Time-out Debacle

[CMHCoachNRef]

Originally Posted by NewNCref

Had a great VB game last night. With Team A down by 4, Team B has the ball in their front court, and is under pressure near the division line. I am trail, on the division line table side, and about 10 feet out on the floor to see the action right near the division line. B1 has possession of the ball, and I hear what I believe to be B's coach requesting a time out. I glance over to see B's coach, and he is in fact requesting a time-out, both visually and verbally. I blow my whistle to grant Team B a time-out. When I immediately hear an uproar in the rather crowded gym, and in the time it took me to glance at Team B's coach, B1 has committed a turnover, and A1 is now in player control. I sell it hard that B1 had possession when time-out was requested, and grant the time-out, and give the ball back to Team B.

A couple of questions about the situation.

1.) Was I, by rule, correct in what I did? Since B1 had control of the ball when time-out was requested, the time-out was granted and the ball given back to Team B.

2.) Could I have been in a better position to officiate this play and see the coach's request for time-out?

Originally Posted by Nevadaref

1. By rule you were not correct. 5-8-3 says that the ball must be in control when the official grants the request. How does an official grant a time-out request? -- By blowing the whistle and stopping the clock. At the time which you did this the opponent had the ball. Now, many people will tell you that by practice officials give the time-out when they are a little slow to respond to the coach's request. Of course, this does cause problems such as the one which you encountered.

2. Two things which could have been done:
a. after seeing that the request is coming from the Head Coach, you could have turned your vision back to the game action and looked to see if his team still had control before blowing your whistle
b. your partner may have had a clear view of both the action and the Head Coach, if so, then he could have granted the time-out request.

NewNC,
These situations seem to happen somewhat frequently -- I witnessed a situation that was even worse than yours last week.

As long as the HEAD COACH can request time outs, we will always have the situations that you describe. I think that conventional wisdom suggests that the calling official error on the side of NOT granting the time out UNTIL the calling official is sure that a PROPER REQUEST was made at a PROPER TIME AND was RECOGNIZED by the calling official at a PROPER TIME.

The best advice I can give is to SELL THE HECK out of your call if a turnover happens between your recognition and the actual SOUNDING of your whistle.

When you report the time out, you can include the explanation of "the player was in control when I recogmized the time out." Regardless what you call in this case, you are going to irritate 50% of the people in the gym. If you grant the timeout, the opposing team will be livid. If you fail to grant the time out ("coach, by the time I realized you wanted the time out, none of your players was in player control"), the requesting team will be livid.