Number of players

[M&M Guy]

Originally posted by David M
But, if he is being benched by the coach for a reason other than injury I would inform the coach he must play.

On what basis? Again, who gets to decide if a player is eligible?

Now, if a coach only has five players, and he's sitting his best player with 4 fouls so they can rest up for the final couple of minutes of the game while the other 4 players do their best to keep the game close, then yea, I have a problem with that. The game is meant to be played with 5 players and that's an attempt to gain an advantage by keeping that "eligible" player on the bench. (Hmm, there's that advantage/disadvantage principle.) Now what advantage is being gained by keeping a discipline problem on the bench? Couldn't it be argued that you're putting that team at a disadvantage if you force them to play that problem player?

It's just an issue that I don't think we need to look at too closely. If a coach tells me that player is no longer eligible to play, then that's good enough for me.