Notifying the head coach when a team is granted its final time-out

[frezer11]

Originally Posted by BayStateRef

I wonder how the official determined there were no time outs left and issued the technical foul -- after (presumably) being told just a minute earlier the team had one. Did the home scorer deliberately lie? Did the official keep count on his own and just messed up?

I completely agree officials should only tell the coach when he is out of time outs, but clearly the official did not do that here. When we get bad information from the scorer and don't award merited free throws, we can correct the scorer's error if caught in time. But here -- the penalty for the scorer's error is particularly harsh.

Of course the team should keep its own book and know the time out situation -- but the same argument can be made about keeping track of team fouls. I would prefer the technical for calling too many time outs should apply only if the coach has been informed by the official that he has no time outs left.

In the original scenario described by Nevada, the coach called the timeout between free throws by the opponent. In this scenario, I would agree that a technical might be harsh if there indeed was some misinformation spread around. In something like that, where the ball was dead, I would be in favor of immediately ending the timeout upon discovery that the coach had zero, not charging the tech, and play on. (I'm not saying I would do that, that's not the rule, but if a rule change were considered, that would make sense to me.) However, this cannot be a blanket statement the situation occurs. Consider this: Tie ball game, and a team misses a shot, rebounded by the defense with 3 seconds remaining, and the possessing team immediately calls for and is granted a timeout. In this situation, that team has gained a considerable advantage, and a play-on undoubtedly benefits that team. Without the ability to change the rule to a consistent, fair ruling, I would not be in favor of a rule change.

With all that in mind, if a coach requests a timeout during a dead ball, and you know he's out, do you double check with him? "You're out coach, are you sure?" or something similar to that? Live ball you don't really get that luxury, but during a dead ball, I don't see the harm in making sure he isn't making an absent-minded mistake.