What is the rule?

[mick]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Paul LeBoutillier

I was kind of interested by the wording here. Perhaps you're citing the Case Book, but in the rule book under Player Technical there is nothing about leaving the court being intentional NOR to gain an advantage.

I had two situations with this coming up this season. One time a kid ran out of bounds at the baseline to avoid defensive players in the key. We banged him with a T.

I also had a game where a kid (defender) came up behind the dribbler and made a wild swipe hoping to dislodge the ball (made no contact) but lost control and ran OUT OF BOUNDS up the court for about 4 or 5 steps before coming back inbounds. I don't think he intentionally left the court, nor did his leaving create an advantage, however, as I said earlier, the rules don't really place those elemenets as a necessary condition. Thoughts??

Paul,
The cases cited for a T for leaving the court:

Sitch A: Stepping out to get the 3-second count stopped
Sitch B: Going or staying OOB to make use of a screen (this seems to be your case that you cited above)
Sitch C: A player remained at the bench during a time-out and then returned.

These three situations all seem to show an implied intent by the player to "leave the court".

I agree that intent has to be present.
We aren't gonna T a player for diving OOB to save a ball are we? I guess we have to judge which is greater... intent or momentum. If momentum is the cause, I cannot call a technical foul.
mick