[zm1283]

This happened locally in a girl's sectional game last night.

Play is stopped and B10 has blood on her uniform. Official informs the coach that he can use a timeout or sub for her. From what I've gathered from reading firsthand accounts and the newspaper report, he tried to stall while the blood was cleaned off of her uniform. (She went to the bench, so Team B only had four players on the court) After this little delay, the official walks across the court and administers the throw in with B having four players on the court. (I heard that he did this because he was upset that A's star player was allowed to tie/fix her shoe earlier in the game and A wasn't instructed to sub for her or use a timeout)

After a few seconds, B's coach sends a sub directly on to the court. Just as this happens, A hits a three pointer and a T is called for the player entering the court. B's coach justified it in the paper by saying that he would have gotten a T for playing only four players when he had enough eligible players to play with five.

A few questions:

1. Shouldn't the official have used the 20-second replacement interval when they determined that they coach was not going to call a timeout for the player with blood on the uniform? Give him the 20 seconds and then the T if he doesn't replace her, right?

2. I assume that you should never put the ball back in play if one team only has four players on the court and has eligible players on the bench.

3. It isn't a T to play with only four players, right? The coach is simply instructed to put a fifth player on the court, correct?