No time out left, or do I
 

This weekend at a 9th grade tournament, Team b coach asks the official scorekeeper (parent of team A player), how many timeouts he had left. Scorekeeper indicates he has 1 timeout left. Both my partner and I hear him tell him he has 1 timeout left. It was a 2 point ballgame with less than a minute to go. Team b get controll of the ball, and calls for a timeout. Scorekeeper then tells us he was mistaken, Team b had no timeouts left, and Team A had the remaining timeout.

We did not penalize team b for an excessive timeout, but coach for team a wanted us to just that. We explained to him what happened, he wasn't happy, but he didn't argue much either. Would you have done the same? What would you do if this was a varsity contest? It wouldn't seem right to penalize a team if they got bad information from the official scorer.

Don't you think a coach should know how many TO's he has taken? (I'm guessing yes)

How difficult is it for a coach to count each TO he takes? (I'm guessing not too difficult)

Give him the T

Normally, I'd say yes, the coach should know how many timeouts he has used. However, given the circumstances, with a 9th grade team and a parent of an opposing team's player giving the wrong information, I'd say the fair thing to do would be to let it go.

While team B should have their own scorekeeper tracking this, team A should also have better qualified scorekeeping personnel. Giving incorrect information like that could give the appearance of cheating, and we definitely don't want to go there.

I also might make a note of this and pass the word to tournament officials to keep an eye out for a re-occurence.

Jim,

It is not uncommon at a varsity game that a kid or some parent is keeping track of the team's book or official book during games. So I do not see why this is any different at the 9th grade level.

As Dan said, the coach can count. If they cannot count, shame on them. Give them a T.

Peace

As a former coach of youth basketball I can tell you it is VERY EASY to lose count. Each tournament has it's own rules as to how many timeouts you get. And your scorekeeper is typically another parent who can get caught up in the game and forget to write down a timeout.

The real question is what to do at a varsity game. Say his staff left the book at home so he doesn't have one. Or maybe he just lost track so he has his staff ask the bench how many TO's he has and they give him bad information. What would you do?

In any game if the timeout number was given out incorrectly by the table or officials I would not penalize, I would get them back on the floor now and off we go

Towards the end of the game the officals should check and see who has time outs and how many - then tell the coaches - if there is a discrepency it can be cleared up then. This eliminates any problem with so called "mis-information"

You need to make sure you have someone that is on your team keeping track of those kinds of things. In my experience JH teams have their own scorebook and they let their coaches know what is going on with the score, timeouts or foul situations. So if you cannot get someone to do that, it is not my problem as an official that you are unaware. ;)

I would call a T from the grade school level all the way to the college level. Part of your responsibility is a team is to keep track of these things. If you do not want to be cheated, then keep track. This is not football where official have a card in their pocket to know what the timeout situation is.

Peace

This is not our job. All the rules require are that table personnel to let us know when the team has run out and then we inform the team they have used all their timeout. It is not our obligation to find out what the timeout situation is, nor is that going to automatically prevent problems. If we are told the wrong number of timeouts left, we are just going to repeat improper information. There is a reason why all rules sets want the non-official bookkeepers to be at the table.

Peace

As a former youth coach I can tell you I never started a game without knowing the tournament rules (including number of TOs) and kept a close eye on the official scorer if he came from the other team. I don't know why it's so hard for a coach to make a ticky mark on a napkin every time he takes a TO, even if he is the only adult with his team.

Whack!<font>

JR I agree with the rule interpretation -
We are not required to inform the team of the number of time outs. It is however good preventive officiating - to know the situation and to inform the each bench - it helps to avoid a situation that can ruin your night.

Totally disagree. Table could pass bad info to you and then you are passing bad info on to the teams. Now, I will ask both bookkeepers what time-out counts they have to make sure they match, but the only time-out information I'm passing along to the coach is the one where I say "Coach, you have no more time-outs left."

I do not think it prevents anything. If the information is wrong, all your talking to the table is going to put you up as the one responsible.

Also a coach not knowing the timeout situation and getting a T for that is not going to ruin my night. That is something that is totally in their control.

Peace

You're right of course, when we're talking about a reasonably alert and emotionally mature adult who knows and understands basketball (I'm not saying I think you are all those things, just that I'm assuming that's what you are talking about). But that assumption gets very iffy in a lot of 9th grade ball, especially if it's girls. In the OP, I"d do just what he did, and also give the scorekeeper a little "chat" about being very careful what she says. If I heard the coach ask the scorekeeper, and the scorekeeper respond, I'd be inclined to interfere in that conversation, to be sure the info is correct.

But I'd be especially unhappy with coach A who wants his parent-book-person to be not held accountable for her error, which helps him. "Coach, you and I both know she wasn't deliberately wrong, and that she's doing the best she can to be fair to both teams. Let's you and I also adopt that attitude and let her off the hook so that she doesn't end up making you look bad." Or, "Coach, what if the shoe was on the other foot? What if she was a parent from team B, and she told you you had an extra TO that you didn't have? You'd be very unwilling to give Team B shots, eh?"

If we do it my way coach B will have learned something and he or she will never, ever make this mistake again (I'm assuming even the coaches in your neighborhood are somewhat trainable). If we do it your way you are depriving coach B of a chance to actually become a reasonably alert and emotionally mature adult who knows and understands basketball.