Requirement or Courtesy?

[Mark T. DeNucci, Sr.]

Originally Posted by M&M Guy

I've gotten the impression it is the number of TO's left (3, 2, 1), rather than simply they have used their last "free" TO.


Actually, I thought they read differently. First of all, in both rule sets, the scorer and timer are officials, or more specifically, part of the officiating crew. That's why their duties are listed in the same section. In NFHS, the floor officials' duties are listed in 2-4 thru 2-10, and the scorer's duties are listed in 2-11. The only place notification of TO's is listed is under 2-11-6. If it was specifically a floor official's duty, it would also be listed somewhere in 2-4 thru 2-10. However, as you pointed out, in NCAA rules it is listed under the floor official's duties, as well as the scorer's duties, that the officials shall notify a coach when they have taken their last allowable TO. So there is a difference between the two rule sets.

So, when the scorer tells me a team has used their last allotted TO, I will tell the coach. If they tell me the team has one full and one 30 left, I'll say thank you, and probably even relay that info to my partner(s). That's info that is good for the crew to know; perhaps we need to watch for a request in a tight situation. But I will not tell the coach that info. To me, that's no different than telling a coach two of his players have 4 fouls. That borders on me "coaching", or giving them information they are responsible for knowing. What if I give them wrong information? That is between the scorer and the coach, and our only responsibility in either instance is to let them know when they have none left.

M&M:

Go back and read Rule 2 in both the NCAA and NFHS rules books. The word "Official(s)" is used it is to denote the R and U or R, U1 and U2; it is not used to denote the Scorer and the Timer. You have missed my point: Both NCAA and NFHS Rules specifically state that the Scorer shall notify a team when it has used its last timeout, and that the Scorer shall do this by notifying an Official who shall then notify the team. The NFHS calls this out in R2-S11-A6, while the NCAA calls this out in R2-S7-A15 and R2-S9-A9. Sometime after the NBCUSC split into the NFHS and NCAA Rules Committees, the NCAA split NFHS R2-S11-A6 into NCAA R2-S7-A15 and R2-S9-A9, but the results are the same.

MTD, Sr.