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

[Nevadaref]

Most posters on this forum know the rule which states that one of the duties of the officials is to notify the head coach when the team has used its final allowable time-out. We have also discussed on this forum several times the trouble that could arise if officials get involved in the courtesy of incoming coaches of how many time-outs they have left other than zero.
Thought that I would share an illustrative case of such from this weekend.


The following are posts from a message board about a MLK showcase game.
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Game 3 Final

Bear Creek - 59
Cardinal Newman - 64
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Heard that the Bear Creek coach called a timeout he didn't have that took away Bear Creek's chance to win it late ... if so, that's pretty much inexcusable unless his scorekeeper told him he had a timeout when he really didn't.
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that is what happened. tie game less than 20 seconds left. before the 2nd free coach asked for a time out. did not have any. there was not anyone on his bench keeping the book.

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it was a terrible way to end a great game...

BC scored to tie the game with 7 secs left. CN inbounded the ball and Dural was fouled with 4.8 secs left. (double bonus).

She missed the 1st one... then BC timeout...technical 2 shots and ball.

Dural makes 2nd to give CN 1 pt lead. Choice hits both technical foul shots...CN up 3. CN inbounds to Cargill, fouled, and she hits both fouls shots.. 5 pt lead.

The technical foul robbed BC the chance to win the game on last possession down 1 (with no tech)

unfortunate way for a very good game to end

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I am the BC coach, and I never get on these boards, but lets set the record straight:

1st and foremost it was a great game, but after I called my last timeout, the referee came over to my huddle and told us we had 1 timeout remaining (which we have on video, and will be sending to the ref assigner for NCS). Also the scorers table at BOD is 20+ feet above where we sit, so we had no correspondence with our stat keeper. It was an unfortunate turn of events, but it happened.

Big shot out to Cardinal Newman, they are very well coached team. We wish them the best of luck in their playoff run.

Bear Creek (or Bear Valley as we were disrespectfully called) was an irrelevant program three years ago, and now competes with teams at the highest level. I am so proud of these girls and how they continue to work hard and build pride for both their school and the entire Stockton area.
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[mattmets]

I had the opposite situation last week. The table told me the V coach had used his last TO so I let his assistant know. V coach gave me a weird look, so we checked the book at the table and the H book, which matched V coach's.

Turns out the table had charged V with a TO the H coach took in the first half. To me this was a perfect example of the officials doing the right thing, coaches being on top of it (H coach actually called out the error), and working well with your table crew. Nobody was upset, just glad we got it right.

And this was in a competitive JH game, so not sure why a Varsity team in a holiday showcase doesn't have a scorekeeper more on top of it.

[ODog]

Originally Posted by mattmets

I had the opposite situation last week. The table told me the V coach had used his last TO so I let his assistant know ...

Don't learn this one the hard way. Your job is to tell the head coach. Even if you wait until the timeout has concluded -- because you were given the information late, perhaps -- make sure that's who you tell. Telling anyone else is irrelevant.

[Indianaref]

Originally Posted by Nevadaref

1st and foremost it was a great game, but after I called my last timeout, the referee came over to my huddle and told us we had 1 timeout remaining (which we have on video, and will be sending to the ref assigner for NCS).

Hope they don't confuse the official notifying them of the first horn with notifying them of TO's left.

[Jesse James]

I’d have to assume the official scorer gave the official bad info.

Whether the official relays the bad info (1 left), or doesn’t say a word—I’m not certain how that changes the results in this instance.

[JRutledge]

There are a couple of things here that caused this problem. First of all the visiting team scorer should be sitting next to the official scorer. And we have officials that absolutely feel the need to tell coaches of their timeout situation. I have in the past told coaches when told, but I do not feel it is an obligation or something I got out of my way to do. This is an example of why I think we sometimes need to allow the teams to take this role and figure out what they have or do not have.

Peace

[BillyMac]

Up until today I've only heard "stories'" about this, now I have a real situation to point to.

Things Officials Should Probably Not Be Saying In A Game

"Coach, you have one timeout left", is a courtesy often extended by officials to coaches, when, by rule, officials should only be notifying head coaches when their team has been granted its final allowable timeout. If there is any miscommunication, or mistake, involving the table crew reporting remaining timeouts, then the officials, by rule, need to stay out of the conversation. Let the coaches, and table crew, communicate about remaining timeouts, other than when a team has been granted its final allowable timeout, which by rule, is required to be reported to the coach by the officials.

[SC Official]

Originally Posted by JRutledge

There are a couple of things here that caused this problem. First of all the visiting team scorer should be sitting next to the official scorer. And we have officials that absolutely feel the need to tell coaches of their timeout situation. I have in the past told coaches when told, but I do not feel it is an obligation or something I got out of my way to do. This is an example of why I think we sometimes need to allow the teams to take this role and figure out what they have or do not have.

Peace

Drives me nuts when officials tell a coach he has more than zero timeouts remaining. One time a partner (who was the R) told me to go tell the coach he had one left. I did not oblige.

Sometimes partners will tell me at the end of the game: "White has three timeouts left." Congratulations, I could not care less. I normally give a sarcastic thumbs up when this happens.

[JRutledge]

Originally Posted by SC Official

Drives me nuts when officials tell a coach he has more than zero timeouts remaining. One time a partner (who was the R) told me to go tell the coach he had one left. I did not oblige.

Sometimes partners will tell me at the end of the game: "White has three timeouts left." Congratulations, I could not care less. I normally give a sarcastic thumbs up when this happens.

Well, many times the tables will tell us what they have. I just say "OK" and move on. I just think always telling the bench causes problems like this.

Peace

[LRZ]

Originally Posted by Jesse James

I’d have to assume the official scorer gave the official bad info.

Whether the official relays the bad info (1 left), or doesn’t say a word—I’m not certain how that changes the results in this instance.

It doesn't change the result. It changes who is responsible for the error, taking the liability off of the referees.

[Jesse James]

Originally Posted by LRZ

It doesn't change the result. It changes who is responsible for the error, taking the liability off of the referees.

I don’t see the difference. Scenario 1, coach gripes to assignor, “Your official told us we had 1 timeout left when we didnt.” Scenario 2, “Your official, per rule, failed to inform us when we were out of timeouts.”

Official’s answer to both, “I was given bad info.”

[SC Official]

Originally Posted by Jesse James

I don’t see the difference. Scenario 1, coach gripes to assignor, “Your official told us we had 1 timeout left when we didnt.” Scenario 2, “Your official, per rule, failed to inform us when we were out of timeouts.”

Official’s answer to both, “I was given bad info.”

The difference is the official broke into jail in Scenario 1 by trying to be a "good guy" doing something unnecessary.