Guys,
I have also wondered about this. I had an incident in an AAU game a few years ago when the coach of the offending team called his players over for a mini timeout while the shots were being taken. My partner & I both told the players to get behind the midcourt line. The coach said that they didn't have to and that it didn't say anywhere in the rulebook that the players actually HAD to be behind the midcourt line. He went on to explain that the offended team would be able to have a meeting at the bench whereas the offending team would be penalized. I thought to myself, "Exactly! Your player just committed a technical foul! You should be penalized!" but I told them that I'd keep the players behind the line and not let EITHER team have a meeting. He reluctantly agreed but mumbled that we didn't know the rules...to which I should have T'ed him up. I decided to let it ride and continue on. Later on, I had other officials tell me that we did the right thing; however, this is what I found in the federation manual:
In the official's manual on page 42, item 248, it only talks about having the players off the lane...not behind the midcourt line.
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