An extreme version of "Get In, Get Done, Get Out?"
 

CYO Varsity (Grades 7&8) Girls Tournament last night. (Incidentally my 1400th game as a statistician).

Host AD comes out as one of the referees. Not too big of a deal since he did our previous game with no issues. Although his bold comment last night that he was officiating so that both teams got at least one well-officiated game made me take notice. :confused:

Our 8GG team this year is young and a bit inexperienced, so we've taken our lumps in all 3 games. Although we had a brief 2-0 lead last night (our first lead in 3 games), we ended up getting routed again.

Heres the part where I vent: With about a minute and a half left in the 4th quarter, and the game pretty much decided, our coach wanted a time out. And requests one from the closest referee, who happens to be the host AD. He ignores her repeated requests for a time out on that possession and the next one. :mad: I realize as host AD, he wants games starting as on-schedule as possible, but that shouldn't be a reason to deny a time out request at any point of the game, regardless of the margin.

Thoughts?

Did the coach ever explicitly ask why she wasn't given the TO? I'd like to hear his justification!!

No, she just has a frustrated look when the first possession ended in a turnover and the subsequent one ended in a missed shot. I'm not sure why he was seemingly ignoring our coach.

After the second missed one, I commented that he must have had a hot date after the game. Apparently the host timer found that amusing. :D

pathetic

Well, if that is the reason he didn't grant it, it's completely understandable, and totally inexcusable. But there MIGHT have been some other thinking, I suppose.

I'm wondering what a coach could do to rectify this situation? Any refs out there have suggestions?

If I were this guy's partner, I'd be acknowledging and granting the TO, if I heard it. But perhaps he chose his partner so as to avoid this?

This is a long shot, but did this tournament (as do some rec situations) have a rule that only a player on the court could request a timeout?

This probably isn't the explanation, since it's likely she was able to request and have granted timeouts prior to this but I thought I'd bring it up to ask this question:

For those of you who work rec with this rule, how do you react when a coach requests one? Do you tell the coach to have a player on the floor ask, or do you just ignore the request?

First thing I'd try is getting one of the players to request it. Tell the dribbler to dribble over to the nearest official and pick up the ball; repeatedly asking for a timeout until she got it. Or have all four of the other girls walk to one ref, with their hands in the TO position, each asking loudly for a TO.

Second thing I'd try is yelling across the court to the other ref. Make sure you yell loud enough for everyone in the gym to hear you.

In a blow-out game? If those didn't work , I'd walk onto the court, in front of said official/AD (bad idea at any level, btw), stand in his face and request the TO. You might get a T here, too, though, so it's a last resort, IMO. I'd wait until the other team had a throwin so you don't lose a possession, if you could. Not always possible, though.

BTW, I wish coaches wouldn't have stopped teaching their kids to mirror their timeout requests.

These were my thoughts exactly.

And I agree with whoever said, "Pathetic".

Mark:

The tournament was supposed to be played under NFHS with local CYO rules (which basically spell out limits on pressing and mandatory substitution points). Three fulls and two thirties are still the norm.

For the previous games we played in and I saw prior to yesterday, coaches could request and be granted time outs -- full or 30. But for some reason, yesterday, he had told officials that all time outs that day were to be 30 seconds (in other words, no fulls). :confused: I'm not sure why, but that really wasn't that big of a deal to me.

Snaqwells:

If I was the head coach, I would have seriously considered this. Being down by 20+ with a minute and a half to go, what do I have to lose, except a minute-plus worth of standing privileges. ;)

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I think what gets me the most is the fact he was boasting about his skills prior to the game and then he does something which was a bit contrary to his boasts. I believe it was someone here that said the better officials are the ones that don't go out of their way to make themselves noticed. :)