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Originally Posted by BayStateRef
So does peeking at the coach to see if she wants a time out.
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With under 5 seconds to go and a possible scoring play in progress, the last thing in the world that an official should be doing imo is peeking at a coach to see if he/she wants a TO. If you hear a TO request, that's when you peek at the coach.
That's what makes this play so damn difficult imo. The rulesmakers want an official to watch a last-second scoring play in progress in his area and simultaneously verify that a TO request is actually coming from the head coach....a head coach that is usually out of his sight line. The FED issued a POE in 2004-05 that directed us to visually confirm that any TO request is actually coming from a head coach before granting it.
In this particular case, the official upon hearing the TO request had to:
1) Confirm that the ball was still under player control when the request was made.
2) Visually confirm that the TO request was actually coming from the head coach.
3) Grant the request.
4)
then check the game clock, if possible.
There has to be some kind of time lag during that sequence, especially if the player shot immediately after when you started to look at the head coach.
Stoopid rule. As typified in this game, it sureasheck can put the officials on the spot. If the TO wasn't granted and the 3-pointer had been missed, you'd still be reading about it in the papers too. That's because the coach would be screaming about not getting her TO and a few seconds for another shot.
Sometimes.....damned if we do, damned if we don't.
Jmhpoo.