Coach's Guide to NFHS Middle School Basketball Grades 6-8 2026-27

• You or a player may request a timeout. During live play it is granted only when your team has control of the ball.
• A timeout ends early if both teams are ready.
• During a 30-second timeout, non-playing personnel may not come onto the playing area.
• Requesting a timeout when you have none left is a technical foul.
• No timeout is charged for fixing a scoring, timing or alternating-possession mistake, or a correctable error.

Unless your state or league modifies the timeout allowance for middle school, these are the numbers that apply.

• There is no one-and-one under NFHS rules.
• Starting with your opponent's fifth team foul in a quarter, your team shoots two free throws on every common foul, except player-control and team-control fouls.
• Team fouls reset after the first, second and third quarters. Fourth-quarter fouls carry into overtime.
• Personal, technical and intentional fouls all count as team fouls.

Practical tip: from the fourth foul in a quarter, your next common foul sends the other team to the line for two, so manage aggressive defense late in each quarter.

• Personal, technical and intentional fouls all count toward the five.
• You have a 15-second interval to replace a disqualified player.
• If a disqualified player goes back into the game, you are charged with a direct technical foul.

Coaching box

• Its size is set by your state association, up to a maximum of 28 feet.
• You lose the coaching box for the rest of the game after any technical foul charged to you, direct or indirect, and must stay seated after that.

Direct and indirect technicals

• Direct: for your own behavior.
• Indirect: charged to you when an assistant, substitute or other bench personnel gets a technical.

Ejection
You're ejected on your second direct technical, or your third technical of any kind (direct and indirect combined).

Administrative warnings
Officials may give a warning instead of a technical for minor coaching-box violations, disrespectfully addressing an official, trying to influence a call, inciting the crowd, entering the court without permission, or standing at the bench.

During timeouts
Since 2025-26, your five players in the game count as bench personnel once the official signals a timeout, so unsporting conduct by them during a timeout can be a bench technical. Bench decorum was an NFHS point of emphasis in 2025-26.

Both start with a team warning, then become technical fouls.

Faking being fouled (flopping)

• First time: a team warning, recorded in the scorebook.
• Every later fake by your team: a team technical foul (two free throws and the ball for the opponent).

Delay of game

• Your team gets one warning for any of the four delay-of-game situations in the rules. After that, a delay in any of them is a technical foul.
• Not passing the ball immediately to the nearest official after a whistle is a warning the first time and a team technical after that.

After a technical foul, play resumes with a throw-in to the offended team at the division line opposite the scorer's table.

Teach players to hand the ball straight to the official and to stay on their feet unless they're genuinely knocked down.

• A substitute must report to the scorer and wait to be beckoned onto the court by an official, then enter at once (except between quarters and during a timeout).
• Substitutions happen when the ball is dead and the clock is stopped.
• Halftime: substitutes (or a team representative) must report to the scorer before the 15-second warning at the end of halftime. Otherwise, the players who ended the second quarter start the third.
• After a timeout: report, or be in position to report, before the warning signal.
• A player you take out can't come back in until the next substitution opportunity after the clock has properly started following that player's replacement.
• You can't replace a designated jumper, or a free thrower shooting for a personal foul, unless that player is injured or disqualified.
• After a disqualification or injury, you have a 15-second replacement interval to send in a substitute.

Injury (Rule 3-3-6)
If an official beckons you (or your athletic trainer) onto the court, or you come on without being beckoned, the injured player must leave the game. You can keep the player in by calling a timeout to assess the injury.

Blood (Rule 3-3-7)
A player with minor blood has 20 seconds to get it stopped and covered without leaving the game. If it isn't handled in 20 seconds, you must call a timeout or substitute for the player.

Concussion (Rules 2-8-5 and 3-3-8)
Officials must immediately remove any player who shows signs, symptoms or behaviors consistent with a concussion. The player can't return until cleared by an appropriate health care professional, as defined by your state association. CDC HEADS UP guidance for coaches is the same: when in doubt, sit them out, tell the parents, and don't allow a return the same day without a health care provider's clearance.

Yes, within limits (Rule 1-19, updated 2024-25):

• Electronic devices may be used during the game only for contest-related functions: recording and tracking stats, reviewing or diagramming plays, and similar uses.
• Video may be used during the game or at intermissions for coaching purposes.
• Voice or video recording devices worn during the contest are prohibited.

• Jersey colors: the home team wears white and the visitors wear a contrasting dark color.
• Front of the jersey: limited to the identifying name and number. Since 2024-25, a school logo or mascot may be centered above the number in place of a name.
• Shorts must be like-colored for all teammates. Jerseys designed to be worn outside the shorts are allowed, but jerseys and shorts may not be removed within the visual confines of the playing area.
• Undershirts: each player's sleeves must be the same length; long sleeves are allowed. They must be the same color as the jersey (or black, for visiting jerseys only), and all teammates must match.
• Headbands, wristbands, arm and leg sleeves, compression shorts and tights: white, black, beige or the predominant color of the jersey, and all teammates must wear the same color.
• Illegal jersey number: a direct technical foul on the head coach.