To T or not to T; that is the question?

[Adam]

Originally Posted by Dad

Honestly, around here this isn't much of an issue and I don't pay enough attention to coaches to see if there foot is on the line. If I can tell I make it clear I would really appreciate if they'd stay in the box because I don't want to have to call a stupid technical. I've also never called one, but that's not to say one wasn't called on a game I was on.

His confusion over there being a TO doesn't justify anything for me. What confusion? There was none from what I read in the OP. Now if he asked for a TO and my partner said okay and didn't blow his whistle that's different. Here the coach is just being dumb and that's not reason enough for me to pass..

I'm not really talking about a coach with a foot on the line. I'm talking about a coach who's got both feet outside the coaching box; approaching either the end line or the table. Maybe he's three feet outside the box, but still out of bounds. Are you going to call this T or are you going to warn him first?

There's no rule basis for handling this any differently than you'd handle the OP. I don't care "why" he might be confused. If it's obvious to me that he's behaving as if there was a timeout called, I'll assume he was confused. The coach is just being dumb and that's not reason enough for me to ring him up. Now, if this was his second offense, you can disregard. If he'd had any issues with me at all, disregard.

He's not coaching, he's not arguing, he's not doing anything but making a (big) mistake. But I'm also not going to disparage an official who'd make the call. I'd back that call 100% as a partner without hesitation.