playing short by choice

[jdw3018]

Originally Posted by Nevadaref

A suspension is something that is imposed through the league office due to regulations of the governing body. A benching for mouthing off is a coach's decision. Those are often listed in box scores as DNP coach's decision.

I guess I'll be the one to disagree with this statement - and maybe it's just due to different parts of the country - but "suspensions" are enacted by coaches, school administrators, etc., many times. Sometimes it's by rule (a league has a ejection=suspension following game rule) and sometimes it's not. Perhaps a kid was caught fighting and the principal suspends him from all activities. Maybe the coach finds out a kid isn't keeping up on his grades and suspends him until he gets his coursework in order.

Or, perhaps a kid mouths off to the coach during a game and the coach suspends him for the remainder of the game. Obviously I don't think this answers the question of what makes a player unavailable from a game management perspective, but suspensions happen for lots of reasons.

All that said, my old high school coach would often send players who played a quarter or two in JV ball (we had a 5-quarter/night rule here) to the locker room if it was late in the JV game so that they wouldn't be forced to go back into the game if someone fouled out. If I were a coach and was benching a player for the remainder of the game, I'd send him to the locker room so there wasn't any question he was unavailable.

[mick]

Originally Posted by jdw3018

If I were a coach and was benching a player for the remainder of the game, I'd send him to the locker room so there wasn't any question he was unavailable.

And, if I were the coach, I would not do that.
If I could not trust the player to do the right thing directly in front of me, I would not trust that player alone in a lockerroom, especially the other schools' lockerroom.

[jdw3018]

Originally Posted by mick

And, if I were the coach, I would not do that.
If I could not trust the player to do the right thing directly in front of me, I would not trust that player alone in a lockerroom, especially the other schools' lockerroom.

Point taken. I suppose it could depend to an extent on the player and your history with him.