I made a really big mistake tonight, and I may have even compounded it with another one. It did not change the outcome, but it really could have.
I had a Freshman Girls game with two below average teams. It was one of those games you could have had a violation or foul on every single possession. The players had trouble dribbling, passing, shooting, and playing defense. It just was not good basketball. The game seesawed all night, and we have a violation with about a minute left in the game. The home team was ahead by one point. Here is where I got to take center stage.
The home team inbounds under their basket without pressure. They advance the ball down court just fine. The point guard gets about 2 steps across half court and dribbles in place. The defense just waits at the top of the key and the clock continues to run.
The defense finally comes out with some minimal pressure forcing the point guard to pass the ball. Well, passing is a problem just like it has been all night. They make 2 or 3 passes and have near violations or turnovers on all of them. Both coaches have been disgusted with their team's play all night and we have had a lot of very loud time out calls with that very disgusted tone that coaches get when their players are not playing well.
It was very clear that the home team would not be skilled enough to keep the ball away for the last minute. They just did not have the skill to run the four corners. Finally after a few near turnovers, I hear the coach in a very disgusted voice yell, "Time out!, Time out!, Time out?, etc." over and over. I looked to the bench and made sure it was the head coach and granted the time out with 25 seconds left in the game.
Unfortunately, it was the head coach of the visiting team requesting the time out. I knew it as soon as I blew the whistle. I have never wanted to swallow a whistle so bad in all my life. Immediately the home coach starts yelling they can't call time out while we have the ball. The home coach wants me to call a technical foul on the visiting coach. I head to the sideline and tell the scorers that I have blown the whistle improperly. The whistle has stopped play and we have a dead ball. I am then forced to grant the visiting team their request for a time out. I then get to go and explain to the home coach that it was my mistake for blowing the whistle and by no means is it a technical foul because anybody can request a time out at anytime, it is just my responsibility to make sure that they don't get one when they are not entitled to one. Furthermore, I explain, now that we have a dead ball, I am granting their time out request because it is certainly proper to request one during a dead ball situation. Needless to say, she was not very happy with my explanation.
Of course during the time out, the visiting coach tells her team that they need to try and steal the ball and if they can't they need to foul. Lucky for me, the visitors did not steal the imbounds pass and were forced to foul. The home team makes 2 of their 6 free throws down the stretch and win by 3 because the visitors can't make any shots. Of course it could have gone another way.
The visiting coach came up after the game and offered and apology. She said that she just couldn't believe that her team didn't know that when you were behind by one, you don't let the other team dribble out the clock. She said she only had 2 of her players trying to steal the ball or stop the clock and she was calling time out to make sure that they all knew to do this. She said she didn't think about the fact that they did not have the ball. I informed her that it was perfectly acceptable for her to request a time out, but I should have simply ignored her request. I have never been so happy to leave a gym. Sorry for the long post, but I just felt the need to vent a little bit.
Was it proper to actually grant the time out request at the dead ball after the inadvertent whistle?
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