Team A accidentally had only 4 players on the floor following a time out. The clock started and ran about 20 seconds before the referee noticed. The referee then issued a team 'T'. Is this correct and if so is the justifying rule 10-1-9 "failing to have all players return to the court at the same time following a time out or intermission."??

I wouldn't call a T unless the fifth player came running onto the court instead of reporting to the table. The Case Book play for 10-1-9, has the fifth player running onto the court just in time to catch a pass.

If the rule was meant to penalize your situation, i'd think that the Case Book wouldn't have used a specific play where the team gained such a distinct advantage. Also, what would that referee have done if Team A only had 4 players after a multiple substitution instead of a time-out?

While a team isn't allowed to play with less than 5 players if they have 5 available to play (3-1-1), there is no penalty listed if they should do so by mistake.

The "advantage" issue is very prominent in the rules, trying to keep the playing field as level as possible. Obviously (?), having 4 players on the court against their 5 is not giving them an advantage, unless, as Ken implied, they are doing it purposely toward some unknown goal. If it's an effort to deceive, penalize it accordingly. If it was an "oops," pass on it and let the missing player return during a dead ball. Literally interpreted, it might be a "T," but common sense sometimes has to prevail.

[This message has been edited by Todd VandenAkker (edited February 04, 2000).]

Per the rule stated and per the case book this is supposed to be a team 'T'.
In my own opinion though I wouldn't issue the 'T' unless the opposing coach was asking for it, by all rights it is a 'T'.
But I firmly beleive that mistakes such as this are to be blamed on the official's, for not checking for the proper number of players before putting the ball back in play.
( a little bit of preventative officiating goes along way in preventing such problems )

I always try to count the five players on each team before I make the ball live. I've worked with a couple guys that have the ref that's administering the throw-in count A and the off-ball ref counts B

[quote]Originally posted by Tom Cook on 02-04-2000 07:35 PM
I always try to count the five players on each team before I make the ball live.

I always try to count to five, two times, also; but, since I also ump baseball, I usually get stuck on "4".
mick http://www.ereferee.com/ubb/wink.gif

There is a technical term for this. It is called the coach being stupid. No T, bring the fifth and carry on.

The technical for not returning to the floor at the same would apply if this delayed the inbounding of the ball or it was meant to deceive the other team.

In this case it is just a screw-up by the coaching staff, so do not penalize.