Excessive Tiimeout -- No Official Notification

[Mark T. DeNucci, Sr.]

Originally Posted by Rusty Gilbert

Curious question posed to me following a high school game last night.

Head coach of Team A, who trails by lots midway through 4th quarter, requests a its second timeout of the quarter, which is dutifully granted by the nearest official.

The coach of Team B goes wild, screaming that Team A is out of timeouts and that A cannot be awarded a timeout. (Of course, he is wrong!)

An official comes over to Team A coach and asks, "Did one of the officials come and tell you that you had no timeouts remaining after the one you called earlier in the quarter?" Team A coach said, "No."

Official goes to his 2 partners, polls them, and comes to the conclusion that, although the scorer had notfied the officials that Team A had been granted their final alloted timeout earlier in the fourth quarter, none of the officials had notified the team and its coach that they had no timeouts left.

Rule 2-11-6 spells out the notification requirements (scorer informs official who informs team and coach).

The officials determined that, even though they failed to make the team and coach notification as required by rule, a technical foul was still warranted. So a T was assessed, 2 free throws and the ball to B.

Was this correct or not?

How does this situation compare/correlate with the situation where a player commits fifth foul but the scorer does not inform officials (and consequently the coach is not informed), so the player remains in the game until discovery is later made (sixth foul, etc..)? Case book 10.5.3.

For example, there are rule-specific reporting requirements in each instance. And, at least in the latter situation, there is no "requirement" for the coach to self-report or self-police (coach may have known player's foul was #5, but coach had no obligation or expectation to remove player until "official notification" was made by officials).

Rusty Gilbert:

NFHS R10-S1-A7 states that it is a TF for a team to request an excess timeout. While R2-S11-A6 was not followed by the game officials, Team B is still charged for requesting an excess timeout. One should remember that even if the game officials know that a team has used all of its timeouts they cannot fail to grant a team's request for an excess timeout, assuming that the team requested its timeout per R2-S8-A3. R10-S1-A7 still applies if the game officials mistakenly grant a team's request for a timeout when it does not meet the requirements of R2-S8-A3.

With regard to the situation when the Scorer fails to notify the game officials that a player has committed his fifth foul (total person and technical) or second TF, the timeout situation is not the same. The rules specifically state that requesting an excess timout is a TF, while it is not an infraction of the rules for a player to continue to participate in the game after being disqualified and the player and his coach is not notified.

MTD, Sr.