TO request when you have no timeouts

[Mark T. DeNucci, Sr.]

Originally Posted by BillyMac

The rule that says that officials should be notifying head coaches when their team has been granted its final allowable timeout.

Originally Posted by Rob1968

The simplicity of the verbiage used in 5-7-11 - "The officials shall conduct the game in accordance with the rules. This includes: . . . Notifying the head coach when a team is granted its final allowable time-out." - does not imply nor expressly preclude any other action, such as the courtesy of informing a team regarding the time-outs still available, at a point in the game before a team has used its last time-out.

There are many actions taken by game officials which are not expressly dictated in the rules. And, many times, here on this forum, the statement has been used, "If it isn't illegal, it must be legal." - or other similar phrases.

Originally Posted by BillyMac

Just because it's not "illegal" to communicate with a coach regarding the number of time outs (other than using the last one) that he has remaining, doesn't necessarily make it a good idea to do so. The statement, "Coach, you've got one timeout remaining", may seem innocuous, may foster good rapport with the coach, and is certainly legal, but if there's been any miscommunication, or error, between the official scorer, the visitor scorer, and the officials, why take a chance on communicating this possibly "tainted" information to the coach?

Under the worst case scenario, he takes another timeout that he thought he had (but due to miscommunication, or error, he really didn't have any left), you inform him that your charging a technical foul for an excess timeout, and we all know what he's going to say next, "But he (pointing to your partner) told me I had one timeout left". If the rule required us to inform a coach regarding how may timeouts (other than using the last one) he had remaining, then we would have to do it, but the rules don't require us to do this (other than using the last one), so why bother?

When a phone call between the official, and the assigner, occurs in the early morning, it's always nice to be able to include the statement, "I followed the rules", and informing a coach that he has a certain number of timeouts remaining certainly isn't illegal, but it's not following the rules either.

Rob1968:

Billy is correct. Do not ever tell a HC how many TOs that his team has left unless it is to inform him that the Scorer has told you that his team only has zero TOs left.

If he really wants to know how many TOs his team has he can have an AC ascertain that information during a TO.

The last thing you want is to have the Scorer tell you a team as a TO remaining and then you, of your own volition, tell the team's HC that his team has a TO remaining when he does not because the Scorer gave you incorrect information.

MTD, Sr.