Here is a somewhat strange case that happened to our crew on Saturday during a small college game. What would you do?

Team A scores a basket. The ball becomes loose and caroms to a fan in the front row of the bleachers directly under the basket. The fan holds the ball and kind of "shows off" to his buddies--nothing malicious, but did delay the game for a 3-5 seconds. Our lead official blew the play dead. However, there was a team A sub at the table when this happened, so when the play was whistled dead, I, as new lead, went to my partner to discuss whether or not to let the sub in. We decided to let the sub in since a team A player was not at fault, just a team A fan.

Of course the team B coach was furious that we let the sub in, but I explained that we would do the same for him under the same circumstances and that we warned the fans under the hoop to stay away from the basketball--remember, the ball caromed(spelling??) to the fan, he did not run after the ball.

What do you guys(gals) think about our letting the sub in? What might you do?

Personally,I think you did the right thing. Whether high school or college, if the ball gets away from the thrower-in, I would blow the whistle so as not to lose time off the clock. Then, since the ball is dead, any sub can come in. Doesn't matter if a fan holds the ball a few seconds--nothing malicious about that. I might explain to the upset coach that it's no different than if the ball hit a player's leg and bounced onto the court--I would still stop the clock, and then any sub is entitled to come in.

Since you are clearly within your rights to stop the clock because of a delay in making the ball live (see 5-8-2c) the dead ball would enable subs to enter prior to the ball being placed at the disposal of the thrower.

Oops! Noticed after posting that you were referring to college rules. Sorry.

[This message has been edited by PDLeBoutillier (edited January 31, 2000).]

Even if we blow the whistle unintentionally or the buzzer sounds at the wrong time, if we stop play then we should allow any and all substitutes to enter the game.

Then, we have to swallow our pride and take the heat for the mistake. By admitting our mistakes sometimes (but not on a regular basis), we are showing coaches that we are human and that we can recognize when we have erred.