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HS Basketball Coach suspened for winning a game 161-2

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Ambient80

Member
But I mean... aside from not playing the game, what could he do? If one team is awful and another team is good, do you just tell your players to not score points? Whats the point in even playing then?

Exactly. I think it would have made the losing team feel worse if they had done that. I know I'd have been pissed if another football team was beating us by 50+ and just told their defense to let us run and score when we had possession. Like they were saying "We are so much better than you we don't even have to play and we still win/we don't want to waste our time with you so hurry up and get this over with."
 


I am going to respond to this because you both are absolutely right. My choice of the word winning was improper and incorrect. It was patronizing to female athletes and implied they do not take the competition seriously.

I have seen games with players being targeted for D1 scholarships playing against players who were literally pulled in as warm bodies to meet roster requirements. While both teams want and try to win I feel these teams (male and female) can have vastly different goals outside of winning. I think when the disparity between teams increases to a point it becomes more difficult for either team to learn and improve from the contest.

I apoligze if my comments distracted from the thread.
 

Sol..

I am Wayne Brady.
I remember high school sports... Some cats used to actually cry over losses even though we were terrible and nearly win less. I guess some dudes are still growin in high school and all this soft stuff is for them.
 
I think it would have made the losing team feel worse if they had done that. I know I'd have been pissed if another football team was beating us by 50+ and just told their defense to let us run and score when we had possession.
But it's not the opponent's responsibility to make you feel good about yourself when you're losing. It's your own responsibility, and your coach's, to keep your head up.
 

Koomaster

Member
Don't really understand why he was suspended. It's not like he did anything unethical or told his girls to cheat. You play to win the game, he taught them how to win. So was he supposed to just say to them; 'Go out there and I guess play poorly.'

No sense does that make. Sore losers imo.

Game should have been called long before the half was over it seems since the score was already so lopsided.
 

Draxal

Member
It's a double edged sword, the second team shouldn't be playing against the first team, but there's only a limited amount of teams that can play against that first school and compete.

It's a real problem with high school sports and recruiting.

For example the catholic schools around here recruit for football the best players from around 20 counties, but due to state rules they're forced to play schools that draw from a student base out of 1000 kids.

It's unsafe for those kids, and for the big kids because the level of competition is so poor that the film can't be used to completely evaluate them.

As for this it's double concerning, since I'm not sure the participation rates is high at it should be for women's basketball and nobody wants to get completely embarrased like they did and drop the sport because of it.
 
I just wonder why that game was even scheduled. The other team had to be beyond atrocious. 1 free throw per half? The winning side would have gotten far more out of an intrasquad scrimmage, and the losing side would have gotten more value doing anything else.

That said, if you're up by 40, 50, call off the dogs. No pressure, no fast breaks, just pack your defense inside the arc and see if the other team can run any sets, and take the air out of the ball on offense.
 
Good sportsmanship isn't about making the opponent feel better about themselves, it's about not being a dick. Running up the score when the game is already out of reach is being a sore winner.
 

lenovox1

Member
If you're a backup who never gets much PT, and you're up by 100, and the shot clock is low, and the lane is open... I mean. You make the layup and shrug, right? It's basketball, you cannot not shoot at the basket. It's not like hockey where you can skate around in circles, or volley-ball where the score determines when the game ends.

If they started missing on purpose and letting the other team score, I would argue that was worse sportsmanship.

I know. With basketball, there's only so much that the girls themselves can do in that situation after being told to ease up.
 
I am incredulous at the amount of support the winning team and coach are getting in this thread. Some of you are so deluded, it's close to brainwashing.

I've been playing competitive basketball at various levels since I was 16. I've played scrimmages against active D1 athletes where I had zero hope of winning. It sucks that as a high schooler/middle schooler you can't choose your level of competition, but all competition comes with the risk of getting blown the fuck out occasionally. If you want to fuck around and drink with your buddies, play kickball.
 

Draxal

Member
I just wonder why that game was even scheduled. The other team had to be beyond atrocious. 1 free throw per half? The winning side would have gotten far more out of an intrasquad scrimmage, and the losing side would have gotten more value doing anything else.

That said, if you're up by 40, 50, call off the dogs. No pressure, no fast breaks, just pack your defense inside the arc and see if the other team can run any sets, and take the air out of the ball on offense.

Assuming the first school recruited and lacked other schools to schedule/faced state rules for the div title that prevented it from scheduling OoS (and in even then scheduling OoS is a money waster so that might not have even been an option).

High school athlete recruiting is pretty cutthroat now.
 

neojubei

Will drop pants for Sony.
There's winning and then there's humiliating. I don't think there should be any consequences or suspensions, but it's really an unfortunate event.


this makes no sense. please explain to everyone how the winning team coach should have coached? Maybe he should have forfeited the game so the losing team can win?
 

iamblades

Member
I just wonder why that game was even scheduled. The other team had to be beyond atrocious. 1 free throw per half? The winning side would have gotten far more out of an intrasquad scrimmage, and the losing side would have gotten more value doing anything else.

That said, if you're up by 40, 50, call off the dogs. No pressure, no fast breaks, just pack your defense inside the arc and see if the other team can run any sets, and take the air out of the ball on offense.


Eh, if the coach coaches a certain play style, I don't see why his players shouldn't keep playing the way they were coached, and it's kind of unfair to expect the backups to go half speed because the opposing team can't keep up. Those backups are competing for playing time too.

Ultimately the only one to blame is the league system that causes teams so mismatched to play each other, but given the realities of high school athletics that will always be the case. Ultimately sometimes you are just going to get blown the fuck out, and that is also an important life lesson that sports can teach, and IMO getting blown out by a lesser margin by a team going half speed would be more embarrassing than the larger margin by a team playing all out.
 
this makes no sense. please explain to everyone how the winning team coach should have coached? Maybe he should have forfeited the game so the losing team can win?

Are people intentionally being this obtuse? It isn't that the other team lost, and it isn't that they lost badly. The score was 104 to 1 at the half. The other team wasn't going to win. They weren't going to rally, they weren't going to adjust and gameplan enough to be competitive, they simply didn't stand a chance. Everyone knew this before the game was over, including both teams playing. Letting up on the gas doesn't mean letting the opponent back in the game.
 
How are people equating 'avoid ridiculous and embarrassing blowouts' with 'let the other team win'?

Whatever the case, this was unfortunate for both teams involved. One generally learns and improves best by facing competition that's roughly at your skill level. When the skill difference is too great, the weaker team won't be able to identify or learn from the superior team's skill and strategy, and the superior team won't be pushed to refine their game and may even develop bad habits that stronger opponents could exploit.

To put it in video game terms, it's like trying to get a button masher to play Street Fighter against Daigo and to learn from that experience.
 

Skilotonn

xbot xbot xbot xbot xbot
What.

Well that's silly - suspended for being too good. So should the other team just stand in place to let the other team score? Or make the other coach throw in the towel?

Get out of here with that nonsense. If anything, it would prepare them for what real competition is like.
 

lenovox1

Member
Are people intentionally being this obtuse? It isn't that the other team lost, and it isn't that they lost badly. The score was 104 to 1 at the half. The other team wasn't going to win. They weren't going to rally, they weren't going to adjust and gameplan enough to be competitive, they simply didn't stand a chance. Everyone knew this before the game was over, including both teams playing. Letting up on the gas doesn't mean letting the opponent back in the game.

I'm more certain than I should be that if you asked the girls that played, they'd tell you they weren't going 50% in the first half, much less the girls that played in the second half.

I'm not going to suggest based off your post and the posts in this thread that the coaches could have done nothing, but would you want to be patronized if you were on the losing end?
 
Eh, if the coach coaches a certain play style, I don't see why his players shouldn't keep playing the way they were coached, and it's kind of unfair to expect the backups to go half speed because the opposing team can't keep up. Those backups are competing for playing time too.

I simply cannot see there being any value in that game. There's no resistance, as evidenced by the 161-2 score, there's nothing to be learned about your team. Again, a practice would have been a better use of their time.

As far as scheduling goes, I just can't fathom that this game was forced on the winning school, but maybe I'm too far removed. All I know is that my high school never participated in such a game, and none of the high schools in the conference or in the area did, either. Of course, I was in high school at a time when kids went to the schools in their own backyards, and high schools played other high schools of similar size (and theoretically similar pools of athletes).
 
I'm more certain than I should be that if you asked the girls that played, they'd tell you they weren't going 50% in the first half, much less the girls that played in the second half.

I'm not going to suggest based off your post and the posts in this thread that the coaches could have done nothing, but would you want to be patronized if you were on the losing end?

I've been on the receiving end of blowouts, as a competitor and a fan of sports. Not only do I not find it patronizing for a opposing competitor that's leagues better to dial it back after they have already all but won, but it's pretty frustrating when a clearly better team feels the need to crush you up until the final seconds of the game. If anything, that's what's patronizing: we already know who's the better team and it doesn't take long to figure out who's going to win in these scenarios. it doesn't do anyone any favors to run up the score like this.
 
Well, he's the coach, and he has many options at his disposal to make better use of his players' time. If he thinks they benefited somehow from their "win", he's sorely mistaken.

It would be like Manny Pacquiao knocking the teeth out of some poor schlob off the street that doesn't know how to keep his hands up. Would it improve Manny's boxing or his career? No, it would probably leave him a little weaker for his next real opponent.

Where does it say that he thought they benefited from the win? The only thing he thought they would benefit from is one half of real play. Which you acknowledged. After that, he put in his bench, who get to see playtime they may not otherwise get during their actual season.

And your comparison isn't very apt considering "some poor schlob off the street" isn't even a boxer in the slightest. But let's say you put Manny in there against an Amateur. I wouldn't question Manny for knocking him out but question the Amateur's Trainer and Management for putting him in there with a guy who outclasses him so clearly.

This whole thing falls on Coach Chung/The Athletic Director for scheduling that game to begin with. They threw that team into the deep end without floaties and they predictably drowned.
 

masud

Banned
Again it's not about how the losers feel. It's what you're teaching the winners. Winning is the most important thing but its not the only thing. they had already secured the win a couple minutes into the game, now do it with some class. There is no reason to run a full court press against vastly inferior competition, it's making a mockery out of the game and it makes the game unbearably long if there's nothing the other team can do about it. There's a difference between playing hard and hounding girls who can't dribble 90 feet away from their basket. College and pro players don't press when the games out of reach unless they are trying to embarrass the other team.
 

The Adder

Banned
That isn't hyperbole. Even though he isn't seriously suggesting that throwing the game was an option, he didn't use hyperbole.

"Why do you want them to <thing that happened>? Why not just have them <EXTREME THING THAT DIDN'T HAPPEN>?" is the definition of being hyperbolic.
 

Velcro Fly

Member
the shot clock did them in.

if not for that they could have run a stall after the first quarter and only won by 50 or 60
 

SapientWolf

Trucker Sexologist
They subbed in the bench. Not much more you can do. No one should be one the floor if they're not playing at their best.

I hope they shot the losers out of a cannon and into the sun.
Now that's a little much. Maybe a really hot tire fire...
 
Ugh this is so disgusting. This is basically sending out the message to those kids that if you're good at something then you deserve to suffer for it and live a life of mediocrity so the incompetent and underachievers can continue being useless. They didn't win because they were lead by a god, they won because the other team's coach was too busy jerking off to watching his players bounce around the court during practice instead of teaching them how to play. The other coach should definitely be fired.
 

Roybr

Member
I agree that is poor sportsmanship.
Just like they did on Brazil x Germany, when they stopped playing serious in the second half. Could've been so much worse.

They also should had banned Germany's coach if this is the case.
 

Mariolee

Member
Ugh this is so disgusting. This is basically sending out the message to those kids that if you're good at something then you deserve to suffer for it and live a life of mediocrity so the incompetent and underachievers can continue being useless. They didn't win because they were lead by a god, they won because the other team's coach was too busy jerking off to watching his players bounce around the court during practice instead of teaching them how to play. The other coach should definitely be fired.

So I was with you until this part.
 

patapuf

Member
Again it's not about how the losers feel. It's what you're teaching the winners. Winning is the most important thing but its not the only thing. they had already secured the win a couple minutes into the game, now do it with some class. There is no reason to run a full court press against vastly inferior competition, it's making a mockery out of the game and it makes the game unbearably long if there's nothing the other team can do about it. There's a difference between playing hard and hounding girls who can't dribble 90 feet away from their basket. College and pro players don't press when the games out of reach unless they are trying to embarrass the other team.

There's no way to "prevent and embarassment" when the skill disparity is so huge.

If the winning team plays badly on purpose everyone knows. As someone that likes to play sports it's way more humilitating to play against someone that doesn't take you seriously.

And teaching winners to not take weaker competition seriously won't make them better human beings either. "not running up the score" is silly in organised sports. If a match is pointless to play invoke a mercy rule and be done with it.
 

Hycran

Banned
I fully support this kind of behavior. It builds character and introduces children to the real world. There are no participation ribbons in the real world, you either win or you lose. Full props to the coach for teaching the opposing team a valuable life lesson
 
Don't really think anything's wrong with this, the suspension is ridiculous. It's not some junior high, church-run league where everybody gets a trophy. Why make your players sandbag when they could be getting extra shots in, working on ball-handling, running through plays, etc?
 

DarkFlow

Banned
I've been on the receiving end of blowouts, as a competitor and a fan of sports. Not only do I not find it patronizing for a opposing competitor that's leagues better to dial it back after they have already all but won, but it's pretty frustrating when a clearly better team feels the need to crush you up until the final seconds of the game. If anything, that's what's patronizing: we already know who's the better team and it doesn't take long to figure out who's going to win in these scenarios. it doesn't do anyone any favors to run up the score like this.

Tell that to Green Bay.
EPHEHAj.gif

"Dialing it back" lost them a Super Bowl slot.
 

The Adder

Banned
I've been on the receiving end of blowouts, as a competitor and a fan of sports. Not only do I not find it patronizing for a opposing competitor that's leagues better to dial it back after they have already all but won, but it's pretty frustrating when a clearly better team feels the need to crush you up until the final seconds of the game. If anything, that's what's patronizing: we already know who's the better team and it doesn't take long to figure out who's going to win in these scenarios. it doesn't do anyone any favors to run up the score like this.

Patronize

"1. Treat with an apparent kindness that betrays a feeling of superiority."

Stop using words wrong for the love of god.
 
The idea that it's more humiliating to get utterly trounced than to be dicked around with by a clearly superior team not taking you seriously is utterly baffling to me. I'd rather get crushed into dirt than have someone better than me start botching intentionally or stop competing seriously. It shows a fundamental lack of respect towards your opponents.
 

masud

Banned
There's no way to "prevent and embarassment" when the skill disparity is so huge.

If the winning team plays badly on purpose everyone knows. As someone that likes to play sports it's way more humilitating to play against someone that doesn't take you seriously.

And teaching winners to not take weaker competition seriously won't make them better human beings either. "not running up the score" is silly in organised sports. If a match is pointless to play invoke a mercy rule and be done with it.

I didn't say anything about preventing embarrassment I said that they shouldn't be trying to embarrass the other team. Using a full court press for an entire half while up by dozens of points is equivalent to spawn camping your mom in a fps. Not saying they shouldn't play hard at all, the coach just shouldn't have employed that strategy. And technically not pressing would be taking their opponent seriously because if the opponent were competent the press would actually give them a better chance of getting back into the game. The full court press is usually a desperation tactic to get back into a game you're losing or to exploit a backcourt advantage in an otherwise competitive game. Using it against a team that you're far superior to is an asshole move that teaches your team nothing other than how to be an asshole.
 

ScOULaris

Member
This is pretty ridiculous. There's nothing more that the coach could or should have done. It's the losing team that should be getting flack for wasting everyone's time. How could they be THAT bad?
 
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