Team Leaves Court
 

Situation: 1.5 seconds left in first half. Visitor catches inbounds pass and is fouled in the act of shooting. Buzzer sounds ending the half. As the free throws are attempted with the lanes cleared the home team goes to their locker room. The visiting coach wants a T for the home team leaving the court. I call nothing because I am not sure any rule has been violated. Has there been?

Yes. It's a rule change from a couple of years ago.

Casebook play:

10.5.5 SITUATION A:

Airborne shooter A1 is fouled by B1 after the ball is released on the try. Playing time for the second quarter expires while the unsuccessful try is in flight. Since no players are required to line up for the free throws, Team B's head coach takes the team to the locker room to begin the intermission.

RULING: Team B's head coach is assessed a direct technical foul for permitting team members to leave the bench/court for an unauthorized reason. Even though no time remains on the game clock, the quarter doesn't end until A1's free throws are completed; therefore, the technical foul is part of the second quarter. A1 will attempt the two shooting-foul free throws followed by any Team A member attempting the two free throws for the technical foul. The Team B head coach has lost coaching-box privileges for the remainder of the game. The third quarter will begin with the alternating-possession procedure. (5-6-2 Exception 3)

I hope before this is done an attempt is made to bring the team back to their bench, or at the least get the coach's attention and request him and his team to stay put.

Why?

Because it's 1) good game management and/or 2) a reasonable thing to do.

What's so tough about "tweet, tweet. blue stay on your bench until we are done?"

We say plenty of times here that coaches don't know the rules and yet at the same time don't want to work with them at times. Can't have it both ways. But if you want to let it go and hit the T right away, you are supported by the rule. I personally wouldn't.

Agreed. Had this happen at a holiday tournament. we stopped the team when they tried to leave and then shot the FTs.

I'll attempt to get them back, but once they've left the confines, you're stuck calling the T.

I didn't question (or disagree with) the preventative 2nd half of your statement - I'm in agreement with you on that part.

I fully disagree with just the first half - the part I quoted. If you have to bring them back to the bench, they've already violated.

They have left their bench and are walking to the locker room, within the playing confines still. You would T here?

Depends on by how much (and I guess how many) they've left.

In our play, maybe two coaches and two team members had reached the scorer's table. The rest were probably still in the bench area.

I agree that if you have to chase them down a hallway, it's too late.

And, preentive officiating can be to look for them to (attempt to) leave and then stop it -- both of my patners were all over this.

Agreed. Knowing the situation, and that some coaches will want to head to the locker room at this point, helps. Head it off.

Yes. A quarter is still in progress and you have a team outside the bench area. Simply apply the rule.

I would first try to get them back. If they don't want to return then yes. But I'm not going to chase them down the hallways pleading. I also don't see this happening in a real game. The few times this has happened the coach stays because they want to know before they go to the locker room what happened.

Oh, does the rule say that it's okay for the team to depart if the coach stays?

What does the rule say? I can't find the term "playing confines".

I'm not saying I wouldn't try to prevent them from leaving if they appeared they were about to leave.

But if they've left, they've left.

100 out of 100 times if the coach is there so are the players.

Yep, and sometimes they really don't care about those two points and they just want to get into the locker room to get started on chewing out their players. I've had to stop a coach from leaving once. It happens.

I'm sure it does. Heck in this line of work nothing surprises me. I haven't had this happen.

Sometimes when I read some rules I almost wish they gave an alternative way of trying to handle first before hitting the penalty. I know it's easier to maintain uniformity with black and white rulings and in basketball that is the case with 99% of what happens. But there should be a common sense clause that should be allowed to be enacted in certain instances.

I won't forget the college game where the coach had a heart attack and landed on the court and was given a T. The conference said the officials should have rescinded the T. Granted that's an extreme example but the common sense clause could have kicked in. :o

*Disclaimer* I am aware that some folks lack common sense. Hopefully in a crew of 2 or 3 100% of the crew is not lacking.

With any rule where the penalty is a T, I agree with you completely.