Buzzer beater...........oops
 

Things got a bit hectic at the end tonight. BV, close game all night. V leads by 3 under a minute. H on offense, shot, miss, rebound, another miss, ball tapped out and V33 winds up with a breakaway. H15 sprinted after and got there just in time to leap and grab a shoulder and take V33 to the floor. I made the X. H head coach was up and screaming, but I quickly realized he was screaming at H15: "HELP HIM UP!" Good. Nobody was unhappy with this call. V33 can ice it. 16 seconds left. He clanks both. Ball on the endline. V inbounds. I expect an immediate foul, but there is none. They swing it all around the perimeter, then V35 flashes open in the paint. Ball goes to him, he turns to lay it up and misses, rebounds, misses again. (pass it back out, son) H finally secures the rebound. I expect a timeout, there is none. I'm new lead so now I bust it to get ahead of the play. H23 puts it on the floor and starts hard upcourt. I glance at the clock and see 2 seconds, thinking he's not gonna get it off. I heard the words time out, I think, but not from anybody I was dealing with at the time. I then hear a whistle, glance back at my partner who is indicating TO for H, then H23 releases a shot 12-15 feet in the backcourt, which banks in as the buzzer sounds. HC is screaming again, I heard the words timeout. I thought he was saying that he requested timeout and wanted to be sure he was going to have time put back. No, he was saying he didn't ask for timeout at all. Partner said he had granted the timeout to a player. Said multiple players were saying timeout and one had actually come toward him making the T signal. Naturally all the kids denied making the request. Coach asked what number. Partner didn't know. Oops.
Coach suggested it couldn't be a timeout if we didn't know what number. I politely told him that was not the case, that the whistle undeniably caused the ball to be dead. Apparently he had no argument that the whistle came before the release. He suggested that since there was no timeout request that it was an inadvertant whistle. My splainer was about gone for the evening by now so I didn't bother to tell him that even if there was no request and it was an inadvertant whistle, it still made the ball dead. Partner said he had the request at 2 seconds (clock had no tenths) so we put the time back on the clock and H inbounded at the 28' line in the backcourt. Inbounds pass was deflected and trickled out of bounds at the buzzer. Coach said there was no request, he had video, and we would be "reported."
I said okay.

If the whistle went, the play is dead, and H gets the ensuing throw-in. But one should grab the number when granting a timeout requested by a player. The more ammo you have in these cases, the easier it is in case someone asks.

I think we all agree that this is the case. I have also been guilty of this lack of knowledge at times. While this is certainly no excuse, players make timeout request so seldom these days, it is easy to get out of this habit.

This situation brought to mind another issue, when is a timeout actually granted? This situation was opposite of the normal request. The team making the request wants it NOW if not sooner, with the common example being the player who makes the request while airborne before landing out of bounds. Though not specifically stated by rule, normally the timeout is granted even if the whistle does not actually sound until after the player has landed. But look at the situation tonight. A1 pushing the ball up the court. A2 says timeout. Official says "What, you want timeout?" A2 nods. Official blows the whistle. Meanwhile, just as the official was asking for verification of the request, A1 launched a shot, which was in flight when the whistle sounded.

5-8-3 states that timeout occurs when an official grants and signals the request of a player or coach.

Under 6-7 the only thing that causes the ball to be dead related to a timeout which is mentioned is the whistle, not the request, nor the recognition/granting thereof. While I think most of us handle this the same way, (it took a while for me to sorta swallow this concept in a thread several years ago) I would like to see an editorial revision and perhaps a case play with regard to this issue.

As sticky as our situation was tonight, I imagine it being a lot worse had the whistle not sounded until after the release.

1. I'm assuming he threatened to report you during the TO he didn't want. If so, why did you not T him?

2. If it happened after the game was over, why were you on the court?

Never occurred to me at the time, although it did later. He was getting a bit agitated as he asked his series of questions. "What if.....?" "Why can't we......?"

So I told him to take it easy and let's not make this any worse. He was actually quite calm then. "It's already worse. Y'all are getting reported."
I almost bit at this point, but I didn't. (Oh, yeah? What's the report gonna say?) He calmly stated a fact about his intentions regarding the situation. I still don't see a T here.

The T for me would've been right after the "d".

I've always considered any threat of post game reporting to be as close to automatic as it gets. Sort of like the "I'm going to give you a 1" (or whatever the lowest rating is).

The is a bad habit to get complacent about for exactly the events that occurred in your game.

I understand what you're saying, but here's why I don't consider this a threat.
If you are threatened with a low rating, that's one thing. Here, the cards we have now don't even have a place for rating various categories like the cards we formerly used. They merely have the names of the officials and their ratings (registered, approved, certified) date, and teams involved. They don't even have the assignor's contact information any more. I've taken an informal survey, and 9 out of 10 coaches throw them in the trash. If he wants to report something which he considers improper and/or out of the ordinary, I think that's exactly what he should do. He stated a fact. I didn't, and still don't, feel threatened in the least.

I agree it would have been nice to have this information, but I really don't think it would have changed anything. All the players had already denied making the request. Earlier in the game, I granted V15 a timeout when he had trouble with a throwin against pressure. Not sure I have granted another to a player all season. Also, I don't know about this, but I'm thinking that this piece of information is something that at least some scorers don't record.

They should be recording the player # or HC in each time-out block.

I don't think of it as a nicety, I think of it as a pertinent piece of information that officials are responsible to know.

I know that they should. It is just my impression that some are not paying attention to this part. They nod at which team, they stare intently until they get the full or thirty signal, but it is my impression that many are not interested by the part in between.

I don't think of it as a nicety either. I intend to get it right every time. I'm just saying that in the ultimate scheme of things, if I have to miss something, I'd rather miss this than countless other things we could name.

Well, in the ultimate scheme of things, the last 10 seconds of a one possession game is not the time to get complacent and miss it.

Agreed. Young partner, my son's age. His first year to call varsity. I would not be surprised to learn that this was the first request by a player he had ever granted.