I was digging around the "Basketball Handbook" late last night looking through the rules changes over the years. The NFHS has been in the "fashion police" business for many, many years. The only thing I can figure is that they want to keep the game looking like "the game of basketball." Personally I think it's kind of silly, but I can definitely see how not regulating uniforms would lead to fashion chaos.
As for assessing a technical foul, I'm sure that it has occurred to the NFHS. They seem to have a real bent for "cracking down hard" on "heinous" offenses like this. Think about the swinging elbows and leaving the court. Unfortunately, you'd see even less enforcement if they made it a technical. Who wants to assess such a draconian penalty for a fashion faux pas? Sometimes I think the rules committee live on another planet.
As for the coach calling a time out, I really like the compromise position the committee floated: allow the coach to call a timeout only during a dead ball and stopped clock. That gives the coach more flexibility than if he couldn't call one, but keeps the official's focus on the floor. But I also agree with Junker that it's not too difficult to learn to glance at the bench at "the usual times" when timeouts are frequently wanted. I would also definitely support a rule change that requires a coach to request
both verbally and visually. That would go a long way toward asuaging the bonehead coach who loses his temper because I didn't hear him calmly ask for a timeout during the heat of battle. Make him signal, and I won't have to suggest it to him after he didn't get the timeout he wanted.
