasn't the first time this season Rutgers lost a game on a controversial call at the end. The Scarlet Knights were beaten by Stanford on two free throws by Candice Wiggins with one-tenth of a second left when she was fouled by Prince 80 feet from the basket.

I'm curious to know if Rutgers can (and will) protest the finish to this game. If that clock doesn't pause, they win this game - and the video proves that.

Photo Credit: ESPN

Instant Replay on Questionable Home Run Calls

I'm watching the Mets game tonight - they are playing the San Francisco Giants. Benji Molina just hit a ball that bounced off the top of the wall, and back into the playing field. Carlos Beltran managed to chase the ball down and hold Molina and the runner in front of him to 2nd and 3rd, that is... until the 3rd base umpire waved his little finger around in a circle to signal a home run. Willie Randolf immediately jogged slowly out on to the field - went to Bruce Froemming, the crew chief, who was the 2nd base umpire to state his case. Froemming didn't waste anytime and did the right thing by getting the crew together. After about 10 seconds of asking each other what they had for dinner tonight, Froemming turned and wagged the little finger again. How could any of them from the infield tell if it really hit the top of the fence or hit off the chest of the gentleman in the front row? The umps clearly made the wrong call, but it would have been hard for them to make the right call. This is the 2nd "non home run ball" that the Mets have had called against them in the last 3 games. On Saturday night Endy Chavez had a ball go in and out of his glove and fall back onto the field. Replays showed that Endy clearly robbed the D-Backs of a home run, but umpires in that game decided that a fan knocked it out of his glove and ruled it a home run. Mets radio announcers compared it to a Jeffrey Maier moment. Earlier tonight in the Cardinals / Rockies game with the score tied 2 - 2 and one out in the bottom the 9th, The following took place:

Troy Tulowitzki unloaded a shot to left field that hit off the metal fence atop the wall, but second base umpire Bob Davidson call the ball in play, leaving Tulowitzki with a double and manager Clint Hurdle so frustrated that he was given his first ejection of the season.

To the relief of fans in Denver, the Rockies ended up winning the game later in the inning anyway. Imagine, however, if these close calls were in the playoffs, or worse yet - the World Series. All 3 calls appeared to be the wrong calls, but in all honesty can you blame the umps? I realize that in the playoffs there are extra umps on hand up and down the left and right field lines, but only with a replay system in place do you ensure complete accuracy. I think baseball and its "old school" mentality could perhaps create more ugly moments in the postseason that replay could prevent.

Rockies beat Cards despite questionable call [Rocky Mtn. News]

Jeffrey Maier Wikipedia Page [Wikipedia]

Bad Call in Memphis/A&M Game?

I'm sure many Texas A&M fans will be up in arms over the call in the game this evening between the Aggies and the Memphis Tigers. With 3.1 seconds left - the Aggies were inbounding the ball from underneath the Memphis basket, and an errant pass was deflected out of bounds by a Memphis player. During the play, no time went off the clock. That sent the officials to the scorers table to review the play. During the timeout, Bill Raftery was actually praising the officials for the excellent game they had been calling up to that point. Me personally, I was doing the play-by-play over the phone to my buddy who was in the unfortunate situation of being in his car during these critical moments. As I'm watching the replay - I was telling him that it didn't appear that the ball had touched the sideline and therefore bounced in bounds before it then landed out of bounds. As far as I knew, the clock shouldn't stop until the ball actually lands out of bounds, not necessarily when it crosses the plane. The refs (even though it took them a while) finally made a decision and decided to take a full 1.1 seconds off the clock giving Texas A&M then only 2.0 seconds to get the ball in bounds and throw up a desperation half court heave. Was it the right call? I think so, although I think they could have made the clock read 2.9 seconds and still had the same result with none of the controversy. Both Raftery and play by play man Verne Lunquist were confused by the call, and describing the ball landing in bounds before going out of bounds wasn't brought up until Greg Gumble brought it up during the post game show. Seth Davis even thought it was questionable and would cause controversy. My opinion is that considering the clock operator thought it immediately went out of bounds, and to the naked eye it appeared that it immediately went out of bounds and even on replay, it was close, the refs should have just taken 2 or 3 tenths of a second off the clock. But you can't fault them for making an accurate call either.