In the case of teams with the ball when the score is tied, the data clearly show that it is more effective not to call timeout. In my 2009-2010 dataset, 452 teams fit the above criteria. 235 of those teams called timeout, 217 did not. Of the teams that called timeout, only 35.7 percent scored on the subsequent possession. Teams that did not call timeout scored 53.0 percent of the time. A simple two sample t-test with unequal variances shows that this difference is strongly statistically significant (p=0.0002). A logistic regression with timeouts as the independent variable and whether the team scored as the dependent variable showed that calling a timeout was a significant predictor of successfully scoring (p<0.001) and that teams that did not call timeout were twice as likely to score as teams that did.
Listen, I never coached and played very little. Your information here is not relative to our situation this weekend. What are the numbers when the clock is already stopped? What about when the score is not tied? What about when a team just needs to get the ball inbounds? Where is the data that shows when a freshman pg is running the show? What about the times when a team wants to get fouled, run clock, get a rebound, not really to score? The data given is not the situation from Sunday, we did not necessarily need to score, we needed to inbounds the ball. My team needed a timeout, I felt it and I saw it and our coach didn't use one of 3 that he still had, I think we were lucky it didn't cost us a game. For the record, I'm a big fan of Fran and respect him very much.
