I always thought 4 was the minimum number of players you could use in a basketball game (due to person experience with licensed ref)

Anyways tonight my friend was texting me about her daughter's high school basketball game. Due to JV players using up their 5 quarters by half of varsity game they played the 3rd quarter with 4 players and once the 4th fouled out they were down 6 early in the 4th and could only use 3 the rest of the way.....those 3 made up the 6 point deficit and took it to overtime playing 3 vs 5.

In OT with 25 seconds left another player fouled out and they played with 2.....with under 10 seconds left the next to last girl fouled out and final seconds was played with 1 player.

Never in all my years.....

Are you sure it wasn't NCF texting you?

No, this was high school girls not jr high

I've seen two Columbus State CC games that were very similar. One game, Cols State ended with three players; the other the visitors ended with two players on the floor.

Many, many years ago I read about this situation in Sports Illustrated. I thought they said at that time once the short-handed team went down to one player, that team had to forfeit because there was no one to in-bound the ball to the remaining player.

On the first game I saw, Cols St had only five players on the roster due to some "administrative" actions. They led the entire first half. Five minutes into the second half one of their players fouled out, and they still managed to hold the lead for five more minutes. At that point, Cols St lost their second player to fouls, and ended up only losing by ten points, with only 3 players on the floor.

Why can't you just inbound to the opponent and play defense? Or launch a fastball off the nearest player and scramble and maybe get it.

Regardless it's dumb.....2 vs 5 or 1 vs 5, not to Footwedge it but there isn't any difference.

Ironman92;1768896 wrote:Why can't you just inbound to the opponent and play defense? Or launch a fastball off the nearest player and scramble and maybe get it.

Good point, I didn't think about that. And yeah, not too much difference.

After a bit of digging, both NFHS and NCAA rules say that when a team is down to one player, that team will forfeit, "unless the referee believes that both teams have an opportunity to win". Just not sure how the mechanics of that would work, but obviously it would have to be a very close game with not much time on the clock.

However, the NBA does not allow a team to have less than five players on the court at any time, so that when a team is down to their last five men, and one "fouls out", that player (or any other in that position) will remain in the game, and an additional technical foul assessed - I'm assuming an administrative T.

I don't know basketball rules, but I thought there was a difference between how many a team can start with and how many a team can end with, i.e. start with four, end with two?

ErnestTBass?

Sonofanump;1769007 wrote:I don't know basketball rules, but I thought there was a difference between how many a team can start with and how many a team can end with, i.e. start with four, end with two?

ErnestTBass?

My browser is blocking Ernest T's image, not sure if it's rulebook or wild meme - as Ironman92 alluded to in the OP, the NFHS and NCAA both said four was the minimum a team needed to start the game with.

Zunardo;1769016 wrote:My browser is blocking Ernest T's image, not sure if it's rulebook or wild meme - as Ironman92 alluded to in the OP, the NFHS and NCAA both said four was the minimum a team needed to start the game with.

The rule posted says five to start, two to end.

They let the final 1.7 tick off with just the 1 player

Sonofanump;1769020 wrote:The rule posted says five to start, two to end.

Unless the referees feel that 1 player has a chance to win the game.

So, "Team A is up by 20 with 10 secs left. They are down to 1 player."

That game is not being forfeited.

Ironman92;1769021 wrote:They let the final 1.7 tick off with just the 1 player

Yeah... If it was a loss, then a regular OT loss looks a lot better than a forfeit.

Sonofanump;1769020 wrote:The rule posted says five to start, two to end.

Ah, yes - thanks for the correction. I just went back to both NCAA and NFHS, and the "five to start" was right there. No idea where I pulled "four" out, unless I can blame Ironman92's OP for putting the idea in my head.. :laugh:

ernest_t_bass;1769024 wrote:Unless the referees feel that 1 player has a chance to win the game.

So, "Team A is up by 20 with 10 secs left. They are down to 1 player."

That game is not being forfeited.

That would be like dodge ball. Unless the inbounding player is able to touch an opponent with the ball, the clock won't start and the ball will be awarded to the opponent at the inbound spot.