[CompSci87]

Stanford time keeper helping out UTSA by not taking time off clock.

Once the time keeper made the initial mistake, some damage had been done, but the fair thing at that point is to minimize that damage.  The best -- i.e., the most fair solution to the team with the ball -- would be to blow the whistle, stop play, make sure the clock is working properly [while the teams stay on the floor], reset it, and have UTSA take the ball in again with 13.5 seconds on the clock as if none of that had ever happened. Doing that means that neither team is helped OR hurt in terms of time.

I agree 100%.   I don't know why the refs didn't do that.  I assume there is a rule for resetting the clock and the refs followed it.

MT may look up the exact rule for us. I think I've seen the refs redo the original inbound if the clock doesn't start, but more often they take time off the clock and give the team the ball out of bounds at the place where they blew the whistle. Maybe it depends on how far the play went before they noticed the timing error.

It's hard to be fair to both teams when the clock fails to start and it's not noticed right away. If you start over, that negates the defense that was played on/after the original inbound. It also would negate whatever the offense accomplished in getting the ball inbounded and the ball and players into position. If instead you continue from the point of play stoppage, it also may negate what either the offense or defense accomplished: maybe the player with the ball was trapped, or conversely maybe she was about to get a wide open shot, etc.

[CompSci87]

Stanford time keeper helping out UTSA by not taking time off clock.

Once the time keeper made the initial mistake, some damage had been done, but the fair thing at that point is to minimize that damage.  The best -- i.e., the most fair solution to the team with the ball -- would be to blow the whistle, stop play, make sure the clock is working properly [while the teams stay on the floor], reset it, and have UTSA take the ball in again with 13.5 seconds on the clock as if none of that had ever happened. Doing that means that neither team is helped OR hurt in terms of time.

I agree 100%.   I don't know why the refs didn't do that.  I assume there is a rule for resetting the clock and the refs followed it.

MT may look up the exact rule for us. I think I've seen the refs redo the original inbound if the clock doesn't start, but more often they take time off the clock and give the team the ball out of bounds at the place where they blew the whistle. Maybe it depends on how far the play went before they noticed the timing error.

It's hard to be fair to both teams when the clock fails to start and it's not noticed right away. If you start over, that negates the defense that was played on/after the original inbound. It also would negate whatever the offense accomplished in getting the ball inbounded and the ball and players into position. If instead you continue from the point of play stoppage, it also may negate what either the offense or defense accomplished: maybe the player with the ball was trapped, or conversely maybe she was about to get a wide open shot, etc.