Butler Beats Xavier, Thanks To Abstract Time Logic

No. 17 Butler narrowly escaped Xavier on Saturday, 69-68, courtesy of one of the stranger endings to a basketball game in recent memory. With 14.7 seconds left in the game, the game clock stopped for reasons unknown, then started back up about a second later. Butler managed to sink the game-winner with 1.2 seconds left, after which the referees noticed the clock malfunction. After conferring for over ten minutes, they decided that the clock had stopped for long enough to wipe out the remaining 1.2 seconds. They declared the game over and ran off the court, correctly anticipating that the Xavier bench would absolutely lose its cookies.

I like the assessment of the situation by FanHouse's Chas Rich:

After 13 minutes of examination, they decided that the clock had stopped for at least 1.2 seconds -- but less than 1.8 -- so there should be no time left on the clock and that the game was over. All other events would still have taken place the exact same way, but time needed to be shifted.

Whoa! The referees were employing a philosophy of chaos theory-style determinism. If you're not intimately familiar with this school of thought, you are in no position to doubt them.