Inadvertent whistle, oh my

[jdmara]

Situation:

Final minute of the championship game of an extremely competitive men's league game. It was a 1-point game at the time with the team leading (team A) at the line for one free throw. Team B looks at me before I throw the ball to the thrower and notifies me that they will be requesting a timeout on the rebound. No problem.

Team A misses the free throw and Team B is in position for the rebound. They start yelling timeout just as a teammate attempts to grab the ball. I whistle sharply and the ball quirts out. Fuuuuuuuudge.

Of course a commotion erupts as they didn't have possession...Dang butterfingers...."Gentleman, we have a timeout granted". Partners come together and I start it off, "Sorry guys, this situation is my fault. I have a timeout granted. Inadvertent whistle with no possession, we go to the possession arrow. They agree with the interpretation and we line up for the possession arrow throw in. I was lucky that Team B had the possession arrow in their favor.

The problem lie in that almost all of team B officiate in my local association and D3 college women, a few of them insist that "announced right away that there was an inadvertent whistle with no team control. Therefore, the possession arrow would determine possession and that it would have been our ball. Then you should have asked our team if we still wanted the timeout."

I agree that I should have announced the inadvertent right away and rules before the timeout but I don't agree that they may be able to "revoke" their request. What do you all think? Is NCAA M or W different than HS?

One of them cites the situation in NCAA W, "Coach A called timeout when Team B had the ball bringing it up the court. My partner mistakenly blew his whistle and said time-out for Team A. I ran over and corrected him and said that Team B had the ball and that Team A couldn’t call timeout. We explained to the coaches that we had an inadvertent whistle and that it would be Team B's ball at the spot where the ball was. We then asked if Team A still wanted a timeout. I think they said they did not want the time out and we inbounded the ball." Is this a correct ruling?

Thank you as always

-Josh