(photo courtesy of Ron Stevens)

The calling of a timeout at a college basketball game has evolved into a complicated process.  The five guys who are actively participating in the game are probably happy that they don’t have to participate in moving the entire bench forward about five feet.

In the photo above, Youngstown State University Coach Jerry Slocum is shown during a timeout.  Take notice that the seats have been moved forward about five feet to allow the bench players access to the information behind the seated players.

When you are watching a game on television, you do not get to take in the first twenty seconds.  Watch for this closely, as it is really turning into a hamster race to get everything in place.  Coaches are grabbing clipboards, the waterboy readies the squirt bottles for delivery, there is someone passing out towels, and several players moving chairs around.

The exclamation point of the whole process is the one seat that gets brought out to face everyone, or the coaching seat.  It is like watching the Ohio State Band do Script Ohio when a timeout gets called. 

The process obviously has pros and cons.  The advantage of moving everything forward a few feet to allow the remainder of players to receive information from the coach makes perfect sense.  If you wanted to really dig for good reasons, an exhausted player does not have to walk as far for the stop in play.

The negatives are the time factor involved in rearranging all of the furniture, the harder angles that towels and Gatorade are shuffled in from, and getting back on the court in enough time to avoid getting a technical foul for a delay of game.

So far, the system has not been disruptive or counterproductive in any way.  However, as more teams go to this system, timeout duration will either be lengthened or rules will be more strictly enforced.

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