The NCAA’s one-and-done tournament format allows little room for error. It’s not inconceivable for a lower seeded team to play out of its mind for 40 minutes and upset a more talented opponent. It’s also apparent that outside of the top few teams in each region, there’s not too much disparity between the rest of the field. In short, every possession counts. Fortunately, the NCAA has implemented a simple change in a referee accessory this year that very possibly has deep underlying effects on the tournament outcome this year.
All college basketball fans know how important refereeing can be throughout the course of a game. We gripe about perceived bad calls, and we thank the stars when fortune strikes in our teams’ favor. In the dwindling moments of these tournament games, with everything at stake, we hate it when a blow of the whistle helps decide a game in any shape or form.
With the NCAA’s tournament utilization of the Fox 40 whistle combined with the Precision Time System, every single blow of the whistle has a mounting impact on the final score. The Precision Time System syncs each referee whistle with the play clock, so that every blown whistle results in immediate time stoppage. To most, a system like this that has the sound of the whistle immediately stop the clock and eliminates human reaction time just makes sense.
The result of the Precision Time System’s accumulative efficiency is an estimated 30 seconds of playing time for a regulation college game. Coaches and players will tell you that half a minute is sufficient time to either win or lose a game. It totally changes coaching techniques in late game situations as well, because 30 seconds is enough time for an extra possession.
Look back at all of the buzzer beating shots, or teams who received the ball without enough time to find a quality shot; now give them 30 more ticks to try and decide their fate. As the NCAA Tournament goes on and more teams are eliminated this newly implemented “whistle technology” will undoubtedly have a hand in shaping the Tournament landscape.