Doing the U19 provincial championships a few weeks ago, and one coach, who made it be known to me that he also officiates, kept asking for a conditional timeout. (These are FIBA rules, which rules' state that coaches request a TO to the scorer's table, and when a TO opportunity exists, the table will grant it. TO requests can also be rescinded, if done in time.) However, a coach cannot say, "I want a timeout if they score." There are no conditional requests: a coach either wants a timeout or he does not.
So this coach, obviously coaching at a high level, and with FIBA officiating experience, is dictating conditional timeouts to the table.
Like most tournaments here, the table is made of up less-than-knowledgeable teenagers.
So I called him on it.
"Coach, why would you do that?" (pause) "You know that there are no conditional timeouts in FIBA. You also know that tables handling timeouts is not the easiest task. Why would you do that?"
The look on his face was priceless. The blank stare, open mouth and lack of words told the story quite well.
