When is a sub legal?
 

I've been trying to find it in the rulebook. I find several cites that mention a "legal substitute" but I haven't found precise wording that says when a sub is legal.

Thanks in advance.

Rita

The substitution process is outlined in 3-3. A substitute makes legal entry into the court only after being beckoned by an official.

When they are beckon onto the court by officials.

Or if the sub enters illegally and undetected, s/he is legal when the ball becomes live.

Just for the sake of conversation, if we are doing decent dead ball officiating we could prevent the illegal or undetected entrance correct? 25% of the time.

But it doesn't really SAY that in 3-3, does it?

The reason I ask is a situation I saw in a Varsity girls game the other night.

There had been a foul and the shooter had shot the first of two free throws when it was noticed that she was bleeding. The administering official called to the bench for a substitute. A player entered the court without stopping in front of the table and was called back by her coach who then inserted another player. (Who also did not stop in front of the table) The "beckoning signal" was not used for either player.

So, without the beckoning signal, the player becomes the substitute when the ball is administered to her at the free throw line?

Rita

If This Had Been A Real Emergency ...
 

Rita C: This is not a hijack, but a slight detour. I hope that you don't mind.

Girls varsity. Team A is getting clobbered by Team B. One player on Team A stands out, a freshman point guard, who is, by far, the best player on the court for both teams. Scoring, assists, and several steals. She plays the entire game with a band aid on her upper arm, that on a few occasions starts to peel off, but she keeps on getting it re-taped during timeouts, and intermissions. Late in the game, her team is twenty points behind, and she has played every minute up until that point. With 1:30 left in the game, I note that she is no longer wearing a band aid, and I think, but I'm not sure, that there is a very small, wet looking, red, open wound on the upper arm where the band aid was throughout the game. At this point, everything is in transition, and I figure that, since I'm not sure, maybe the clock will run out and I can get out of Dodge. Of course that doesn't happen, a foul is called, and while lining up for free throws, I can't help but notice that there is a very small amount of wet blood on her upper arm. The Team A coach is right there, so I tell him that we will need a substitute for his bleeding player. He looks at me like I'm from Mars, or something, so I offer that he can also take a timeout to keep her in the game, never thinking that, down twenty points, with 0:30 left, he would continue to play someone who has just played 31:30, with lots of eligible substitutes on the bench. You guessed it, he took the timeout, and kept her in for the remaining 0:30. Once you think that you've got coaches figured out, you realize that there's no figuring out coaches.

I now return you to your regularly scheduled program. Thank you for your patience.

If the official watched the sub come in, and, by his/her actions "allowed" it, then I'd say the sub was a player at that time.

You play 7.5 minute quarters? 15 minute halves? 10 minute thirds?

My point is, there really isn't anything in the rulebook that says there is a definitive point in time the player becomes a legal substitute.

Rita

Someday I'll Buy One Of Those New Fangled Calculators ...
 

Sorry. Good catch. You've got a sharp eye for details. Fixed it. Thanks. My slide rule doesn't add or subtract, it just does everything else. Ten minute thirds? Good one.

It seems to me that 3-3 says it quite clearly: "The substitute shall remain outside the boundary until an official beckons, whereupon he/she shall enter immediately."

It seems the game officials messed up a couple of times then. They should have made the subs go to the table and beckoned them (although when a sub is able to come into the game immediately, my beckon is usually very subtle).

Also, if the free thrower is able to shoot her free throws, but is bleeding...shouldn't the lane be cleared, the bleeder allowed to take her free throws, a sub be made immediately following the final free throw, and play resumed with either an end line throw-in or a AP throw-in? Isn't there a case play very much like this involving a player with an untucked jersey?

Au Contraire Mon Ami ...
 

There isn't?

3-3-3: A substitute becomes a player when he/she legally enters the court.
If entry is not legal, the substitute becomes a player when the ball becomes live.
A player becomes bench personnel after his/her substitute becomes a player or
after notification of the coach following his/her disqualification.

Bleeding Hearts ...
 

Yes, but first she has to put on this biohazard suit:

http://thm-a02.yimg.com/image/ac2e1287dabce538

I was under the impression in NFHS when it is discovered that a player have blood on their person or bleeding he/she must be removed immediately.

Correct as per NFHS case book play 3.3.7SitB(b). The player must leave as soon as the bleeding is observed.