The final minute of a tense SEC hoops matchup between Kentucky and Vanderbilt on Thursday night had Bob Knight bewildered and Kevin Stallings irate. The Commodores' coach was understandably furious that officials missed what looked to be a clear shot clock violation by Kentucky on a key basket. Meanwhile, Knight sounded curiously confused by the difference between the shot and game clocks.
With Kentucky clinging to a 3-point lead, Nerlens Noel made a jumper in the paint with 17.3 seconds remaining in the game. Unfortunately for the Wildcats, the ball was still in Noel's hands when the shot clock struck zero. Fortunately for Kentucky, the referees missed the violation. Vanderbilt coach Kevin Stallings didn't. He became irate with the officials calling for a shot clock violation, but the game went on without a review. After Vanderbilt knocked down a quick 3-pointer with 7.6 seconds left, Stallings called for a timeout and yelled at the refs some more.
As the ESPN broadcast showed a replay of the obvious blown call, Knight seemed confused by the positioning of the shot clock in Memorial Gym as well as its difference from the game clock.
"I think that was a different zero they had out there. See, this said 17.3 and now it's 7.6," Knight said during the replay, clearly focusing on the game time instead of the shot clock. Rece Davis, calling the game with the legendary former coach, tried to explain but Knight still didn't quite seem to understand the situation. At this point, he also seemed confused by the difference between the time remaining in the game in the replay versus the time remaining at the current point.
"But that 17.3 was up there and the zero was on the bottom. I don't know what that meant," the puzzled Knight said. Davis finally got it through to him that the zero was on the shot clock and the timing above shows the seconds remaining in the game.
Ohhhhhhh.
It probably could have gone worse for the former coach. He could have fallen asleep and missed everything.