Quote:
Originally posted by lr2242
Did a sixth-grade girls game today and think I made a mistake. What should I have done?--Tense game--lots of screaming etc. I was across the court from the ball, which was somewhere in a mob of players. Team A had been in possession of the ball and had advanced it to their offensive end. From the corner of my eye I waw coach A signal for timeout. Just as I blew the whistle, player B came out of the tangle of players with the ball and made a layup. My whistle had already blown so I signalled the timeout, waved off the basket by B and announced team B would have possession on the sideline.
My partner came up to point out that we would have to give possession to team A. Since we had granted the timeout, team A 'must' have had possession. I bought his reasoning (which I think I regret) and informed coach B he would not have the ball after all. In retrospect I wish I would have admitted the mistaken timeout and stuck with my initial decision to award team B possession. Any advice appreciated.
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This is what is commonly referred to as a "BLARGE".
Let's start here. NF rule 5.8.3 says the timeout begins when the official "Grants a player's/head coaches oral or visual request..." Now the question becomes, does the ball become dead when you recognize the request, or when you blow the whistle? It all depends on what your association has said based on the meaning of the word "grants".
I think it is most common to consider the coach or player has the right to expect a point in time as the stoppage of play point at the time you recognize the request, even if it takes you a moment to blow your whistle and something happens within that moment.
I know I have heard officials in this situation state to the scorer and the benches that "he signaled for it while it was still in player control" or something similar.
In your case, you could either claim that is what happened and give the ball back to A, or claim that you called the timeout improperly when B had control, in which case A still gets the timeout but you would give the ball to B.
Personally, I think the first option is much better. In that case, you really did nothing wrong, while in the second scenerio, you have to admit to a screw-up. Besides, the coach really did request it when he could legally have it.