The NCAA Playing Rules Oversight Panel approved a proposal to alter a rule that went into effect last season. The revised rule will allow head men’s basketball coaches to call timeouts while that coach’s team is in the process of inbounding the ball, starting in the 2016-17 season.
This new rule allows a coach to ask for a timeout if, for example, a player has trouble inbounding the ball and is close to committing a five-second violation.
A rule prohibiting coaches from calling a timeout in live-ball situations went into effect last season, allowing officials to grant only timeouts that were called by players. That rule left coaches unable to call timeouts once the referee began the five-count for the player inbounding the ball to a teammate.
Men’s Basketball Rules Committee members, who met last month in Indianapolis, discussed the rationale for last year’s rules change. They felt it was intended to allow only players to call timeouts during a live ball while the ball was in play between the lines, especially during scrambles on the floor for a loose ball.
