No one called TO
 

In our game the other night, I (an asst. coach) am yelling "tighten up" and the C who is right in front of us blows his whistle, turns to us and says "time out coach." He then says "I thought that was your voice, coach." Our HC says, "we'll take it."

My question is, what if we didn't want the TO? No one on our staff said anything about a TO. I am thinking you would just call it an inadvertent whistle and give us the ball OOB's but thought I read once on the board that the TO must stay? He obviously didn't make eye contact to make sure it was our HC, in fact, no coach said anything close to TO.

I'd go with an IW on this. Some officials, apparently, would misread the rule and assume they have to give the TO since it's been "granted." The rule, however, is to prevent a coach from requesting a TO and retracting it after getting the clock stopped (among other reasons, I suppose).

Were you standing? ;)

Agreed, certainly if the coach wanted one, he wouldn't deny calling it.

No one was standing.:D

I don't see how the official could charge them with a TO when he screwed up. He didn't make eye contact to verify it was the HC, see a TO call, or know that "TO" was even said, which it was not.

The official even knew when he turned around and saw our faces that know one called it. Our HC just said, "I'll just take one," but no one called it and the official knew it. He even indicated that to me during the TO.

Well, it worked out Ok with Coach agreeing to accept it. Official probably would have gone with IW if Coach didn't take it.

I've been burned in the past and would rather have a screaming coach yelling timeout than to guess. I usually hear first than go with a visual. I know most of the coaches and they call me by first name to get my attention.

Of course a run by the opponent, a trap, a made basket with team trailing late in game, and my antenna is up for a time out. I've caught myself looking at bench 3-5 seconds before coach calls for TO.

This is just another example of why the rule should be changed to eliminate the provision allowing coaches to request a time out while the ball is live.

The primary focus of the officials has to be on the action on the floor, and asking them to divert their attention to recognize & verify the authenticity of a coach's apparent TO request takes some of their focus away from that primary responsibility and can cause them to miss something crucial. This is especially true in the intense final minutes/seconds of a close game when these requests are more likely to occur.

Yes three official crews help, but the simple fact is that the vast majority of HS games are, and for the foreseeable future will be, officiated by 2 person crews. I have no problem with a HC requesting a TO during a dead ball, but strongly believe that during a live ball the request should have to come from one of the players on the floor.

Preaching To The Choir
 

Amen Brother !!!

I couldn't agree more. I had a situation recently, where late in a close game, after a made basket by white, but before red picks the ball up for the throw in, I hear a scream of time-out from the vicinity of the white bench. It was a crowded, loud gym, and I wanted to make sure the TO request was coming from the head coach and not some clown two rows up in the stands. By the time I visually confirmed the time out request, and blew the whistle to grant it, red had in bounded the ball, which as you can imagine brought some oohs and ahs from the red bench and fans. After I explained the situation to the red coach, he understood completely and was fine with what had happened, but it sure looked funny!

I would guess that at least 95% of officials agree with you and would echo Billy's "amen". However, the reality is that the coaches on the rules committee will NEVER let this rule change, no matter how much officials yell about it.

It won't change UNLESS some poor official screws it up in a state championship game and it is perceived that it affected the outcome of the game.

I've been victim of the coach calling a play "5 out!", sorry but it sounded like "time out" to me. We did treat it as an IW. Early on, I had a jv player yell to his teammates "I'm out" same result.

My pregame now includes "guys, you know your coach's voice better than we do, when you hear your coach calling for a time out - help him! There should be 5 players on the court giving us the time out signal" Why is it that the players do not mirror their coaches intention?!

Ditto.

I understand where you are coming from. I think we've all had a goofy time out play in a game, but I don't think it will be a change. Granting a time out in a game can often be one of the most difficult things we have to do, but we just have to make sure to hear and see the coach request it. If we don't, stay off the whistle.

Can we arrange that? :D

Then someone is going to have to teach all coaches the difference between live ball and dead ball situations. Let me know if you want to volunteer to do that. :rolleyes: