Florida Gulf Coast coach hopes clock error sparks a rule change

The morning after an egregious clock error deprived Florida Gulf Coast of a fair chance to win at Michigan State on its final possession, Eagles coach Joe Dooley said he wants to make sure no other team endures the disappointment his players are feeling right now.

Dooley told Yahoo Sports on Monday that he hopes the NCAA men’s basketball rules committee considers a rule change enabling referees to grant the do-over that he begged for but did not receive Sunday night.

“I do think this was a correctable error,” Dooley said. “I understand foul calls aren’t correctable if you miss it, but a clock error is different. Someone obviously started the clock wrong. If you see clearly see there has been a mistake and the clock started, why wouldn’t you want to fix it?”

The error that doomed Florida Gulf Coast occurred when the game clock mistakenly started as soon as Christian Terrell released a length-of-the-floor inbound pass with 1.6 seconds left and the Eagles trailing 78-77. The horn already sounded by the time Antravious Simmons caught the ball just inside the foul line, causing him to rush a turn-around jumper that badly missed its target.

Referee Bo Boroski admitted to pool reporter Matt Charboneau after the game that “a timing error occurred,” but also noted that his crew was essentially powerless to fix it. All the officials could do under NCAA rules was go to the replay monitor and review whether any time would be left on the clock after Simmons’ miss if the clock had not started too early.

“Using a stopwatch, it was determined the ball was caught and released in 1.3 seconds, meaning if the shot would have gone in, it would have counted,” Boroski said. “After the miss, there was no time remaining in the game, therefore ending the game. By rule, the possession cannot be replayed. Period.”

While Dooley acknowledges the referees had no other options Sunday night, he’d like to see that change in the future. Dooley believes Simmons would have been able to get a cleaner look for his final shot had the horn not gone off just before he caught the pass.

“We were hoping he’d be able to turn, dribble and try a layup,” Dooley said. “He made a nice catch. Christian threw a good ball. But it’s hard to get a shot off when you catch it and the horn is ringing. He straight-up panicked, which we all would have. He panicked and shot it quickly.”

Dooley’s other source of frustration is that neither the referees nor the Breslin Center clock operator have taken responsibility for the timing error. Asked twice who was to blame by the pool reporter, Boroski said only that all three officials and the timer on the sideline have the ability to start the clock.

“The referees told me they did not start the clock and the scorer’s table told our [sports information director] that they did not start the clock,” Dooley said. “They did not answer the question. Someone started the clock, and it wasn’t me. I did not start the clock. I will tell you that.”

Dooley had not received a call from anyone at Michigan State or the Big Ten prior to boarding a flight back to Florida on Monday morning, nor does he expect to after he lands. He hopes his team moves on quickly from the disappointment of Sunday’s loss but that the rules committee keeps it in mind when they convene again.

When Kentucky’s Nerlens Noel received credit for a key basket at Vanderbilt three years ago after the shot clock buzzer had already sounded, it became the impetus for a rule change allowing referees to review and fix such errors. Dooley hopes Sunday’s game provides momentum for a similar offseason rule change.

“You used to not be able to see if the shot clock had gone off, but now you can correct that,” Dooley said. If you can correct a shot clock error, I don’t see why you can’t correct this.”

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Jeff Eisenberg is the editor of The Dagger on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at daggerblog@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!

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