Dead/Ball Live Ball Quiz Help

[just another ref]

Originally Posted by Jurassic Referee

The question is.....

Do you usually start your throw-in count when the player grabs the ball in-bounds or do you wait until the player has walked OOB with it?

Another good question. I usually wait until he has walked out of bounds, but nothing in the rule tells us to do it this way. "Available to a player" is broad terminology, to be sure, and it doesn't specify any difference between ball location with regard to out of bounds or not. The ruling I see most often is when in doubt, grant the timeout. And sometimes, even when there should be no doubt, grant it anyway. I have seen the timeout whistled while the throw-in pass is in the air. This can get back to that mental granting of the timeout thing which occurs significantly prior to the whistle, I suppose.