[Indy_Ref]

Sectional (playoff) game last night. Game was between a 10- to 15-point game all night. Coaches had been just fine for 3 quarters. Coach B of losing team starts to get frustrated with his girls, and starts taking it out on us in the 4th quarter. The straw that broke the camel's back was this: team B hits a basket to cut the lead to 12. Coach B jumps up and yells "Tiger", "Tiger"... I am on bench side, becoming new lead. As I'm running down court past the coach, I think he's calling a timeout! I tell him, "Too late, coach, team A already has ball in possession and throwing it in." He looks at me and says, "I didn't want a timeout." I was thinking, "What?? ok, whatever." Team A comes down and misses shot after a common foul (therefore, partner & I had switched). Team B goes down, hits a basket, and cuts the lead to 10 with about 3 minutes left. I am now on B's baseline, going to become new trail. I hear "Tiger", "Tiger" (and of course I'm thinking TIMEOUT!)...over and over again before team A gets possession to inbound the ball. I blow my whistle to give team B a timeout. Coach says he doesn't want a timeout and was calling a defensive strategy. I tell him, "Sorry, I heard timeout. Now, do you want a 30 or a full?" He continues to complain that he didn't want a TO. I tell him, "That might be so, but I heard 'timeout' and by rule, you're getting one. Sorry." I grant the TO and continue to hear him complain. I take his complaining because I made a slight mistake in blowing my whistle. If this game were a regular season game, I would have probably talked my way out of granting the TO and continued play. Coach B is an idiot the rest of the game. I should have T'ed him up as he ragged on both me & my partner for "being consistently horrible the whole game", but I let it go since he ended up getting blown out by 20.

Anyway, my question to any coaches reading this: WHY do coaches come up with these plays/strategies that can easily be misconstrued as "TIMEOUT"???

My question to officials: I know I probably could have been a bit gentler in handing this situation, but in your opinion, how much crap should I take just because of this situation before I whack the coach?