For all the hundreds of timeout calls that Tommy Herrion witnessed in eight years as a Pete Gillen assistant, the one he remembers most vividly is the one that Gillen elected not to call.

It was the first round of the 2001 NCAA men's basketball tournament, Virginia's only NCAA appearance in Gillen's first six seasons, and Casey Calvary had rebounded and scored off Dan Dickau's miss to give Gonzaga an 86-85 lead with nine seconds left.

"I would bet almost every penny I own that we had a timeout left against Gonzaga," said Herrion, now the head coach at Charleston. "Feel free to check, but I would guarantee we had one."

Sure enough, the Cavaliers did.

"And, I probably was one of the people who convinced him not to call it," Herrion said.

The Cavaliers got the ball to Roger Mason Jr., their best player, but Mason's layup attempt fell short at the buzzer.

Almost four years later, Gillen, too, remembers the situation. He has no regrets.

"Roger had scored 29 points," Gillen said. "I did have one timeout left, but we said, 'Let's let him go.' He's a great player, he had the ball; sometimes, if the defense has a chance to get set, you can't get it to him."

It might have been the last time Gillen had a timeout available at the end of a close game. On Wednesday night, in a 56-55 victory over Florida State, he called his last two with 2:19 and 1:40 left.

"I couldn't believe we had two left," Gillen said. "Ridiculous! I had to get rid of them."

Gillen might have been kidding, but he is a firm believer in what he calls a "stop-the-bleeding" philosophy. He calls them early, he calls them often and he knows that people are noticing.

At Cameron Indoor Stadium earlier this season, Duke students serenaded him with chants of "Timeout Pete."

"You've been busting my [rhymes with calls] for 5 1/2 years," Gillen told a reporter this week. "Just make up some quote from me and write what you're going to write."

Eventually, Gillen agreed to discuss his philosophy, but "to me it's a lose-lose thing," he said.

Or is it?

Virginia has won four games in its last possession this season - on shots by four different players - and hasn't had a timeout remaining in any of them.

"Sometimes, we feel like saying, 'Nah, coach, no, we don't need one right now,'" guard J.R. Reynolds said, "but, sometimes, when you're in a situation like that, your instincts just take over.'"

That was the case Wednesday, when Reynolds got the ball in a loose-ball scramble and found a wide-open Devin Smith for the winning 3-pointer from the right wing.

Florida State coach Leonard Hamilton had called three timeouts in the final 1:22, just as N.C. State coach Herb Sendek had called four timeouts in the final 2:03 Saturday night in Raleigh, N.C.

By that point, the fifth of Gillen's five timeouts was gone, having been expended with 4:55 left in the game. The Cavs won 64-62 on a stickback by guard Sean Singletary with 2.2 seconds left.

"Some legendary coach who shall remain nameless lent me 4,125 timeouts," said Gillen in a thinly-veiled reference to former North Carolina coach Dean Smith. "So, I have a few more left than most coaches. You are who you are and that's just our style."

Greenberg didn't

notice

Virginia Tech coach Seth Greenberg, whose Hokies (12-9, 5-5 ACC) visit Virginia (12-9, 3-7) at noon today, said he almost never calls timeout when his team has a chance to win or tie a game on its last possession.

"We play," Greenberg said. "There's a school of thought that says, 'We spend so much time on special situations in practice that our guys should know what to do.' We push it. Then, we read the defense and if we need to, we call a timeout. Ideally, I don't want to call a timeout."

Greenberg has known Gillen since they were fellow counselors at the Five-Star Basketball Camps more than 25 years ago. Until he came north from South Florida in 2003, Greenberg says he had no awareness of Gillen's reputation for timeouts.

"I don't even consider when other people call timeouts," Greenberg said. "I didn't know about [Gillen's timeouts] until I read it in the newspaper. I was like, 'Oh, really? That's what he does.' Everybody has a different philosophy. I like to save them."

Oh, really? Who doesn't?

"I was more into banking timeouts and thought that was pretty effective," said Virginia athletic director Craig Littlepage, a former head basketball coach at Pennsylvania and Rutgers. "Dean was probably the coach who was most discreet about his use of timeouts."

Virginia has gone 6-1 this year in games decided by one or two points, which does not include a 79-73 loss at Virginia Tech, where the Cavaliers trailed 75-73 following an Elton Brown stickback with nine seconds left.

Some teams might have used a timeout at that point and set their defense, or settled on an opposing player they wanted to foul. UVa did not have a timeout at its disposal and saw the Hokies take advantage of an unsettled situation to throw a baseball-style pass to Jamon Gordon for a dunk.

Not opposed

to change

Littlepage said that he discusses basketball and basketball strategy with Gillen but that they like to keep those conversations confidential.

Gillen's use of timeouts "is a topic that comes up either in conversation or in e-mails," Littlepage said. "When we've gone out on the road for our spring socials and Pete or other coaches are speaking, people will ask about it."

Other coaches have been known to call timeouts to "stop the bleeding," as Gillen puts it, but sometimes the bleeding has been microscopic. The Cavaliers were leading 64-34 and were in the midst of an 11-0 run against Richmond when Gillen called a timeout with 13:41 left.

Mostly, he is famous for calling timeouts on the verge of the so-called television or "media" timeouts that come each half on the first dead ball after the clock has reached 16, 12, eight and four minutes.

In 2002, Gillen called a timeout at Georgia Tech with 18:30 left in the first half; then, two years later, on the same court, he called a timeout with 18:02 left and the score 3-3. When Virginia returned to Atlanta this year, there were two separate media pools on the time of Gillen's first timeouts.

"He had a great quote about it when he was up here," said Providence Journal reporter Kevin McNamara, who covered the Friars during Gillen's four-year tenure. "He always used to say, 'You don't want to die rich.' I still picture him calling the full, 60-second timeouts and winding up his arm like a third-base coach."

If he felt that it would improve Virginia's chances of winning, Gillen said, he would change.

"Sure, I'd change," he said. "It might blow up on me the next game, but I try to be flexible. Sometimes we zone, sometimes we man, sometimes we junk. I certainly don't have all the answers."

Close games haven't been Gillen's problems. In games decided by one or two points, he is 22-11 against ACC teams. In all games against ACC opposition, he is 46-68.

Dick Wall, a Roanoke attorney, was the Roanoke Catholic boys' basketball coach when Reynolds played for the Celtics and he has heard Gillen bashed for his timeout theories.

"You know, if you're winning," Wall said, "people just say you're eccentric."Tale of the timeoutsUVa coach Pete Gillen's numbers from the 2004-2005 season:Total games: 21

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Timeouts: 92 (4.3 per game)

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Five or more timeouts: 12 times

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Fewest timeouts: 2 vs. North Carolina

(in 110-69 loss)

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Earliest timeout: 2:12 elapsed

vs. Western Kentucky (trailing 4-3)

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Timeouts before first TV timeout: 6

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Earliest final timeout: 8:30 left

vs. Wake Forest