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The official has to judge the actions of the coach in both cases.
The pertinent rules are 10-4-1, 4-19-13, and 7-1-2b.
The first says that bench personnel shall not commit an unsporting foul. The second defines an unsporting foul as consisting of unfair, unethical or dishonorable conduct.
I believe that this is the proper justification for a technical foul against the coach, if the official feels that he purposely interfered with play to disadvantage the opponents.
The last rule cited simply tells us that the ball becomes dead when it touches any person other than a player who is on or outside the boundary line.
I was doing some thinking about this rule after another thread on this board and noticed that there is very little in the rules book about outside interference! I can only find 2-8-1 Note: "The home management or game committee is responsible for spectator behavior, insofar as it can reasonably be expected to control the spectators. The officials may call fouls on either team if its supporters act in such a way as to interfere with the proper conduct of the game. Discretion must be used in calling such fouls, however, lest a team be unjustly penalized."
As well as the related comments in the casebook.
Of course, a problem arises if the outside interference does not warrant a technical foul.
For example, if fans are seated very close to a boundary line, as they are in some of the smaller HS gyms, and a play occurs where a player has a very good opportunity of saving a ball from going OOB and a fan simply reaches up and catches or blocks it to protect himself. It doesn't really matter what side of the boundary plane the ball was on; the official has a tough decision to make: Follow 7-1-2b to the letter and call the OOB violation, or maybe use 2-3 and decide what to do about the fan interference.
What do you think?
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