Too many players on the court

[Jurassic Referee]

Originally Posted by Mark Dexter

Let's assume that the game is being videotaped.

My partner(s) and I allow the inbounds pass without having counted five for each side. (Mea culpa, but not much we can do now.) I just assume that there are 5 players for A and 5 for B, and don't think to count either side.

Now, A6 steps off the floor. This is my first indication that something may be amiss. At that moment, pause the playback and count how many players A has on the court. (Hint - the answer is five.)

When there were actually six A players on the court, I had no idea that there were six out there. Unless someone shows me that the rule has changed, or shows that Team A has done something wrong by having 5 on the court, I'm team for not calling a T. That may be splitting hairs a bit too closely for some of you, but that's what my decision is going to be.

If the game is vodeotaped, then you wlll be joining Juggling Referee in doing middle school games for the rest of your careers.

The tape doesn't lie. A team played with 6 players. You were aware of that as soon as a player jumped off the court and you counted the remaining players on the court. If you failed to either immediately count the players left on the court OR you failed to call a violation on that player for leaving the court, then you have a whole bunch of 'splaining to do. Again, that's because the tape doesn't lie.

Using your rationale, you either failed to follow the language of the rule by not penalizing the team for having 6 players on the court when you discovered it, or if you say that you didn't discover it, you then failed to call an obvious violation for a player leaving the floor for an unauthorized reason. Pick your poison when the tape gets reviewed.