[BillyMac]

I worked with a young official a few nights ago. Very late in a close game, during a timeout, he informs me that Team A has used all their timeouts. I asked him if he informed the head coach of Team A that he had used all his timeouts. He replied, "No, we're not supposed to, by rule". I informed him that he was very much mistaken, that we would talk about it after the game, went to the table to discover that both teams had used all their allotted timeouts, and then informed both coaches that they had no timeouts remaining.

After the game I asked him about his interpretation. He said that he didn't want to inform the coaches because he didn't want to make a mistake, informing them that they had no timeouts, when they may have actually had a timeout remaining. Somewhere along the line, he had confused informing the coach about one timeout remaining, with informing the coach about no timeouts remaining. I explained to him that we don't tell the coach when they have one timeout left, by rule, and because if we were mistaken, if they actually have none left, and we grant them a timeout, to find out that there was an error in communication between the table, official, and coach, that there would be a technical foul penalty, which, I'm sure, the coach wouldn't appreciate. Then we both checked the rule in the rulebook for further clarification. He won't make that mistake again, and by the way, he's going to be a good official.

2-11-6: The scorer shall: Record the time-out information charged to each team (who and when) and notify a team and its coach, through an official, whenever that team is granted its final allotted charged time-out.