Comments On NFHS Changes

[IREFU2]

Originally Posted by truerookie

I am with Rich, Dan and Brad on this on this one. What do you do when a coach makes a request as follow?

Sit: Team B is shooting the second of two FT's

Coach: Next dead ball, I want a time-out
Official: Coach, I will look at you, you will have to request a time out again.

Is the ball not dead once it is in the net? per rule 5-8-3b.

The ball becomes monetarily dead after it checks the nets before the throw-in. Not while it is in the nets.

[Brad]

How would you respond to a coach who tells you at the pre-game that he wants you to call a TO every time the other team goes on a run of 10 straight points? You going to allow that as well?

OK - that is just absurd. Coaches do not ask for that. I defy you or anyone else to give me an example that is even close. What they do often request is a time-out after a made free throw. Why? Because it fits the game.

What if the shooter misses the FT and they spend several minutes trying to make a shot and then a basket is made. Are you going to award the TO now?

Of course not and no one is suggesting that.

Why do we come up with absurd comments and situations that are completely different than the original situation? We have a coach requesting a time-out on a made free-throw. If the free-throw goes in, give him the darn time-out -- it is that simple.

You are not talking strategy with him (i.e. the 10-point run situation) and you are not being an assistant coach (i.e. if the free throw is missed and there are several shots, etc.). You are simply responding to a very simple and straight-forward request.

There is a place for common sense in basketball officiating. You don't call 3-seconds on the guy that just has one heel barely touching the free-throw lane line. You don't start a game with technicals because the starters weren't marked with 9:45 left on the clock before the game. Etc. Etc. Etc.

Don't bury your nose so far in the rule book that you can't see the basketball game that you are supposed to be officiating.

[JRutledge]

Originally Posted by Brad

OK - that is just absurd. Coaches do not ask for that. I defy you or anyone else to give me an example that is even close. What they do often request is a time-out after a made free throw. Why? Because it fits the game.

I agree that would be absurd. I would never do that either. I do know that I will just ask a coach to "ask when the shot goes" and put the responsibility on them. I have never, ever had a single problem by asking that. So either way it goes, no one is going to completely agree on this. My telling them to ask at the appropriate time is not a big deal as many of you have made it out to be. In most cases the conversation is a one on one conversation and no one hears the conversation in the first place. I hate to say this, but if you have a certain presence about yourself, you will be amazed what coaches and players will go along with.

Peace

[M&M Guy]

Originally Posted by Brad

Why do we come up with absurd comments and situations that are completely different than the original situation?

I guess it's the slippery slope theory - if you're already allowing something that's a little outside the way the rules are written, how far before you draw the line? My example was meant to be absurd; I certainly have never had that happen. But if you allow a coach to request the TO in advance, and perhaps even while his team isn't even in control of the ball, where do you draw that line where this situation is ok, but that situation isn't?

Originally Posted by Brad

You are not talking strategy with him (i.e. the 10-point run situation)

But you are, aren't you? If the FT is made, call the TO, but if it's missed, don't do anything. The coach has given you the responsibility of calling it, depending on what happens in the near future.

I really don't think we're too far apart on this issue. I agree it's good common sense to be aware of situations where a TO might be requested. I like the coach telling me he's going to want that TO; it reminds me to keep an eye on them so I don't miss the request in what's usually the hotly-contested last few minutes of a game. And like I said, 99% of the time just automatically granting the TO will not be a problem. It's just that I want to avoid that 1 time where all heck breaks loose because the coach changes his mind, I blow the whistle anyway and stop a fast break, etc. I have seen that happen, and that's not an absurd situation. So all I ask for is that confirmation that the coach still wants it during that period of time when they can legally request it. A nod, wink, signal, whatever. It's one less possibility of getting in trouble.

[Raymond]

If the coach is an habitual a-hole I tell him he/she needs to remind me at the appropriate time. If the coach is the decent sort then I'll look to him/her with a ready whistle after the FT and I always get some sort of gesture that comfirms the TO call.

I have never had a problem with either scenario.


As for absurd scenarios, there is a local GV coach who always tells us in the pre-game that he will use his 30-second T-O's first and his team is so bad he's usually used them up by the end of the 1st quarter.

[BktBallRef]

Originally Posted by Brad

Why do we come up with absurd comments and situations that are completely different than the original situation?

Yes Brad, I agree that the example is absurd, just as my example to Dan was absurd. But where do we draw the line?

And what's wrong with simply looking at the coach and expecting a nod that he still wants it?

Nothing.

[26 Year Gap]

Originally Posted by IREFU2

The ball becomes monetarily dead after it checks the nets before the throw-in. Not while it is in the nets.

It loses its value?