Another Frequent Reader, First Time Subscriber

[ChuckElias]

Hi Steve, Welcome to the forum. Hope you find it useful. In your situation, I think you handled it the only way you could. As Mick and Mark point out, this obviously happened b/c the players just didn't know the most basic rules; although how that's possible in a play-off game is kind of puzzling.

Since you heard them talking, if you could have caught the incoming sub before he really made it all the way onto the court, that would've been great. Sort of wave him back and yell, "Wait for a whistle!" Yes, he stepped onto the court, but if you can keep him from participating and nobody else notices, then I would've preferred to handle it that way.

But in your case, it sounds like you didn't realize what was happening until it was already done. And so, once it's done and you have illegal subs participating -- you have to bang 'em.

Before I was an official, I coached a freshman boys team. The coach of the girls team never played basketball, she only knew volleyball. At one point of a game, she wanted to sub all five of her players out. She had no idea what to do, so she yelled "SUB!", she made the traveling signal (I guess it's the substitution signal in volleyball), and sent five girls running onto the court! The ref wisely blew the whistle and sent the subs back to the table, and made them wait for the next opportunity to sub. We all got a huge laugh out of it.