I was watching my son's JV game tonight and they were playing a small school which had only 5 boys on the team--no bench. None of the 5 boys got in foul trouble but in the 4th quarter, one of the boys was fouled and lay on the floor hurt. The coach was called in and in a minute or so the player was up and fine. He proceeded to the line and shot his free throws and stayed in the game. Was this correct procedure? I realize that if there had been substitute players on the bench that he should have been subbed out and the sub would shoot the free throws. Should he have been subbed out anyway and play resumed with 4 on the floor until the next substitution time? This would seen unlikely and unsportsmanlike and would have been hard to sell to the coaches and the fans alike. I know that there is a rule somewhere that says you have to play 5 if you have them. What's the correct call. (I'm glad I wasn't calling the game and didn't have to make that decision.)

LOL...small schools bring new situations to the game don't they? By rule, when a coach is beckoned on the floor the player is supposed to leave the game. However, I would imagine that NFHS did not consider the possibility that it might happen to a team that doesn't have a sub. <P>
I think that I would let the player continue on. If the other coach protested and insisted on doing it by the <i>letter of the law</i>, I'd tell the player to go sit at the "X" in front of the scorer table and get them in on the next dead ball after the clock ran.

Z

If you send him to the bench, who shoots the FTs? :)

I can send him to the bench but if I do, I can't send in a sub to shoot his FT. Therefore, I can't possibly handle this play by the book. Since I have to break a rule, I'll break the one that says he has to leave the game.

In my game, he stays in.

this would not be breaking the rules the official could envoke the elasticity rule. does NF have that?

Yes, they do. And you can refer to it in that sense if you like. I try to stay away from it, if I can. ;)

I agree with you on this call. If you went by the letter of the law you would have to make the player come out of the game. I think this would be a fine way to handle it.

As a matter of fact there is a way in the rule book to handle this situation. SEE (NF) 3-1 note the go to (NF) 8-2
The player should have been directed to leave the game and then the head coach or team captain could select the shooter from the players left on the floor. Just because it seems unfair we are not alloewed to set aside a rule.

Good references, Paul. Works for me. :)

What is the elasticity rule?

It's Rule 2-3, which says that the referee may rule on any situation not specifically covered by the rules.

Chuck

The NFHS Rules references quoted above discuss a situation where the injured player cannot continue to play and the team has no substitutes involved. There is no play in the current Casebook, but I have read a ruling that was approved by the NFHS in either an NFHS publication or in Referee Magazine, that said that when the player can resume play in the manner discussed in the posted play, the player stays in the game and shoots his free throws.

In the posted play, the player was ready to play after only a short delay. The main purpose for the rule of removing an injured player from the game was to eliminate a cumbersome time-out rule that had been in the rules book for years. I will not go into detail about the old rule but any of us old timers know what the rule was.

If the player in the posted play were to be removed from the game as per rule, he would not be allowed to come back into the game until first dead ball-stop clock situation after the clock started after his removal from the game because of his injury. This would put the player's team in the position of playing with only four players for an indeterminate amount of time while it had a legal substitute on the bench. That is not the purpose of the rule as written.