Given how the game ended and the decision by Diaco to call the time out with 17 seconds and the clock stopped what is ironic is that at the same moment Coach Niamatalolo was running down the sidelines toward the ref on the Navy side of field trying to get a timeout. One of the assistants had motioned that he thought the receiver had juggled the ball going out of bounds and Coach N hesitated than ran to signal the timeout to give an opportunity to review the play, just as Diaco got the attention of the ref on his side of the field and Huskies get charge with the timeout. You can see on the video the ref on the Navy side just noticing Coach N as the other ref on the UConn side blows the whistle for the time out. This all occurred right in front of me so originally I thought Navy was charged with the timeout not realizing that the refs on the other side had actually blown the whistle and then they announced a UConn timeout.
If a fraction of a second more had gone by, Navy would have been charged the timeout, UConn would have had the opportunity to retain their timeout, although coach Diaco apparently would have still proceeded with the understanding that it was third down (which is truly amazing that you would not have gotten that clarified during an entire time out). But a fraction of a second could have made quite a difference.
If a fraction of a second more had gone by, Navy would have been charged the timeout, UConn would have had the opportunity to retain their timeout, although coach Diaco apparently would have still proceeded with the understanding that it was third down (which is truly amazing that you would not have gotten that clarified during an entire time out). But a fraction of a second could have made quite a difference.
