Timeout! Timeout! Timeout!

[fiasco]

I had a similar, but slightly different situation last night. It's a situation that's happened to me before, but this time I didn't let it rattle me.

I'm T table side as the ball is on the wing on my side. A1 has the ball and gets trapped by two B players and starts to panic. I hear (who I think) is A's coach screaming for a time out. I glance quickly to make sure it's him and not someone in the stands. As I glance back at the play and blow my whistle, I see the ball is now loose and rolling around on the floor. I grant the timeout to A, and B's fans go nuts.

B's coach wants to know how Coach A can call a timeout while his team isn't control of the ball.

"She did have control when he requested it. Just because my whistle blows a split second later doesn't mean he didn't legally request the timeout."

He was disappointed but I think he understood.

Best case scenario, of course, would have been for my partner to see Coach A requesting the time out and grab it quickly, but I think he was blocked out by the B players position and couldn't see possession. So I had to glance.