Something I've never seen before...
 

This happened earlier in the season and I just remembered about it and thought I would share it with everyone.

8th Grade Boys. Very good game, late in the game. H1 is dribbling down court on a fast break, I'm running down with them to become new lead along bench side. 2 Defenders get down court in front of ball handler. H1 seems to be dribbling to the corner by his bench and it's clear he has no where to go. He picks up his dribble and in an attempt to pass he throws the ball out of bounds. As soon as the ball leaves his hand the coach screams Timeout! Right after the coach yells for timeout ball goes out of bounds and I hit the whistle for the OOB call and show my open hand then direction of possession for the call. (I also verbalize every OOB call fairly loudly).

As I turn to point in the other direction I see the coach come on to the floor and call his players over. I walk towards the coach saying, "Coach do you still want time out?" I asked 2 times. No response. I assume he still wants his timeout. I then proceed to ask him, "30 or full, coach?" twice. No response again and by this point he has the 5 players on the court and all of the players off the bench huddled around him in front of the bench. I go to the table hit the whistle again and report a full timeout for the Home team.

I alert both teams of their warning for the first horn. H coach then proceeds to ask me, "Where are we getting the ball?" I tell him it's Blue ball ( they were wearing white)
Coach: "I thought I called timeout!"
Me: "You did"
Coach: "Why isn't it our ball then?"
Me: "Because your player threw the ball out of bounds"
Coach: "I called timeout before that"
Me: "No, you asked for a timeout when the ball was in the air."
Coach: "Then why did you give me a timeout?"
Me: "Because you huddled your team for a timeout during the dead ball and didn't answer me when I asked you if you still wanted timeout"
Coach: "Well i don't want the timeout now."
Me: "I can't take it back now. You already took the timeout"
Coach: "Well that's ridiculous!"
Me: "Don't huddle your team for a timeout if you don't want a timeout right after you screamed for a timeout."

He spent the remainder of his timeout talking to me and being confused about why it wasn't his ball.

I think i handled this situation the only way it could have been handled.

They ended up winning the game.

I really wanted to say, "Well, coach, if you payed attention to what was going on..."

(In the end i'm fairly certain that he thought my whistle for the OOB was me granting him timeout when clearly from my mechanics it was not)

Stupid situation. Glad it was only 8th grade.....

Middle school coaches are learning just as surely as their players are.

A good testimonial to why we need clarification of when a timeout is granted.

Not the way I read the OP. No on one this board would advocate granting a timeout based on when the coach thought about it.

Probably not. But if the rule read:

When a timeout request is properly made and recognized by the official, the timeout is granted and the ball is dead.

this would eliminate the need for "Do you still want it, Coach?"

Probably, but the OP, in which the coach just assumed he had it, would have still happened.

And for a situation that may happen once every three or four games at most, I'm not sure I want to make a change. I like being able to have a patient whistle on this and still be able to grant the TO. It sometimes takes me a second to recognize a timeout since I'm not tuned to the coach.

Remember Syracuse Vs. Connecticut ???
 

Amen.

There are two ways to handle this situation:

1) The path of least resistence and that is how the author of this post handled the situation. And I really do not have a problem with how he handled it considering it was a jr H.S. level game. Or,

2) When the HC refused to respond to the official's questioning, the official could have returned to the spot of the designated throw-in, announced that it was Blue's ball, pointed in Blue's direction, give Blue a reasonable amount of time to respond, and then give the ball to Blue for a throw-in (and if Blue does not respond place the ball down at the spot of the designated throw-in and started a five second count). TF's could have been charged to Blue and White for leaving the court for an unauthorized reason; I would avoid this option at all costs if possible.

MTD, Sr.

If he really requested it when it was in the air, headed OOB, it's OOB. If his player was the last one to touch it, too bad.