I guess it was during that snoozer preseason game between Utah and Whitworth College earlier this year that I hit my boiling point.
The Utes were sleepwalking their way to a 20-something-point victory, playing their reserves most of the second half when suddenly with 3:21 left in the game, Whitworth called a timeout.
I don't know, maybe the Whitworth coach had a special 20-point play that he thought might work against the Ute scrubs.
Anyway, the players returned to the court for a whole seven whole seconds before another whistle blew when the ball went out of bounds. Then the teams walked back to their benches again for another full timeout, this time for the required "four-minute mark" media timeout.
At this point I wanted to scream, as I'm sure did many of the loyal fans still awake at the Huntsman Center that January night.
As far as I'm concerned, the glut of timeouts in college basketball is spoiling what is one of the best sporting events on earth. The players seem to do as much sitting as running in your average basketball game.
These days you have a minimum of eight timeouts per game with the possibility of as many as 18 per game. In a 40-minute game, that's one every two minutes and 12 seconds of action.
I know the fans are getting tired of all the play stoppages. A week ago during the Utah-BYU game, you could hear some boos and a lot of audible grumbling on a couple of those back-to-back timeouts situations as described above.
One fan recently e-mailed to say that's one of the reasons she and her family have stopped going to college games. They can't stand having to watch all the "dumb activities" during all the stoppages of play.
These days if a college game finishes in less than two hours, it is cause for celebration.
For those who haven't yet figured out why there are so many timeouts in a game, let me try to educate you as best I can.
There are four required media timeouts each half at the first dead ball after the 16-, 12-, 8- and 4-minute marks.
Also, each team gets five timeouts per game with one going to waste if it isn't used in the first half. That's why you'll often see coaches call timeouts with less than a minute to play before halftime. If they don't use it, they lose it.
For a few years, the rule was that if a coach called a timeout, then it would supersede next media timeout. That was changed a few years ago, so that now you have several of those aggravating circumstances with back-to-back timeouts a few seconds apart.
All but one of a team's timeouts are supposed to be 30 seconds long, but recently the rule changed so that the first timeout of the second half is an automatic full timeout rather than a 30 seconds.
So is there any solution to the problem of excessive timeouts?
It's unlikely that the NCAA rules are going to go the other way toward fewer timeouts (and fewer television commercials). Still, we can only hope.
If I was in charge, I'd cut out all the TV timeouts (that's what they really are — we newspaper types don't need a 90-second break every few minutes). Just play the game and if it goes a whole half with no timeouts, then fine. That's what soccer does.
Of course that's not going to happen, so here are some minor adjustments that could be made.
First I'd cut the media timeouts each half from four to three. Put them after the 15-, 10- and 5-minute marks of each half. I would also go back to the practice of letting called timeouts supersede a media timeout.
In other words, if a coach called a timeout with 11 minutes left, that would take the place of the 10-minute timeout, instead of play being stopped again a minute later.
Next I'd cut the number of team timeouts from five to four, keeping the current rule of one in the first half that doesn't carry over.
With all of the media timeouts, coaches don't need five of their own and I'm sure they can get by with three in the second half. It's never fun to watch the coach down by 10 or 15 points who calls timeout every time his team scores in the last two minutes of a game.
Finally, I'd cut all timeouts to just 30 seconds. I've never understood why it takes the coach and his six assistants 45 seconds to stand around at midcourt discussing what to tell their team while the players sit there on the bench staring at the ground. Just call the timeout, tell your team what you want them to do and get going, for crying out loud.
I don't expect the NCAA rules committee is going to take my advice any time soon. But if they did, perhaps basketball games could be played in less than two hours like they always used to.
E-mail: sor@desnews.com