Posted on 01/27/2009 9:14:14 AM PST by nysuperdoodle
Running up the score is not sportsmanship, period...
Play 100% every down for the players but the coach should have been calling different sets.
If you want to keep pressing, them put in the third stringers.
The coach did absolutely nothing wrong.
If it's true that he kept his first stringers in through the 70-0 mark, then the guy is a bully and an ass.
I don't have a problem with third-stringers [and even managers and water boys/girls] pressing and throwing up threes and playing their hearts out, but I have a real big problem with leaving the starters in and running up the score.
That's exceptionally bad sportsmanship.
where is anyone saying the game should be thrown?
High school sports aren't just about winning. They're supposed to teach sportsmanship.
A coach who racks up a 100-0 score isn't really teaching the values a high school sports program is trying to instill in its students. He created a whole bunch of bad publicity for this school, so it isn't suprising he was shown the door.
“He did use the whole bench.”
Happens every basketball game you dont play startes for 40 minutes.. the question is was he trying for the century mark..
Okay, if that's true, then maybe I should retract some of my former comments.
This is such a bizarre situation that it might not conform to my pre-conceived notions of how these things ought to play themselves out.
Don’t have a dog in this fight. Just posting a fact because you two were discussing subs.
As far as wearing the players out, according to the LOSING coach, the winners had a great point guard. Playing defense at half court the whole 2nd half, she would steal the ball, make a layup. Steal the ball, make a layup...she finished with 48. FWIW.
I think you have captured the point
Chief? How!!!
I just saw the coach’s words about what happened. I’ve already admitted I had some facts wrong. But it sounds to me like some Freepers think the coach was wrong to pull back and not take the score to 150-0. I mean, 100-0 is obviously just like throwing the game!!!
Go back to my first comment, Bubba. The coach should NOT have been fired.
“The Game. The game started like any other high school basketball game across the nation. The teams warm-up, coaches talk, the ball is tipped, and then the play begins. We started the game off with a full-court press. After 3 minutes into play, we had already reached a 25-0 lead. Like any rational thinking coach would do, I immediately stopped the full-court press, dropped into a 2-3 zone defense, and started subbing in my 3 bench players. This strategy continued for the rest of the game and allowed the Dallas Academy players to get the ball up the court for a chance to score. The second half started with a score of 59-0. Seeing that we would win by too wide of a margin, running down the clock was the only logical course of action left. Contrary to the articles, there were only a total of four 3-point baskets made; three in the first quarter, and only one in the third quarter. I continued to sub in bench players, play zone defense, and run the clock for the rest of the game. We played fair and honorably within the rules and in the presence of the parents, coaches, and athletic directors for both Covenant School and Dallas Academy. “
If this is true (not the accounts from the game) then perhaps he was not that far off..
Mercy is Christian..
Victor Davis Hanson wrote a piece about the original [classical Greek] meaning of the word Hubris - apparently it involved a warrior standing over his near-vanquished foe, and taunting & humiliating him before delivering the final, mortal wound. [I tried to google for Hanson's piece, but couldn't find it.]
And apparently the Greeks felt that this was a particularly egregious sin.
Yeah, I agree with you - having read that, I'd go back and delete some of my previous comments if the FreeRepublic software allowed it.
>>Mercy is Christian.<<
Yes it is. In the right time and place.
A sports arena is specifically neither, regarding the score.
Another example: Is it mercyful for a professor to give a failing student a B?
This is *not* football. You dont have ‘strings’ you have your starters and a bench (in this case a bench of three people). The bench plays *every* game because you cant play more than 10-20 minutes of basketball without having to catch your breath..
“A sports arena is specifically neither, regarding the score.”
Im sorry where, exactly, in the Bible does it say where we should and should not show mercy?
According to the coach it was 25-0 in the first three minutes. If he had continued at that pace, it may have been 200-0 or more. From what he said, he pulled his punches as much as he could, but what can you do if you are committed to playing a full basketball game with this kind of opponent? What is he supposed to tell his players? “Make bad passes and miss the goal!”
“Yeah, I agree with you - having read that, I’d go back and delete some of my previous comments if the FreeRepublic software allowed it.”
I don’t know if I would be so hasty in doing that. I was not at the game so I do not know exactly what went on, but this coach obviously has motivation to spin this information in his favor. I believe I read that once his team reached the 100 point mark there was approximately 4 minutes left in the game and that his team did not score again. If this is true, than it is obvious to me that he did not do all he could to not run up the score prior to that point.
I am a long time HS boys coach who posted my feeling on this situation in a thread yesterday. I won’t repeat myself other to say that there is never a good reason to humiliate your opponent, and that there are many ways to manage a game like this to make sure that doesn’t happen.
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