Dean Smith - thoughts on timeout after a make to end a run

[basketballjones]

Coach - what are your thoughts on calling a timeout after your team gets a make, to end the run? It's never made sense to me, except for in late game situations.

But I'm talking more when a coach wants to end a run, but wants to wait until his team scores to call it. That doesn't make any sense to me... From a mathematical perspective, if you've scored, you have lessened the deficit, so keep letting it go because the run is done. I just feel you have to call the timeout after they score to end the run.

[royalfan]

I don't want to speak for Dean and I realize you did mention "except for late game situations."  Late game situations can mean many things, so I will say that it can be smart to use one prior to a minute remaining after a basket to prevent someone like Maryland doing what they did to us and intentionally ran an extra 13 seconds off the clock by simply refusing to go get the ball to inbound.  One or two time outs should be allocated just for that purpose of prevention if you are managing the clock.  Stupid rule forces your hand. 

[colhusker]

I don't want to speak for Dean and I realize you did mention "except for late game situations."  Late game situations can mean many things, so I will say that it can be smart to use one prior to a minute remaining after a basket to prevent someone like Maryland doing what they did to us and intentionally ran an extra 13 seconds off the clock by simply refusing to go get the ball to inbound.  One or two time outs should be allocated just for that purpose of prevention if you are managing the clock.  Stupid rule forces your hand. 

Nova did a bit of that too.  Only smart if you can do it in a close game.

[basketballjones]

I don't want to speak for Dean and I realize you did mention "except for late game situations."  Late game situations can mean many things, so I will say that it can be smart to use one prior to a minute remaining after a basket to prevent someone like Maryland doing what they did to us and intentionally ran an extra 13 seconds off the clock by simply refusing to go get the ball to inbound.  One or two time outs should be allocated just for that purpose of prevention if you are managing the clock.  Stupid rule forces your hand. 

Yep. I get that. Was more talking about during the flow of the game and ending runs. 

 

Lots of coaches (for reasons of pride), don't want to "put a name on a run" by calling a timeout. Meaning, after a team goes on a big 8-0 run, when you call that timeout, the crowd is going to go wild, their bench will go wild, etc... So lots of coaches want to call that time out after their team scored so that it takes the wind out of their sails a bit. But that's my point, the bucket you just scored effectively ended that run. If they go down and score right away again, the deficit is just back to where it was before - so maybe call one then. 

[Dean Smith]

I probably had a tendency to wait too long to take the time out. I felt they were twice as valuable at end of game situations and I wanted the players to find a way to right the ship by themselves. We talked about the fact that there are always going to be runs in a game and you need to learn how to deal with them. One of my best teams took it upon themselves to compete to be the run killer. We discussed in practice once that when a team goes on a run, especially at their home, someone needs to step up and make a play that silences the crowd. In the middle of one run on the road, on a dead ball I asked a senior in front of the bench, "Do we need a time out?" He responded, "No, I'm going to be one." Clueless, I asked, "The one?" "The one to silence this crowd." He immediately proceeded to hit a three on that possession. He turns to the bench and tells me, "Save the timeout. I got that one for you coach." That was a fun year. For the rest of the year I had players after making run killing plays, tap themselves on the chest and say things like, "I got that one." Like I said, that was a fun year.

[jimmykc]

And that player was Jimmy Chitwood.

[basketballjones]

I probably had a tendency to wait too long to take the time out. I felt they were twice as valuable at end of game situations and I wanted the players to find a way to right the ship by themselves. We talked about the fact that there are always going to be runs in a game and you need to learn how to deal with them. One of my best teams took it upon themselves to compete to be the run killer. We discussed in practice once that when a team goes on a run, especially at their home, someone needs to step up and make a play that silences the crowd. In the middle of one run on the road, on a dead ball I asked a senior in front of the bench, "Do we need a time out?" He responded, "No, I'm going to be one." Clueless, I asked, "The one?" "The one to silence this crowd." He immediately proceeded to hit a three on that possession. He turns to the bench and tells me, "Save the timeout. I got that one for you coach." That was a fun year. For the rest of the year I had players after making run killing plays, tap themselves on the chest and say things like, "I got that one." Like I said, that was a fun year.

Cool post Dean!

[49r]

 

I probably had a tendency to wait too long to take the time out. I felt they were twice as valuable at end of game situations and I wanted the players to find a way to right the ship by themselves. We talked about the fact that there are always going to be runs in a game and you need to learn how to deal with them. One of my best teams took it upon themselves to compete to be the run killer. We discussed in practice once that when a team goes on a run, especially at their home, someone needs to step up and make a play that silences the crowd. In the middle of one run on the road, on a dead ball I asked a senior in front of the bench, "Do we need a time out?" He responded, "No, I'm going to be one." Clueless, I asked, "The one?" "The one to silence this crowd." He immediately proceeded to hit a three on that possession. He turns to the bench and tells me, "Save the timeout. I got that one for you coach." That was a fun year. For the rest of the year I had players after making run killing plays, tap themselves on the chest and say things like, "I got that one." Like I said, that was a fun year.

Cool post Dean!

 

 

Was this song running through your head when you read it?

 

 

...cause it was in mine.

[Blindcheck]

I used timeouts when the runs were caused by something they were doing or we were doing that was causing the run...to fix it.

If the run was from hot shooting or poor shooting, not something strategic....I usually just suffered through the run.

However, I have used all my timeouts In the first half, once....trying to right the ship....I was trying to stay in the game....knowing that if we didn't correct what we were doing, the timeouts in the second half would be meaningless.