Inbounds hand off rules

[Rich]

Originally Posted by Kevin W

I am a coach of a youth 4th 5th grade girls basketball team. We had a game today and I argued with an official that he was handing the ball in to quickly. As soon as the girl stepped up that was throwing it in he would hand it to her and start the 5 second count. This resulted in several turnovers for us because we were not set up and scattered across the floor. I kept my cool for the first 4 or 5 times, but finally called him over on a timeout and voiced my opinion. He said he had been officiating youth basketball for 15 years and had never heard of any rules when handing the ball in. Well I played basketball since I was 5 to 34 and watched thousands of games in between and unless a team won't come out of a time-out in time the officials always allow the teams to set up before handing the ball to the passer. Is there any official rules in the book on this?

No. Once the second horn goes, the team is supposed to be ready to play and once there's someone to throw in, the official is more than within his rights to put the ball in play. Actually, once the second horn goes, the official should either give the ball to the inbounder or put the ball on the floor and start the count. But officials will usually delay a bit if there's nobody there to take the throw.

You may try delaying having your player go to the inbounds spot. Or, better yet, get your players out quicker.