Not My Night

[nails131]

I made a really big mistake tonight, and I may have even compounded it with another one. It did not change the outcome, but it really could have.

I had a Freshman Girls game with two below average teams. It was one of those games you could have had a violation or foul on every single possession. The players had trouble dribbling, passing, shooting, and playing defense. It just was not good basketball. The game seesawed all night, and we have a violation with about a minute left in the game. The home team was ahead by one point. Here is where I got to take center stage.

The home team inbounds under their basket without pressure. They advance the ball down court just fine. The point guard gets about 2 steps across half court and dribbles in place. The defense just waits at the top of the key and the clock continues to run.

The defense finally comes out with some minimal pressure forcing the point guard to pass the ball. Well, passing is a problem just like it has been all night. They make 2 or 3 passes and have near violations or turnovers on all of them. Both coaches have been disgusted with their team's play all night and we have had a lot of very loud time out calls with that very disgusted tone that coaches get when their players are not playing well.

It was very clear that the home team would not be skilled enough to keep the ball away for the last minute. They just did not have the skill to run the four corners. Finally after a few near turnovers, I hear the coach in a very disgusted voice yell, "Time out!, Time out!, Time out?, etc." over and over. I looked to the bench and made sure it was the head coach and granted the time out with 25 seconds left in the game.

Unfortunately, it was the head coach of the visiting team requesting the time out. I knew it as soon as I blew the whistle. I have never wanted to swallow a whistle so bad in all my life. Immediately the home coach starts yelling they can't call time out while we have the ball. The home coach wants me to call a technical foul on the visiting coach. I head to the sideline and tell the scorers that I have blown the whistle improperly. The whistle has stopped play and we have a dead ball. I am then forced to grant the visiting team their request for a time out. I then get to go and explain to the home coach that it was my mistake for blowing the whistle and by no means is it a technical foul because anybody can request a time out at anytime, it is just my responsibility to make sure that they don't get one when they are not entitled to one. Furthermore, I explain, now that we have a dead ball, I am granting their time out request because it is certainly proper to request one during a dead ball situation. Needless to say, she was not very happy with my explanation.

Of course during the time out, the visiting coach tells her team that they need to try and steal the ball and if they can't they need to foul. Lucky for me, the visitors did not steal the imbounds pass and were forced to foul. The home team makes 2 of their 6 free throws down the stretch and win by 3 because the visitors can't make any shots. Of course it could have gone another way.

The visiting coach came up after the game and offered and apology. She said that she just couldn't believe that her team didn't know that when you were behind by one, you don't let the other team dribble out the clock. She said she only had 2 of her players trying to steal the ball or stop the clock and she was calling time out to make sure that they all knew to do this. She said she didn't think about the fact that they did not have the ball. I informed her that it was perfectly acceptable for her to request a time out, but I should have simply ignored her request. I have never been so happy to leave a gym. Sorry for the long post, but I just felt the need to vent a little bit.

Was it proper to actually grant the time out request at the dead ball after the inadvertent whistle?

[johnnyrao]

I say don't sweat it. I won't comment on granting the TO because, as you said, you already know that's wrong. I bet you never do that again. Seems to me like you handled it well. The best thing to do here, IMO, is to admit your mistake and carry on. The last thing you can do in this situation is to allow a coach to lead you down the wrong road, which would have been to call a T on the other coach. As far as getting the TO I would probably grant it too since the ball was dead.

[Mark Padgett]

Originally posted by nails131
Was it proper to actually grant the time out request at the dead ball after the inadvertent whistle?

Yes - if you call it, you must grant it. Just think, if the visitors were out of timeouts at the time, you would have had a technical.

BTW - I bet the home coach wouldn't have been so mad if some of those late fouls were called intentional.

[Jurassic Referee]

Originally posted by johnnyrao
As far as getting the TO I would probably grant it too since the ball was dead.

Covered in case book play 5:8:3SitE-- you grant the TO request by rule.

[gordon30307]

Hey Nails,

Toughest games to do are games between two teams with no skills. You can call fouls or violations on just about any play. It is easy to lose your focus. I think you did a great job in handling your mistake.

[kenref1]

I need to stop reading this board before a game. We had this happen to us last night. As soon as my partner blew his whistle, he knew he blew it! Both coaches were ok with it.

[lrpalmer3]

This is not something that I often think about often, well hardly ever, but this type of thing can happen to anyone. I think I'll add some things like this to my pregame, just for myself. I can never be reminded too often of even the simplest rule.

[Junker]

Nails,
I granted a time out the same way in my first year. Luckily we corrected it quickly (although not by the book, since I never officially reported the time out, we treated it as an inadvertant whistle) and played on. I will say I haven't done it since. Maybe you got it out of your system.

[scyguy]

In reading this dialogue I realize that there is some very good constructive and instructive comments present. This is what this forum should be about. Great stuff!!

[LarryS]

I had a partner keep me from looking like a complete boob two years ago. Girls V Tourny, first game of the day (8:00 am). I'm trail, white ball...I hear "Time out" from area of white bench, look over and see the coach making the 30 sec TO sign. I blow my whistle and then notice the ball has been stolen.

As you can imagine the home coach is letting me know, in a suprisingly calm way, that it was their ball. My partner walks up and tells him he heard the request as well, while white had the ball. He even noticed me visually verify it and that my hand went up before my whistle. Clearly I was granting the TO before the steal. He ended by saying "Coach, we are all a little sluggish out there right now. Why don't we cut him some slack."

Coach looks at me, smiles and says "If I was fully awake I would really give you a hard time...how about speeding up that whistle"

It is great to have a partner when you have a brain fa**.

[refnrev]

Hey, did that once. The opposing coachasked me what happened. I smiled and said, "I messed up." Coach looked at me with surprise, smiled and said, "I've never had a ref be honest enough to admit that."
However, since then, I always look when I hear it. I had a barnburner of a game last week that literally went down to the last second. Visitors score with 12 seconds left to being it within 3. I hear a loud time out come from the visitor bench. I look at coach and ask, "Did you say Time out or Side out" He said, "Niether." It was a very loud mouthed fan behind him. Learn from the mistake. We've all done it.

[Dan_ref]

Don't sweat it, no biggie.

Originally posted by scyguy
In reading this dialogue I realize that there is some very good constructive and instructive comments present. This is what this forum should be about. Great stuff!!

I can die a happy man now.