The recent incident between the Michigan and Wisconsin basketball teams brought back memories of a time when I called a late timeout with the game in hand.
If you’ve been out of the country for the past two weeks, Michigan basketball coach Juwan Howard became irate when Wisconsin coach Greg Gard called a timeout with a 15 point lead and 15 seconds left. It resulted in a near brawl when tempers flared during the handshake line and Howard was suspended for the remainder of the regular season.
Certainly, there’s a matter of etiquette involved here. It was unsportsmanlike of Gard to call that timeout with the game decided, but others might argue that Michigan was still pressing at that point and they might have better served to back off as well. They weren’t going to catch the Badgers, down 15 with 15 seconds to go.
Whatever, there was no excuse for punches being thrown after the game, and I’ve yet to hear either coach offer an apology. Cooler heads should have prevailed.
With that said, I coached recreation basketball teams when my step-sons played and recall a game when I called a timeout in a similar situation. My team had the game well in hand with time running out when I signaled for a timeout with just seconds on the clock. With that, the obviously aggravated coach from the other team charged over to our bench and wondered just what the heck I was doing?
I explained to him that we had a boy on the team, Dave, who had never scored a point. He was a bright young man and a wonderful child but he had some motor skill challenges and, when he was on the floor, we were virtually playing four against their five. I always had him on my team because he was a friend of my son’s and his dad helped me coach and, hey, it’s recreation basketball.
When I told the opposing coach I called the timeout to try and get Dave a basket in his last chance he not only settled down, but offered to have his team back off when Dave got the ball. With that I drew up the play to have the ball inbounded to Dave under the basket. There was no guarantee he would put it in.
The teams took the floor, the whistle blew, and my player inbounded the ball to Dave. He looked round, concluded he was open, and put a two-handed shot high off the board. It bounced on the rim a couple times and dropped through the net just as the horn sounded.
Dave watched the ball go through the basket in half disbelief. He threw his arms in the air, the crowd roared and players from both benches rushed the floor, congratulating Dave on his first ever basket. At that point no cared who won the game, it was a win-win for everyone.
Nic Schmitt, who punted and kicked for the Virginia Tech football team, was on my 14 year old team that season. Years later, when he was a senior for the Hokies, I did a story on Schmitt for the paper. One of the questions I asked him was ‘what are some of the most memorable moments you’ve had in your sports career?’”
Nic was a member of state championship high school football teams at Salem, kicking the game-winning point one season. He was an all-state kicker and also a standout receiver, defensive back and kick returner, so he had many memorable moments.
At Tech, he was the first string punter and backup placekicker. He played in some huge ACC games and won all kinds of honors at Tech. You’d think his favorite sports moment would have been pinning Miami inside the 10 or punting against Auburn in the Sugar Bowl, or even kicking the winning point to win that high school state championship. But no, do you know what Nic said?
He said his favorite all-time moment in sports was when Dave scored that basket.
I did my best to hold back tears, and that was one timeout I’ll never regret.
