Disqualification Substitution ???

[BillyMac]

A bunch of us were watching three of our local colleagues work a state semifinal game and noticed something that got our attention.

Late in the game, home team player picks up his fifth foul. Disqualification is reported to the home coach and to the player. The twenty second time period to replace a disqualified player begins. After five seconds, the warning horn sounds. Five seconds before the final horn sounds to end the twenty second time period to replace, a visiting team player reports to substitute and the official doesn't allow him to enter the game because the warning horn had sounded. A second later, before the horn sounds to end the twenty second time period to replace, a home team player reports to substitute for the disqualified player and is beckoned into the game, leaving the visiting team substitute sitting on the "X" until the next clock stopped, dead ball, situation.

Several of us believed that the official incorrectly treated this situation as a time out, using the warning horn as the cutoff for "voluntary" substitutions. Most of us sitting in the "peanut gallery" decided that the twenty second time period to replace a disqualified player should not be treated as a time out, and that "voluntary" substitutions should be treated as in any other clock stopped, dead ball, situation.

But further discussion led to some questions. What if the next live ball after the fifth foul was going to be two free throws as the penalty for that fifth foul? Would all substitutes be beckoned into the game until the ball was at the disposal of the free thrower, or would just the substitute for the disqualified player, and any other player who reported before the warning horn, or final horn, be beckoned into the game?

Comments? Inquiring minds want to know.