NFHS Press Release

[BillyMac]

Replacement Time For Disqualified Players Decreases In High School Basketball

INDIANAPOLIS, IN (May 7, 2007) -- High school basketball coaches will have less time to replace a disqualified or injured player beginning with the 2007-08 season. This change, aimed at avoiding delays in games, was one of five rules revisions approved by the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) Basketball Rules Committee at its April 15-16 meeting in Indianapolis. The rules changes subsequently were approved by the NFHS Board of Directors.

The committee reduced the replacement interval for a disqualified player from 30 seconds to 20 seconds, and a warning signal will be sounded with 15 seconds remaining, or five seconds into the interval. "Previously, with 30 seconds, many coaches were trying to use this time period as an unofficial time-out," said Mary Struckhoff, NFHS assistant director and liaison to the Basketball Rules Committee. "By reducing the replacement interval, it encourages coaches to replace the disqualified player in a more timely fashion and allows the game to progress."

The determination of when a dribble ends was revised by the committee. Henceforth, a dribble will end when the loss of control by the dribbler is caused by the opponent touching, or being touched, by the ball rather than an intentional batting of the ball. "In the past, a common interpretation has been that any touching of a dribble by a defender ended the dribble," Struckhoff said. "However, the language in our rules implied that the touching had to be by the hand and had to be intentional. The change in language provides consistency with the current enforcement of the rule."

A change in Rule 4-42-5 adds the word "legally" to the current rule regarding when a throw-in ends. The revised rule will read as follows: "The throw-in ends when the passed ball touches, or is legally touched, by another player who is either inbounds or out of bounds. In the past, the rule could "reward" a defensive team that committed a violation, such as kicking the ball during a throw-in. With the previous rule, if a throw-in was kicked by the defense, it could cause the offensive team to be disadvantaged from an alternating-possession standpoint. By adding "legally" to the current rule that defines when a throw-in ends, it eliminates this type of situation from happening.

In other changes, compression sleeves were added to the list of items that can only be worn for medical reasons, along with guards, casts and braces.

The final revision approved by the committee was changing the warning horn for a 30-second time-out to be sounded with 15 seconds remaining. This change makes all warning horns uniform for intermissions, time-outs and the disqualified player interval.

In addition, the committee added a signal for when a defender is not in a closely guarded situation. The signal will be a spreading of the arms.

As it does annually, the committee adopted points of emphasis for the 2007-08 season. The four areas of concern for the coming season are uniforms, free throws, displacement and the ball handler/dribbler.