So, I didn’t watch the game yet, but Duke squeaked out a win over Clemson a few minutes ago. I’ve been busy all evening, but had the gamecast on my monitor so I could walk by and check it every now and then.

With 12 seconds left, they went up by 5 points and it appeared they had it. I look at it again, and there’s 4 seconds left and it’s tied. What? Then, the final and Duke wins by 2 points. So, I had to see that right away.

I promptly went to my DVR and backed up to watch the last 12 seconds. After Clemson scored with 5.0 seconds left to cut it back to 3 points, Josh McRoberts throws an inbounds pass directly to a Clemson player. Paulus was the intended recipient, but he faked one way and went the other. Josh threw the pass “one way”, not the other. When I say “directly”, I mean directly - the Clemson player was standing there directly behind the 3-point line. His feet never moved. He caught the pass, launched it, and tied the game.

However, the clock started late and did not stop as it should have immediately after the made basket. When it finally did, I believe there were 1.8 seconds left. Duke called timeout after the shot to set up a final play. During the timeout, the officials reset the clock to 4.4 seconds. What they did, apparently, was set the clock based on where it was when the ball went through - which is what they should do. But, what they apparently didn’t notice is that it had started late. There should have been less than 4.4 seconds left, probably no more than 3 to 3.5 seconds. The player caught and shot a 3-pointer. That takes at least 1.5 to 2 seconds. It definitely takes more than 0.6 seconds.

After the timeout, Duke inbounded the ball to Jon Scheyer, who took a few dribbles and passed the ball down to David McClure inside the Duke lane for a layup at the buzzer. He appeared to release the ball with about 0.2 seconds left, which was prior to the final horn (and therefore it counted), but it was at least 1 second after the clock probably should have expired, had the clock been reset correctly.

What I couldn’t figure out is that Mike Patrick and Len Elmore didn’t notice this on several replays of the Clemson shot. It was obvious the clock didn’t start until the ball was almost inside the basket, but they didn’t appear to recognize it either and never said a word. I’m sure someone else noticed it and it will get plenty of air time on ESPN and elsewhere. Regardless, it’s over now and the win counts.

I hate that this happened, particularly since everyone has complained so loudly in recent years that “Duke gets all the calls.” I’ve commented many times on that and how ludicrous it was, but clearly they benefited from a mistake tonight. Of course, you can’t say what might have happened had the clock been set to 3 seconds instead. Duke was in a timeout, and a different play may have been called with less time. They could have scored anyway. They may have gone into overtime and still won the game. And, of course, they may have gone to OT and Clemson may have come out with the win. It can’t be known what would have happened with a little less time, and it can’t really be said that they won due to that mistake. It helped for the particular play they executed, but who knows what would have happened in a different situation.

So, I’m glad they won, but hate that it happened the way it did and that there will (most likely) be controversy surrounding the win. I’m anxious to watch the entire game to see how they played throughout. They probably deserved to lose just for blowing a 5-point lead with 12 seconds left. But such is life in the ACC.