Ep 2047 Are You Calling Timeouts or Just Stopping the Clock?

Basketball Coach Unplugged (A Basketball Coaching Podcast) · Oct 19, 2026 · 13m

https://teachhoops.com/

When to burn one, what to say in thirty seconds, and why most timeouts send players back out knowing less than when they sat down.

Coach Steve Collins has a confession. For his first five years as a head coach, he called timeouts mostly for himself. He was frustrated, the gym was loud, and he needed it to stop. One night, down six in the third quarter, he talked fast and loud for a full minute about everything, and his point guard walked back onto the floor and asked, "Coach, what are we running?"

That was not a timeout. That was stopping the clock. In this deep dive…