[BillyMac]

Originally Posted by billyu2

Many times officials will rule in favor of the coach, saying the “request” was made when there was player control ... If the coach doesn’t understand by rule we must first be certain of the status of the ball (PC) before granting his time out request, that is his problem not ours. Locate the ball. Then make your decision. PC, yes? Whistle, grant time out. No PC? No whistle. No time out.

Agree with billyu2's well worded post, as do points of emphasis (with fuzzy wording similar to the actual fuzzy language of the actual rule) published over six different years.

However a twenty-three year old interpretation seems, at first glance, to disagree with both of us.

1998-99 NFHS Basketball Rules Interpretations: Situation 8: A1 is dribbling the ball in the frontcourt. The ball bounces off his leg into the backcourt. As A1 goes into backcourt to retrieve the ball, the head coach requests a time-out. Can the time-out request by the head coach be granted by the officials? Ruling: No. Team must be in player control when the verbal or visual request is made by the head coach and recognized by the official. (5-8-3a)

However, the phrase "and recognized by the official" can also be considered slightly fuzzy language.

Originally Posted by billyu2

The principle here is not any different than ruling on the release of a last-second shot. Would any official whistle the ball dead without accurate knowledge of the location of the ball? Locate the ball. Ball touching hand? Whistle, no shot. Ball in flight? No whistle.

Appreciate the effort from billyu2, but this is not an analogous situation. We can keep our "eye on the ball" 100% of the time while we listen for the horn at the same time. Also, there's no fuzzy language regarding a shot at the buzzer, it's pretty much straight forward.