Posted on 01/17/2015 5:10:07 AM PST by ImJustAnotherOkie
A Southern California high school basketball coach has been suspended and faces accusations of mercilessly running up the score after his team won a game 161-2, one of the most lopsided scores in state history.
Arroyo Valley High girls' coach Michael Anderson was suspended for two games after the victory last week against Bloomington High.
Anderson said that he wasn't trying to run up the score or embarrass the opposition. His team had won four previous games by at least 70 points, and Bloomington had already lost a game by 91.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Maybe there should have been a mercy rule...if not fair play is fair play.
I believe the correct answer was the losing coach should have conceded at the end of the first half.
The school should have probably conceded the rest of the season. Why have a team if you aren’t going to try? What are you teaching the kids?
I’m with the coach on this, the other team did not even try, sounds like the two points they did get were by accident, the losing team deserved to be shamed not coddled, it seems this empathy crap is seeping into every aspect of our culture.
I know that will offend the “that’s not Sportmanship” bleeding hearts on this thread, they are as disgustingly and shamelessly weak as the members of this losing so called team.
An American general in command of the Third Army has been suspended and faces accusations of mercilessly running up the score after his team mercilessly beat Germany’s 6th Panzer Division in a score of 161-2, one of the most lopsided scores in wartime history. General Patton was suspended for two games after the victory last week against German Field Marshall Von Heitzman. Patton has said that he wasn’t trying to run up the score or embarrass the opposition.
I believe the winning team has been smoking most of their opponents. The losing team has been losing by pretty big scores. You don’t get to pick your opponents in a public high school league.
I didn’t see the game, but my guess is the winning team has really fast players who have played basketball from an early age. The losing team is in an area without a “Program”. Many high school coaches take an active role in teaching the youth coaches “their program”. They use their basketball camps for this. The high schools without a “Program” get chewed up by the schools that do have one.
Personally, I wouldn’t let my kid be on a team that consistently beats other youth and high school teams by big scores. They are winning big because the coach has selected a bunch of fast kids at an early age and has drilled them in traps and presses. This wins games at this level, but it doesn’t develop a complete basketball player. Speed starts to even out and the more rounded players will get the college scholarships.
This coach is shorting his players in an effort to get noticed.
Rule of thumb is if your up by 20 you should not be pressing if the other team cannot beat the press. My son was in a game and the other team was pressing up by 20. Didn’t have a problem with that because his team could beat the press and compete. It’s evident from this story that the losing team couldn’t beat the press. The coach knew that before the game even started and he is a jerk.
Where’s the defensive intensity? The coach was suspended for blowing the goose egg!
Same thing happens in soccer. With a two goal lead you should win but everyone is still nervous. Three goals is pretty safe but you still play. Four or five goals and coaches start running drills. My daughter’s team had a game a couple of years ago in which they went up four or five, whereupon the coach emptied the bench, flipped the offense and defense, then pulled a couple of players and played two short, and they still scored a couple or three more. My daughter’s team was a very average, lower division team at the time (they’ve played their way up since); the opponent was just hopeless, that day at least. Very unusual in what is generally a pretty competitive league.
My daughter played in some AAU tournaments where the rules were after a team went up by 20, no press allowed and it went to a running clock.
I don’t know all the details, but were I the coach, once the game was firmly in hand, I would’ve pulled the starters and given the subs extensive playing time to work on their skills. Turn the game into a controlled scrimmage. There’s no value in running up the score.
Several questions for those of you upset with the winning coach: 1) beyond eliminating the press and benching his starters for the entire game what SPECIFICALLY would you have done? 2) Is there a particular score margin a coach is not to exceed? 3) Is there a danger of a perceived mocking of the less skilled team by not playing hard? 4) What instructions would you have given the third string as they entered the game—something like “Have fun but don’t score any points . . .”
I’ve seen some really one-sided AAU games and it’s tough for both coaches. But the 1st thing you do is pull off the press and not let the score reach 100 points first. I think that was where he was at, try to score 100 in the 1st half. Shallow.
The worst crime is to teach surrender
The first specific thing is to stop the press. I’d also probably fall back into a zone. Other than that I have no problem playing hard. I never want to see the leading team stop trying. My kids have been on the losing end of some of these scores and it infuriated me more when the winning team stopped trying.
There’s nothing to be gained for the winning team. It’s not even a good practice. But they should never let up.
I know a lot of leagues don’t allow teams to full-court press if they are up by ten or more points.
Work on other aspects of the game. Work on the close in defense. Work on midrange shooting. Work on screening and passing. Intercepting a pass, going after the dribble and making a layup are important skills, but they aren’t the only skills. Kobe Bryant recently made a statement about how poorly trained US players are. It’s because of coaches like this. He’s not developing players. He’s trying to advance his career and it’s at the expense of the players.
This coach has super-developed his kids on speed. Speed is a critical component of the game. It’s not the only component. A coach only gets so much practice time. If you spend all your practice time on speed-development, trapping and pressing, then you’re shorting your players. You can win a lot of games at that level, but it will catch up to the players eventually. I’ve seen it.
I get the feeling that the losing team was made up of actual girls.
If they have a problem with this, institute a mercy rule, and end the game after the half. It’s not like anyone pays attention to stats and records and stuff like that, right?
So you don’t play to win? Why bother keeping score?
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