Odd situation from my last tournament.

[Adam]

1. make sure he wants a timeout. It's okay to hear the request, hit your 5 second count, and verify by looking at the coach he wanted the TO before granting it. A coach in this situation will almost always give the signal and the words for this request.

2. Whether you made a mistake depends on whether you actually got to 5 seconds prior to blowing the whistle. If you blew before hitting 5, you should give A the ball back. It may not seem fair, but it's not fair to penalize them prematurely either. A1 could have thrown a pass just before you got to 5.