|
I'm interested to hear how people handle the "no timeouts left" situations in games. Specifically how you handle informing coaches of their timeouts - or not informing them - and then how you handle it when a coach wants a timeout he/she doesn't have.
I saw a boys varsity coach request a timeout he didn't have. He knew he didn't and he wanted it anyway. It was during the course of play and one official looked at him and shook his head "no" to tell him, "you don't have any." The other official (new trail, right in front of the coach) looked at the coach, who was still signalling for the timeout, and gave it to him...along with the T.
I had a situation last night. Granted, it was 6th grade girls, but I could easily come across this at higher levels and want to get a better handle on how I would / should handle it. Here is the scenario...
During a timeout the clock operator (seated between the official/home score keeper and the away score keeper) tells my partner and I both teams are out of timeouts. (Neither my partner nor I tell either coach.)
Play resumes and Team A (home), down 2 points, gets possession of the ball in their backcourt with 20 seconds left in the game. As we move into Team A's frontcourt, I am the new Lead - across from the team benches. I see the coach for Team A jumping up and down signalling for a timeout just as player A1 is setting up to take a three point shot. I ignore the timeout request thinking he doesn't have any timeouts and not wanting to have to issue the T in that situation. The girl misses the 3, team B rebounds, team A fouls. My partner tells the coach he didn't have any timeouts left and he seems surprised, but is okay with the explanation as to why we didn't give him the TO.
So, any specific criticism on how I handled the situation is welcomed. But also, in general, how do you handle timeout counts?
Do you tell the coaches, "You've got one left," or "You've got no timeouts."? (I've heard some people tell me - "Don't tell them anything. What if you're wrong? It's not your job to tell them." Others seem to say it's good game management to let them know.)
If you don't tell the coaches, but you've been told by the table that they don't have any timeouts, do you ignore their request in a tight game...a blow out...does it matter? Do you just give them the timeout whenever they request it no matter the circumstances?
Thanks and sorry for the long post.
|