A few questions...
 

I did a JH boys game last night and had some things come up that I was unsure of how to handle. This is only my second year so I am sorry if these seem basic.

a) Team A makes a basket and as the ball is going through the hoop A head coach is calling a timeout. I did not hear him clearly until B had inbounded the ball. I did NOT give him the timeout but after the game I was wondering if I should have since the request came before the ball was live. Did I handle this correctly?

b) Team B is inbounded the ball underneath after a team A basket, and B1 gets it and he does travel, it was a close call, and after replaying it my head he did travel, meanwhile coach A (this happened right in front of his bench) was screaming TRAVEL TRAVEL, I did not call the travel becasue I did not want people to think that the head coach was influencing my call. Was this the right thing to do?
Thanks a lot for your help!

IHSAref

In your situation A, if you didn't hear the coach request a TO, then you can't help that - he doesn't get his TO. You can't be expected to always hear or notice a coach's request for a TO. However, as you get more experience you will recognize situations late in a game when a coach may be expected to call a TO. If it is a close game and the team behind scores, the coach will likely want a TO, so be ready to see/hear his request and call it immediately. This just comes with experience.

In your situation B, if you see a travel you should call it, regardless of the coach yelling for it. Just calmly remind the coach that he should be coaching his kids and not trying to influence the referees. If he persists, you may have grounds for a T.

For you first situation, I have no problem with you not granting a time out. After made baskets, however, you may want to get in the habit of taking a peek at the benches to see if they want a TO, especially under certain game situations. For example, B rolls off 4 straight baskets, there's a good chance A is going to want to talk a few things over.

As far as the second situation, that is a tough one for JH. As we all know, depending on the quality of the game, a travel at that level isn't always a travel. I would not put up with a coach screaming travel. Personally, I would remind the coach in a firm, but even tone, that if he would like to ask a question or ask us to watch for a violation, he must ASK. Yelling "TRAVEL" is not asking a question and it will be dealt with if it continues.

Regarding a), if you remember, this is one of those Points of Emphasis from the IHSA rules meeting. An official should be sure a team is making a proper TO request, iow, that it is the head coach or player making the request if the ball is dead, or, if the ball is live, that the requesting team has both team and player-control as well. Coaches were reminded that our focus should be on the game, not necessarily paying attention to them, so we may occasionally miss proper requests due to our attention being focused on the floor. So, in your case, if you're not sure the head coach was making the request at the proper time, you were right in not granting it. That said, as you gain more experience you will learn to be more aware of situations where a coach may be ready to ask for a TO - did the other team just go on 10-point run, for example, or was it a close, end-of-game situation?

In b), I know it always rubs me the wrong way to make a call while a coach is asking for it. But, if it's the right call, then it's the call to make, period. As for the coach "yelling" for the travel, remember you could make 2 calls here - travel, followed by a T.

Re (b): I've done this before, but you have to be really careful where/when to do it:

Skip the travel call and reply to the coach, "Coach, when you yell so loudly about a call, my mind focuses on you and I forget where I was looking."

Re: (b)

Option 1 - "We'll make the calls, coach."

Option 2 - "Coach, if your going to help us call the game, then we're going to help you coach your team. And believe me, you'll be getting the best of the deal by far."

Option 3 - "Coach, let's trade places. You come out here and make the calls and I'll sit on the bench and act like a jackass."

Sit b) I will give a very slow, prolonged travelling mechanic while either verbally or non-verbally communicating to the coach his/her behavior in not acceptable.