Team Technical Foul & Substitute Technical Fouls in NFHS Basketball Rules

Greetings everyone and welcome back to another episode of Basketball Rules Expert where we take the rules off the printed page, breathe life into them, amplify, clarify and simplify and give them back to you in an audio visual format so that you can take them with you, onto the basketball court. My name is Greg Austin, with abetterofficial.com. I’ve been a high school basketball official for over a decade and I’m a Basketball Rules Expert. This show is all about helping you become a Basketball Rules Expert, as well. Before we get started with today’s episode, a shout out to show supporters Clay Vickery and Larone Smith. Thank you! Also super supporters of the show, Tony Day and Paul Sullivan, much appreciated and much love. If you want to support the show, you can always buy us a coffee. The link is above.

Let’s get started with today’s episode. Again, this is a four-part series on Technical Fouls.

In National Federation of High School Basketball Rules. Our first episode was on Administrative Technical Fouls if you missed that episode, here it is. Before we get started today on Substitute Technicals and Team Technicals, let’s have a brief overview of Technical Fouls. First of all, all Technical Fouls in National Federation of High School Basketball Rules count towards the team foul count towards bonus. All Technical Fouls, whether they be Administrative Technical, Team Technical, Substitute Technical, Player Technical, or Bench Technical counts towards the team foul count. 

In addition, all of the individuals involved with a team, be they team members, members of the coaching staff, other personnel other such as team managers or statisticians. Each individual, if they receive one Flagrant Technical Foul, they are either ejected or disqualified. If any of those individuals receive two Technical Fouls, they are either disqualified or ejected. 

Students are disqualified to the bench area. Adults are ejected, meaning they must leave the vicinity promptly and not have contact with the team for the remainder of the game. That is an overview of the penalties. 

Now today we’re going to talk about two areas, Substitute Technical Foul and Team Technical Foul.

NFHS Rule 10-3:

Substitute Technical Foul

Article 1 – A substitute shall not enter the court without reporting to the scorer and without being beckoned by an official, except between quarters, and during timeouts. The penalty is two free throws, plus the ball for division line throw-in that’s the penalty for all Technical Fouls. One foul for either or both requirements. We can’t get a double whammy here, a substitute, who runs from the bench onto the floor. This doesn’t doesn’t report to the table is not beckoned, There’s only one penalty, but also notice that it is penalized if discovered before the ball becomes live.

Once the ball becomes live that substitute is a legal player in the game, and our window for penalizing as closed. That’s another important aspect of Technical Fouls in general, there is a window in which penalty can be assessed. Sometimes we may miss that window. We’ll get to that when we cover Team Technicals. 

A substitute must always report to the table. They may or must also be beckoned onto the court, except after a timeout, or an intermission. A timeout is granted and players go to their benches. Substitutes, during the timeout may go to the table and report. Once they report, they are in the game, and there is no administration by the officials to officially bring them into the game. If a player enters the game illegally, as a substitute, once the ball becomes live the opportunity to penalize as passed. One other factor when it comes to a Substitute Technical is we are talking about bench personnel. When we get to bench Bench Technical Fouls, we will learn that the head coach is responsible for the actions of bench personnel. With a Substitute Technical, it removes that responsibility from the head coach. If a team member becomes a substitute goes to the table and reports or fails to report violates either one of these articles. It is a Substitute Technical. It goes against that team member or that player. And it does not indirectly go to the head coach. They are not responsible for these, these two actions. 

There’s two actions by the team member: the team member failed to report to the score or the team member entered the court, without being beckoned. If they violate one of those they are assessed to Substitute Technical. If they do, if they have some other activity that warrants a Technical Foul, then it is not a Substitute Technical Foul. Let’s be really specific about that. Substitute Technical is very narrow: fails to report to the scorer, or is not beckoned onto the court, except during a timeout, or an intermission.

NFHS Basketball Rules

Rule 10-2: Team Technical Fouls

All right, let’s move on to Team Technical Fouls. Before we get started with section one, let’s review the four official warnings for delay. There are four. We need to know these

Rule 4 (the highest priority rule for new officials to learn,) Rule 4-47 Warning for Delay.

Let’s read the definition: a warning to a team for delay is an administrative procedure by an official which is recorded into the scorebook by the scorer and reported to the head coach. It is always important that those two steps are followed.

Article 1… for throw-in plane violations, as in 9-2-10 and 10-2-1-c. We covered that in our coverage of throw-in violations, the defenders are not allowed to penetrate the boundary plane with any part of their body. When they do the official may administer a Delay of Game Warning to the team.

Article 2 – for huddle by either team and contact with the free thrower, as in 10-2-1 d. NFHS does not want teams huddling in the lane during free throw activity, either the offensive team huddling with the thrower or the defensive trink team huddling. If either team does that they are liable to receive a Delay of Game Warning 

Article 3 – for interfering with the ball following a goal, as in 2-10-1 e. The ball goes in the basket. The team that just scored bats the ball in a fashion that delays the game makes it harder for the thrower to get to the ball, potentially allows the defense to set up a press etc. But interfering with the ball after a goal, sometimes play teams will catch the ball and throw it to the official etc. All of these things make the team liable for a Delay of Game Warning 

Article 4 – for failure to have the court ready for play following any timeout, as in 10-2-1 F. If either team does anything to the court during a timeout, that creates a situation for delay, almost always this involves spilled fluids onto the floor, which have to be cleaned up. They are liable for a Delay of Game Warning.

We have four Delay of Game Warnings:

• Throw-in plane violation. A defensive player during a throw-in any part of the body through the boundary plane.
• Huddling before a free throw for either team. Huddling in the lane area before free throw.
• Interfering with the ball, after a made goal or
• Not having the court ready for promptly resuming play after a timeout.

Each of those four may incur a Delay of Game Warning. 

Rule 10-2

Team Technical Fouls. 

Article 1… allow the game to develop into an actionless contest. This includes the following and similar acts. 

1. when the clock is not running consuming a full minute through not being ready when it is time to start either half. Usually this will occur after halftime teams go to their respective locker rooms. 10 minutes is put on the clock. The 10 minutes expires and one of the teams is not present in that situation, rather than use Resumption of Play. The officials are instructed to have  the timer put one minute on the clock so that we can see if they delay the start of the half by one minute. If they do a Team Technical Foul is assessed. If they return during that one minute, and they do not they delay the game for more than a minute, then there is no Technical Foul. So, is a Team Technical to delay either the start of the game, or the second half. For more than a minute. 
2. delay the game by preventing the ball from being made promptly live or from being put in play. See 7-5-1 and 8-1-2 for the Resumption of Play procedure to use. After a time out, or the intermission between quarters. The procedure is used prior to charging a Technical Foul in these specific situations. Let’s just clarify that point, it is after a timeout. One team returns. The second team has yet to return. The Resumption of Play procedure is used, let’s say the throw-in team has failed to make itself available. The referee puts the ball on the floor and begins their count. We are using the Resumption of Play procedure that is prescribed after a timeout. After an intermission, it is not prescribed, and is not to be used when it is not one of those things. If during the game. There’s a ball out of bounds. The team does not make a thrower available. Not out of disarray, but rather let’s say that the coach wants all the players over in front of them. They stay on the court, and he’s saying to them, “we have to do this we got to do that.” he’s taking a moment to coach them. But the official is standing there with the ball. Ready to administer the throw-in this team is preventing the ball from properly being made live, and has made themselves at risk for a Team Technical Foul for delaying the game, and for delay the game by preventing the ball from being promptly made live or being put in play. In this situation, Resumption of Play is not an option for the officials. You know, you see a lot of officials who use Resumption of Play in this situation. That’s not the prescribed option. If the team delays. Team Technical Foul. 
3. Commit a violation of the throw-in boundary plane, as in 9-2-10 after any team warning for delay. We’ve covered the four warnings for delay. Now we have four clauses of this rule, which say you to this action. After you had had a team warning for delay. These four actions are the actions that did earn a team, a warning for delay in National Federation of high school basketball rules. If you have a Delay of Game Warning for any of the four reasons, and you commit an act that is one of the four warning for delay actions, any other form, it doesn’t have to be the same. In the first period, we spilled water on the floor during a 30-second timeout and received a Delay of Game Warning. In the second period, a player reach through the boundary plane. They committed one of the actions, after they had already had a Delay of Game Warning. C. ccommit a violation of the throw-in boundary plane as in 9-2-10 after any team warning for delay. 

D 

1. contact with the free throw or huddle of two or more players in the lane by another team. Prior to the free throw following any team warning for delay, ie interfering with the ball following the goal after any team warning for delay, and 
2. not having the court ready for play, following a timeout after any warning for delay. So, it’s commonly thought of as receiving a second Delay of Game Warning. We actually don’t provide a second Delay of Game Warning, we just assess a Team Technical Foul.

Article 2… have more than five players participating simultaneously six players on the court. As a Team Technical by rule to have six players on the court. Pretty straightforward 

Article 3.. request an excess timeout. Part of the officials responsibility is to inform a coach when they have used their final timeout. You’ve used your final time now. If, after a team is out of timeouts they request a timeout. It is a Team Technical, if that recount request comes from a player or from the head coach. You know all instances, it is a Team Technical, it’s not on the player, it’s not on the coach Team Technical Foul 

Article 4… commit an unsporting foul. As a Team Technical clause This must refer to some activity of the team that multiple players do simultaneously. Or, in theory, there it is possible to issue a Technical Foul related to the crowd. If justed that it be used, extremely rarely, but that is a possibility. Those would be examples of unsporting action as a team. 

Article 5… failed to have all players returned to the court at approximately the same time following a time out or intermission. That’s the key. Following a timeout or intermission, not a substitute situation. There’s a case play about a lengthy delay for substitutes players get confused we end up with four players on the court. This is after a timeout or intermission did not have five players on the court. Team Technical Foul. 

Article 6… allow players to lock arms or grasp teammates in an effort to restrict the movement of an opponent. I’ve never seen it, but it’s a fake. In theory you could create a human shield of teammates who lock arms, protect you know, forming a semi circle around the player and prevent defensive players from getting within six feet and therefore initiating a closely guarded count. I’ve never seen it but that’s a thing, if you do that that’s a Team Technical Foul. 

Penalties. This is a really critical part of this equation, remember that each Technical Foul has a window of time in which a penalty can be assessed. As with all Technical Fouls, the penalty is two free throws and the ball for division line throw-in. one team foul is added to the team foul count towards bonus. 

For articles 1, 4, 5, and 6. It is penalized when they occur. So, when they occur. That’s our window right when the ball becomes live again, our window has closed. When they occur, a team has been given a warning for delay. They do some activity.

That is one of the four areas where a warning for delay can be issued. Maybe the officials issue a second warning for delay erroneously. The ball is put in play, baskets are made, the game moves on. Then the officials realize, “hey wait a minute. We already gave the team a Delay of Game Warning, let’s assess the Technical Foul now.” No, they must be assessed when they occur. 

When it occurs. All of the Delay of Game Warning scenarios, when they occur, that is the window of time we have to assess the Technical Foul for Article to penalize if discovered, while being violated 

Article 2… is six players on the court. If discovered when violated Team Technical. If we have a situation where there are six players on the court. Even if the ball is live. the ball becomes dead. Coach requested timeout teams go to their bench. The other coach says, Hey, they had six players on the floor. Do they have six players on the floor now? No, it’s too late to penalize, Not a great situation, but our window of opportunity is while occurring. If it’s after it occurred, it is too late to penalize.

All right, that is going to wrap it up for Episode Two of our series on Technical Fouls and National Federation of high school basketball rules.

Today we covered Substitute Technical Foul. We realized how limited in scope it is. Also we covered Team Technical Fouls, all the situations where a Team Technical can be called. Just like with Administrative, Substitute Technicals, and Team Technicals are not the responsibility of the head coach. All Technical Fouls count towards the team foul count towards bonus. Each individual is liable if they get a second Technical Foul to be disqualified or ejected or a single Flagrant Technical Foul for being disqualified or ejected. Students are disqualified to the bench area. Adults are ejected and must leave the premises immediately and not have contact with the team for the remainder of the game. 

I really appreciate you sticking around the end of the video, as we do with every episode we have created a quiz. It’s in the show notes, the link is above. And of course, as always, if you want to be a show supporter, you can always buy us a coffee at a better official comm slash coffee. We’ve got additional video content for you here. There’s a link up here to the first video in the series. If you haven’t seen that already in either event, choose your video. Choose wisely. and we’ll see you in the next video.