I heard this yesterday and wanted to know how everybody else would handle this one. Everytime Team A would should a 2 shot Free Throw, Team B would put there required 2 players in the low spots and the other 3 players would hustle over to their bench area (they would stay on the court). The Coach would talk to them and have them Drink water. The kids were never late in returning, in fact they usually never went back. I heard after doing this a few times, one of the officials "T"d him up. His reasoning was that they were gaining an unfair advantage. (Coaching and Fluids). But couldn't the other team do the same and where in the rules can the official back this up with. I can see possibly warning the coach, but that would be nothing more than a bluff. Thanks in advance...

The tactic used by the coach is perfectly legal. As long as the players were legally on the floor, there's nothing to call. And you're correct that there's nothing preventing the opposing coach from doing the same thing.

Guys like this are looking for trouble. :(

My point guards come to the bench during every free throw attempt (unless they are shooting). In two years as a varsity coach, and four before that coaching JV, I've never had an official call something or warn something regarding this practice.

water on the floor
 

The only problem I would have if they were consistantly dropping water on the floor. But that would not be something I would be looking for. It would probably have to be pointed out to me or someone would have to have fallen or slipped. But even then, who knows if the water they were drinking during the FTs was the water that was dropped? It might have been a timeout.

Other than that concern, leave it alone. They are taking away rebounding opportunities to talk to the coach. So in the end they could be at a distavantage in my opinion.

Peace

Just to cover all possible bases, the coach could not do this if his state did not recognize a coaching box, unless he did it while sitting.

Of course, in any case, the water bottles couldn't have any jewelry on them.

Jeez, I just reread that last statement and it doesn't even make sense to me - and I wrote it. :confused:

Time to change the meds. :p

In our state, we have no coaching box, we have to sit the entire game, except to request timeout. The officials tell us every year that if they look over and see us standing, they will grant us a timeout, which brings me to an interesting story. I stayed to watch the start of the fourth quarter of the JV game late last season, before heading back to the locker room. About a minute in, I got up and walked off toward the locker room. I was easily ten steps off the bench (going around the outside of the court, of course) when the official granted our JV a timeout! (That's how JV officials remain JV officials.)

Anyway, my conferences with my PGs take place with me sitting and with my player remaining on the court.

The 'coaching box" rule was a tool that we officials were given to curtail unsportsmanlike behavior from the bench.That was the reason that the rule was put in for.It should be used for that,instead of being used to curtail actual coaching.JMO.

Don't know about anyone else, but when I see a thread with the subject of Drinking/Coaching during Free Throws, I am thinking that someone is having a whole lot more fun coaching than I am :D

Either that, or you are referring to one of those quickshot basketball games at Dave and Busters.

Hey - you don't get to drink during the games until we get to take a drink for every idiotic question/comment!!!