[Mark Dexter]

I've got a "no-go" here.

(Please bear with the poor syntax to follow - I'm quoting the book!)

3-3-5 and 3-3-6 deal with a player who is bleeding or whose coach has come on or has been beckoned on to the floor. As in years past, the player must leave the game, "Unless a time-out is requested by his/her team and the situation can be corrected by the resumption of play."

Now, I can be a bit flexible on this - team takes 40 seconds to treat player then requests timeout - fine (I'd probably tell them they have 20 seconds left). However, I don't believe the intent of this rule is to "buy" the player's way in at any point by using a timeout, but to get the player ready to play during a timeout situation.

Note 1: NCAA, I'm not sure of. By a technical reading of the rule, a timeout doesn't even need to be granted for the player to come back in, just one "requested" by the team (3-4-13; 2001-02).

Note 2: It used to be said that a player could not "buy there way back into the game" in exchange for a technical foul. However, if a team has no timeouts and the request one to keep a player in the game, wouldn't this be the end result?