Granting TO Fed. Rules

[Mark Padgett]

Originally posted by Bob Gingerich
This was his write up on me to the state association: "In the JV contest, we made a bucket coach called time-out when ball went through hoop.
Bob let FA inbound ball, when I stood up and said my coach called T/O he said FA already had possession, when In fact FA kid was standing in paint waiting to take it out of bounds." It is obvious that the time out request was not recognized by any of the three officials on the court, otherwise, we would have immediately granted it. And this is a HS varsity coach.

Here's how I would answer this:

First of all, coaches cannot "call" timeout. They can only request it. Only officials can "call" timeout. This is an important distinction, especially in this case because the burden is on the coach to make sure the official(s) recognize the request. If he is not loud enough and/or is not in a sight line of an official, he cannot expect them to know he is requesting one.

Second, if A1 (using standard terminology) was OOB holding the ball for the throwin, or even if he was not holding it yet but the ball was at his team's disposal, it is too late to grant a timeout for team B if the request came at that time.

Third, the fact that "this is a HS varsity coach" certainly does not mean that person has any understanding of the rules whatever.