playing short by choice

[Nevadaref]

Originally Posted by Robert Goodman

A friend brought up a scenario in a movie of fiction concerning interscholastic basketball. With exactly 5 players available and eligible at a point during a game, a coach keeps one on the bench out of personal pique. Legal?

Robert

Here it is straight from the NFHS book, Robert. In other words what Coach Norman Dale did was not permissible.

NUMBER OF PLAYERS REQUIRED
3.1.1 SITUATION: After six players have been disqualified, Team A has only four who are eligible to continue in the game as players. In a gesture of fair play, the coach of Team B indicates a desire to withdraw a player so that each team will have four players on the court. RULING: This is not permissible. Team B must have five players participating as long as it has that number available. If no substitute is available, a team must continue with fewer than five players. When only one player remains to participate, that team shall forfeit the game unless the referee believes this team still has an opportunity to win the game.

[mick]

Originally Posted by Nevadaref

Here it is straight from the NFHS book, Robert. In other words what Coach Norman Dale did was not permissible.

NUMBER OF PLAYERS REQUIRED
3.1.1 SITUATION: After six players have been disqualified, Team A has only four who are eligible to continue in the game as players. In a gesture of fair play, the coach of Team B indicates a desire to withdraw a player so that each team will have four players on the court. RULING: This is not permissible. Team B must have five players participating as long as it has that number available. If no substitute is available, a team must continue with fewer than five players. When only one player remains to participate, that team shall forfeit the game unless the referee believes this team still has an opportunity to win the game.

This case does not apply to a team disciplinary problem.

[Nevadaref]

Originally Posted by mick

This case does not apply to a team disciplinary problem.

Mick, the underlined sentence applies.

[Jurassic Referee]

Originally Posted by Nevadaref

Mick, the underlined sentence applies.

And I believe that Mick's point is that the team A does not have 5 players available because of a team disciplinary problem.

I agree with Mick.

[mick]

Originally Posted by Nevadaref

Mick, the underlined sentence applies.

I wish it did, but fortunately (or unfortunately) there have been enough coaches trying to make the game fair to require a case play, and not enough coaches benching players for discipline to require a case play.

[Jurassic Referee]

Originally Posted by mick

I wish it did, but fortunately (or unfortunately) there have been enough coaches trying to make the game fair to require a case play, and not enough coaches benching players for discipline to require a case play.

Again agree. If a player is benched, he/she is not available per se. The current rules language does not explicitly cover these cases.

[Robert Goodman]

Originally Posted by Jurassic Referee

Again agree. If a player is benched, he/she is not available per se. The current rules language does not explicitly cover these cases.

Interesting! Suppose the coach said to the official, "This person is not available as a player", while the player himself said, "Yes I am"? Come to think of if, what if the player added, "And he's not our coach!"?

Actually we could go far beyond that. Suppose officials come to administer a game at a certain place & time between teams A & B. At the appointed time, team B shows up, as does team A and team A' -- that is, two groups, each claiming to be one of the teams that are supposed to play. What do you do? Seems like a similar situation to the one above, just on a larger scale.

Robert

[Adam]

Originally Posted by Robert Goodman

Interesting! Suppose the coach said to the official, "This person is not available as a player", while the player himself said, "Yes I am"? Come to think of if, what if the player added, "And he's not our coach!"?

If this is late in the game, then the coach's authority has been established and the player's statement is going to be ignored. If anything, it will solidify my position that the coach can suspend this player if he so chooses.
And really, who are we to say a player can't be suspended effective in the middle of the game?

[Jurassic Referee]

Originally Posted by Robert Goodman

Interesting! Suppose the coach said to the official, "This person is not available as a player", while the player himself said, "Yes I am"? Come to think of if, what if the player added, "And he's not our coach!"?

Actually we could go far beyond that. Suppose officials come to administer a game at a certain place & time between teams A & B. At the appointed time, team B shows up, as does team A and team A' -- that is, two groups, each claiming to be one of the teams that are supposed to play. What do you do? Seems like a similar situation to the one above, just on a larger scale.

My head hurts.

[CoachP]

[QUOTE=Nevadaref]Here it is straight from the NFHS book, Robert. In other words what Coach Norman Dale did was not permissible.

Well, what was the rule in 1951?

[BktBallRef]

[quote=CoachP]

Originally Posted by Nevadaref

Here it is straight from the NFHS book, Robert. In other words what Coach Norman Dale did was not permissible.

Well, what was the rule in 1951?

The movie wasn't made in 1951.

It makes no difference either way, as I'm quite sure the producers did no research with regard to this matter.