NCAA Basketball: The importance of calling late-game timeouts

Timeouts are important in all sports and games. But how much does it matter in NCAA Basketball? Here’s why it matters when it’s down to the wire.

While this is just the second week of a long and unpredictable 2021-22 NCAA basketball season, I have already noticed a pattern that has led to teams losing games in regulation or having to play an extra 5 minutes of basketball in order to pull out victories. As we all know, a coach has two main options after his team manages to get a stop late in a game and secure a defensive rebound.

One, he can call a quick timeout and draw up a set that will help his team get the shot they want on the final possession of regulation, or two, he can put his trust in his guys to get organized offensively while the game clock is winding down. Now, I don’t want to sit here and say that I’ve seen every Division 1 head coach choose option 2 so far this year, but there have been several instances where coaches have elected to “play it out” at the end of regulation and live with the final shot attempt.

Need a few examples of this? Well, think back to Monday night’s showdown between Marquette and Illinois if you will, Andre Curbelo is a terrific young guard who will have plenty of success this year, but his seven turnovers against the Golden Eagles should tell you that he did not have his best game as a ball-handler/playmaker. So, when the Fighting Illini were down by a point with 17 seconds to play in the contest, Brad Underwood should have waited for Curbelo to cross half-court before calling a timeout and setting up a play that would keep Marquette’s defense honest.

Instead, Underwood decided to give Curbelo a chance to redeem himself in the final seconds of the contest, which didn’t end well for the Fighting Illini, considering that Curbelo committed his final turnover of the game and handed the Golden Eagles a 67-66 home victory. Maybe it’s just me, but I think that Curbelo’s poor play leading up to the Illini’s final offensive possession should have convinced Underwood that a timeout was warranted in that situation.

To be completely honest, someone who has taken great care of the basketball throughout the course of a game shouldn’t necessarily get a clear-out opportunity late in a tight contest, because the end result is almost always the same. In other words, what occurred at the end of regulation between Texas A&M and Abilene Christian last Friday is not something I would advise coaches to allow.

Essentially, Abilene Christian guard, Coryon Mason, decided to dribble the ball between his legs a few times before attempting a contested pull-up jumper that could have propelled the Wildcats to a 63-61 victory over the Aggies. However, Brette Tanner’s decision to refrain from calling a late-game timeout ultimately backfired, as Mason’s mid-range jump shot failed to make contact with the rim and the Wildcats were forced to compete in a 5-minute overtime period (they eventually fell to the Aggies 81-80).

Of course, some players are able to bail their coaches out by drilling side-step/step back triples or difficult two-pointers, but most of the time you will see players settle for low-percentage jump shots (as opposed to attacking the basket) and watch as the ball fails to travel down the net. If more coaches opted to call a timeout before one of their players took matters into their own hands, I have a feeling that we would see fewer bricks and airballs in critical moments.

Ideally, you want to run your regular offense in late-game situations and steer clear of playing isolation ball when your team desperately needs a basket. Even if the wrong guy ends up taking the final shot after you drew up a play that involved a ton of off-ball movement/cutting, you could still say that you kept the opposition on their toes and increased your team’s chances of receiving a clean look during the possession. You could certainly choose to save your final timeout and call a play from the sideline, but the only way to make sure that all five players are on the same page is to burn that timeout and direct their attention to your clipboard.

Hopefully, more coaches will start to take charge when games are on the line and settle their guys down when they can sense that a forced shot is on the way. If not, well, we will continue to watch teams miss out on opportunities to close out contests when the ball is in their possession.