Here is a response I received from my interpreter who is on the rules committee in response to my question about going retro on the time out rule.

Your suggestion/concern has been mentioned by others...I submitted it to the NFHS for consideration of inclusion into their "proposed rules" survey...I don't know yet whether or not it will be included or considered...as an FYI, you are not alone in your thinking...

This thread kinda went off-track, but the email in it was sent by your interpreter. http://officialforum.com/thread/24664

And as I mentioned in yet another thread, the support for your suggestion among interpreters is very high, as far as I can tell.

I took the NFHS survey yesterday and the question posed was -- would you be in favor of requiring a player to request a time out during a live ball and allowing a coach to request a time out during a dead ball.

Reasonable. I don't mind the coach requesting during a live ball, but I do mind the reaction we get when we have more critical things going on and we miss the request.

Here's the question as I received it, Rich. It was sent to me by Mick. Would you be in favor of:

"Only permitting players on the court to call a time-out during a live ball. Permitting head coaches to only call a time-out during a dead-ball situation."

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Rich Fronheiser

Quote:

I took the NFHS survey yesterday and the question posed was -- would you be in favor of requiring a player to request a time out during a live ball and allowing a coach to request a time out during a dead ball. Reasonable. I don't mind the coach requesting during a live ball, but I do mind the reaction we get when we have more critical things going on and we miss the request.

I agree Rich, you already have 10 players to watch between you and your partner or partners and if you really pay any attention to the coach most of the time they are saying things that would get them into "T" territory.

I always glance at the bench when the situation warrants a TO, (opposing team on a run of several points) or keep an ear out when a player is trapped but you cannot afford to look away.

That would be the best of both worlds. Dead ball TOs from the coach would still give them the ability to call them. I just hope we don't have to do transition counts again.

Ideally, the rule would read that the coach could only request TO when the ball is dead and the clock is stopped.

I would love for it to be just like the question was posed. It is hard, especially in the first half to have a coach outside your visual field and him request a time-out and then you have to check that it is really him asking for it, then check the location of the ball, was he asking for it because it was during a scramble, if so, when the team controls the ball again, you have to check him again, then you request the time-out after that long ordeal. Whew I'm tired and my neck hurts!

What I wouldn't give to have the 'coach can call it' rule rescinded or revised!

I thought I had mastered it, but no.

Here's a cautionary tale - forewarned is forearmed, I hope.

I am the trail on the side of the floor away from the benches. The pointguard is all alone bringing the ball up. When she gets to the top of the key, her coach says something about time out. I don't hear him clearly, and she is right between us, so I am actively considering whether or not he asked me for a time out, or instructed her to ask for one, immediately or later.

Worse than flipping the ball to me, she pushes it behind her to the endline, before I blow the whistle. I blow the whistle and conclude that he had asked me for the timeout and I had granted it - I had simply been slow in whistling. Yuk.

I have no problem with the coach asking for a timeout during play. I have only worked 3person games in HS and college and have not had (and cannot visualize) a situation where at least one official cannot have the coach in his/her field of vision without too much difficulty.

As a former college asst. coach (most recently at the D1 level), I feel that coaches should have the ability to ask for and be granted time outs when the ball is live.

As a basketball official, I'd have to say that I "see" more requests for TO's than I "hear". Simply look at the bench when you think the situation calls for it (end of quaters/halfs, last minute situations, etc.). Those are when the TO's occur that, when not recognized, can get us in trouble.

So in essence, my solution is go to 3person and do a better job of recognizing those important times when a coach will most likely call a TO - and then get the coach in your field of vision.

And if the peasants don't have bread, let them eat cake...to paraphrase someone who really lost her head over a Technical. Not all HS districts are going to three person, for any number of reasons. At any given time in 2 person, the trail has one coach behind him/her, and if a timeout is requested it's distracting, at the very least, with the obligations put on a referee to grant the time out, especially to confirm it's the head coach, and only the head coach, requesting it.

3 person
 

Only on a limited basis here. And a broad assumption that sub-varsity contests would happen, perhaps? Rule changes are usually considered to make the game better and flow more smoothly and this proposal does both.