[Mark T. DeNucci, Sr.]

Originally posted by LarryS
Sometimes you can’t win.

My first game Saturday morning…girls varsity. Less than 10 seconds in the half, ball goes OOB off B so team A to have throw-in near the division line in their frontcourt. I’m trail, tableside getting ready to administer the throw-in. I hear Coach A say “Time”. I blow my whistle and say “Time out...white”. You can probably guess what had happened. He was not requesting a TO, but was reminding his team to be aware of the time on the clock. In his defense, he started explaining before I even had a chance to finish saying those three words. I stood there for a moment, declared it an inadvertent whistle and prepared to continue. Coach B stands up and starts to complain. I told her it was my mistake; I would do the same for her if the situation were reversed. She was not real happy, but didn’t complain loudly.

Fast forward to mid third quarter. Again, I am trail this time opposite table. Closely guarded situation in front of me with B1 looking to get rid of the ball. I hear “Time Out” from across the court. Not gonna burn me twice...may be a fan. I look at Coach B and she is making a T sign and repeats the request. OK...tweet. Guess what, in the second I looked away B1 had dropped the ball and was struggling to get it back (it was between her feet) and A1 was trying to slap it away for a steal. So I just granted a TO to team B when nobody had control of the ball. GEEZ. Coach A starts to go nuts, I walk over and tell him the TO was granted when I heard it, and at that time, team B had control (just forget about the delay in the whistle). He just stood there looking at me, so I added quietly, “Besides, you got a break before halftime”. He wheeled around and took a seat.

Rest of the game seems like a lifetime...have you ever noticed how slow a clock runs?

Lets address your second situation first. At the time that Coach B requested a timeout, B1 had player control of the ball. It does not matter that B1 then lost control of the ball between the time that Coach B made her request and you responded to her request. Valid timeout of Team B.

Your first situationn is tougher. I would bet apples to oranges that when Coach A said the word "time" he was close enough to you and directly behind you that one could assume that he was whispering sweet nothings in your ear. If that was the case, Coach A just made a successful request for a team timeout.