Re: Re: As a matter of course...
 

We just had a case in Eastern Mass where a team was charged with a technical for taking a timeout it didn't have when in fact (video review, after the fact) the team had 2(!) left. It had a slightly crazy etiology. The home team was the visitors for this particular game - and the scorers were not seated next to each other. The 'visitor's' scorekeeper was the home scorer - and quite possibly the officials were looking at the wrong scorer when reporting things. Confusion ensued . . .

I hope officials are not interposing their own judgment as to whether or not a timeout should be granted if the request comes during a live ball.

Drawing on the bag of family tricks I'm proud to say, one of my children was faced with going back out on the floor from his team's last timeout, instructed by the coach not to call one. His team, Team A, was down 5 with 12 seconds to go. They shot a 3, now down 2, but by the time B1 saunters out of bounds with the ball and the official begins his count, there's 4 seconds left. My son requests a timeout and it's granted. Now they're down 2 with 3 seconds left. Team B makes 1 of 2 technical foul shots, up 3, and goes to inbound the ball at halfcourt opposite the table. Team A plays finest kind of defense and Team B throws the inbounds pass out of bounds on the other side of the court. Team A inbounds and . . . misses the 3, but they got a good look and had a chance, because the official did not hesitate to grant to request for timeout.

Well, I would hope that officials know enough to apply the proper <b>rule</b> as to whether or not a time-out should be granted if that request comes during a live ball. There's really no judgement involved.

Unfortunately, the official in your game screwed up big-time anyway. You can't grant a time-out request if the ball is live and in the thrower's hands. You simply just ignore the request. That's rule 5-8-3. The ball was not in control of or at the disposal of your son's team, and it was live. You can't grant a TO request to the scoring team under those circumstances. The official should have just stood there and let the last 4 seconds of the game run off the clock.

OK, so I never met Chris Webber.

Right. Thanks. I mis-stated it in quickly retelling it. The other team had not gotten the ball at their disposal when the time out was requested.



[Edited by assignmentmaker on Feb 28th, 2006 at 01:03 AM]

It had been eight seconds already and still the ball was not at the disposal of the throwing team? That is big problem.

In NCAA games the clock stops on made goals in the final minute just so teams cannot waste time in this manner. In NFHS games the officials must be diligent and either start a five second count quickly or blow the whistle to stop the clock and get the ball to the throwing team. The scoring team shouldn't lose many seconds while the opponent fools around.

Oh God.

No, 8 seconds didn't go by. By the time they shot the 3 there was considerably less time left. The official was a good Ivy League official, for 20 years the interpreter on one of our larger boards.

The point of the whole thing is that, in my view, officials shouldn't be thinking about whether or not to grant a request for timeout with the ball alive - not to mention the clock running. Maybe, sometimes, if there's some confusion during a dead ball with the clocked stopped - bad info from the table about how many time outs remain - one could say "Do you want that timeout?" But, otherwise, don't mess with the game.

Your description surely didn't make that clear...it sounded like the shot occurred at 12 seconds. :(

I agree, I didn\'t make it clear.

I NEVER tell a coach how many timeouts they have left. I tell them "The Table says you have X number of TOs left." That way, if there is a misunderstanding, its not on me. It is however good game management to make sure the coach and you understand when they are out of time outs. That way, if they then ask for one, the administration of the subsequent T is clean.