[Nevadaref]

Speaking about the kid who thought he was substituted for and went to the bench without a replacement entering, thus leaving his team with only four--I would like to point out some specifics.
1. Although the casebook 10.3.4C states that the technical foul is "for returning during playing action" this is not really the correct reason. Nowhere in the rules is this action listed as illegal. Consider a player who dives off the court and saves a ball from going out of bounds. The player ends up in the fourth row of the stands and it takes him a few seconds to return to the floor. Meanwhile the play is still going on as the ball never became dead. He certainly may return during playing action without penalty!
The correct reason for the T in this situation is leaving the court for an unauthorized reason as stated in 10-3-4.
So we are penalizing his LEAVING, not his returning.
2. This T is charged to the player. He was not legally replaced and so is not bench personnel, thus it is not charged indirectly to the head coach as well. Please note: there is also not an indirect T on the coach if a sub fails to report or enters without being beckoned, nor is the coach penalized if the team has more than five participating. Why this is so, I can't justify. In fact, in the instance with 6 on the court the T is not even charged to a team member! It is just a team foul. This is important as the coach does not lose his coaching box for these infractions and we all know how much they hate that.
3. The movie Hoosiers is incorrect when Hackman benches his player and finishes the game with four. A team must play with 5 if they have 5 available. (not fouled out, injured, etc.)
4. When the official notices that a team only has four and should have 5 players, he should stop the game right then (unless the other team is scoring, why negate that?) and assess the T. Don't wait for the next dead ball.
5. This rule is there to stop trick plays. For example, a player runs out a side door, down the hall, and back in another door on the other side of the court to get open for a shot. I guess they don't want players hiding on the bench and then coming back in for a cheap layup either.
Under the rules there is no discretion for the officials here, but game management skills might dictate otherwise.

Anyone have any thoughts?