Had a situation a couple of days ago involving a coach telling my partner and I that the 5 second throw in count continues until the ball is legally touched by a player.

The situation involved A1 rolling the ball to A2 on an OOB throw in so that the clock would not start. The coach insited tat the count continued and went kinda crazy when I did not call it. Of course I know the count ceases when the ball is released and enters the court.

I have called with other officials who count until the ball is touched.

according to rule 7-6-1, the player shall release the ball on a pass directly into the court within 5 seconds after the throw in starts.

So the key is in the release, sounds like you made the right call.

NFHS-2001

He could be confusing the 10 second backcourt count. That count continues until the ball is established in the frontcourt. Being in the air does not count, although I bet you won't find very many refs who have the onions to call that.

The rule, at least in college, used to be that the count continued.

Since many get their "rules knowledge" from watching TV, I'd suspect that's the source of the problem.

Mike O: When I started reffing (the first time) back in the 70's, the ball as I remember did have to be touched by an inbounds player within 5 seconds. However, when I started reffing again in the late 80's that rule had changed. Maybe the coach is older than me and been out of circulation longer.

In this situation by NF, you would have no count going after release and prior to pick-up, because the 10-second count doesn't start until team control.