OT: California High School Girls Basketball Coach Suspended After Massive Win
Bleacher Report story about a HS Girls' BB coach who was suspended after his team badly beat an opponent by the score of :
No doubt the other team was extremely over-matched, but where should you draw the line in high school, college, or even in the pros? How do you balance good sportsmanship with having your team play a full 60 (48, 40, etc.) minutes?
Mod edit: No Bleacher report. Here are some links to other, non BR sources. JGB.
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/girls-high-school-hoops-coach-suspended-aft…
http://www.sportingnews.com/ncaa-basketball/story/2015-01-15/california…
EGJ Edit: Original link did work, try again:
January 16th, 2015 at 8:12 PM ^
Sent from MGoBlog HD for iPhone & iPad
January 17th, 2015 at 5:30 AM ^
Hahaha, this reminds me of thesatirical story about Kanye West playing vs a middle school wheelchair team:
http://dailycurrant.com/2014/09/17/kanye-scores-106-points-against-whee…
January 16th, 2015 at 8:13 PM ^
NO BLEACHER REPORT.
January 16th, 2015 at 8:14 PM ^
Sent from MGoBlog HD for iPhone & iPad
January 16th, 2015 at 8:15 PM ^
January 16th, 2015 at 8:21 PM ^
Well they scored 104 in the first half... 58 in the second half... Looks like they did try to stop running up the score to me.
Why can't the other team stop them?
This is stupid.
January 16th, 2015 at 8:22 PM ^
Because they can't. That was proven.
Once you are up like 50, you've made your point. These are kids, not LeBron dogging it and having an off day.
January 16th, 2015 at 8:23 PM ^
Sent from MGoBlog HD for iPhone & iPad
January 16th, 2015 at 8:29 PM ^
Tell players you can only dribble and shoot with your left hand (and of course with under 3-4 seconds in the shot clock) For left handed players, do the opposite. No layups, all outside shots, etc. Trust me they would not score 50 pts in the 2nd half doing that. Or 100 in the first.
If you wanted to be really extreme you say don't crash the offensive boards, only protect our side (defensive reboundng). So it's 1 shot and done always. When it was 40-0 or 40-2 he could have done that which sounds like half way thru the 1st half.
January 16th, 2015 at 8:30 PM ^
Sent from MGoBlog HD for iPhone & iPad
January 16th, 2015 at 8:49 PM ^
Your argument is not valid...it isn't quitting when you curbed stomped a team beyond submission. By not shooting at the end of a shot clock, a player isn't abandoning their team. Quitting is when you abandon your goal before it has been accomplished. IMO, he should be suspended. He missed an opportunity to show kids what sports really is about.
January 16th, 2015 at 9:11 PM ^
January 16th, 2015 at 11:06 PM ^
Plus, unless I'm mistaken, they don't use a freaking shot clock in high school girls basketball. Put in a 10 pass rule before someone is even allowed to shot the ball. This is brutal and humiliating for the opposing players, and poor sportsmanship being displayed by the winning coach.
January 16th, 2015 at 10:17 PM ^
They gave up 2 points.
Also, how long is a HS women's basketball game? Maybe 35 minutes? And they probably have running clock rules after a certain point when the lead is insurmountable, if it's like any other high school sport... At some point, anything you do is just rubbing it in. You don't shoot the ball.
January 16th, 2015 at 11:39 PM ^
In Michigan, high school games are 32 minutes long. I'm guessing that's also true in California. I don't even know how you could score 161 in that amount of time. You'd have to be forcing quick turnovers on basically every opposing possession AND quickly converting them into points, over and over.
January 17th, 2015 at 6:46 AM ^
Mallisa Mariota is their PG...joke
January 16th, 2015 at 10:33 PM ^
...that the most important thing to teach athletes in high school is sportsmanship. Not quitting makes the list, but it's definitely further down the page.
January 16th, 2015 at 8:34 PM ^
That would only be more embarrassing if I was on the team getting crushed.
January 16th, 2015 at 8:38 PM ^
Working on your skills is a mockery? I didn't know that.
I once watched a game where a team dominated another in the first half very badly. Then they came out in the 2nd half and sat on the grass. That's a mockery. Working on your off hand (foot) is not a mockery.
There are obviously no good outcomes in situations like this.
January 16th, 2015 at 9:13 PM ^
started shooting threes with wonky off hand form it would be a bit of a mockery of the sport. The approach you mention is fine for soccer, but I don't think it works as good for basketball and only demoralizes the team more. Skills should ideally be devoloped in practice, and it would be weird to put backups in but tell them to only use their weak hand, not shoot inside, etc.
I think the best approach is to put in benchwarmers and let them play their game and see what they can do while giving minimal coaching input.
January 16th, 2015 at 8:36 PM ^
It's high school, so I doubt there was a shot clock. If you're going to stop trying, then you might as well stop the game. And playing the way you described is more embarassing to the other team than losing by 160 points.
The only fair thing to do was to call the game at halftime. Both coaches should have met with the officials and agreed that the game was over. If they wanted to play a scrimmage or something in the second half, so be it.
January 16th, 2015 at 8:40 PM ^
And I could say calling a game at half is embarassing. As I said, there are no good outcomes.
January 16th, 2015 at 8:50 PM ^
Someone should have seen that this game shouldn't have been scheduled. It is clear that this is between two schools with very different size school bodies.
January 16th, 2015 at 9:04 PM ^
anyone who has coached knows there are countless ways to keep the score down---sit in a tight zone, no active steals, no crashing the offensive boards, using a specified amount off the clock before shooting, work on your outside shooting etc. I've done it with various teams I have coached to different degrees a number of times--particularly in those early grades when mismatches often occur.
He sat his starters at half. That's big of him--only waiting until he was up 100. How about not starting them or even playing them at all--he obviously knew this would be a mismatch. Though the articles don't say, I am going to guess he was pressing for much of the first half.
January 16th, 2015 at 9:25 PM ^
January 16th, 2015 at 9:34 PM ^
They used a full court press for the first half and a half court trap in the second half. The coach is an asshole and deserves the suspension. Work on your press in practice where the competition is better.
January 17th, 2015 at 1:08 AM ^
Sent from MGoBlog HD for iPhone & iPad
January 17th, 2015 at 3:59 AM ^
Who is talking about trophies? It's about being civil to fellow human beings. If you think beating a girls high school basketball team 161-2 is a reasonable way to treat people you should probably reconsider your priorities because they are out of whack.
January 16th, 2015 at 9:12 PM ^
January 17th, 2015 at 1:06 PM ^
You would think they'd have a mercy rule in place, purposely demoralizing your opponents at the HS level is just poor sportsmanship.
January 16th, 2015 at 9:17 PM ^
Yeah, calling it early is embarrassing, but at least you get to get out of there earlier. Playing the second half is just prolonging the embarrassment for another hour.
January 17th, 2015 at 10:47 AM ^
January 16th, 2015 at 9:27 PM ^
They should just institute a 50 point mercy rule or something like the way HS baseball does.
January 16th, 2015 at 11:05 PM ^
Recruit the chick that scored 2.
January 16th, 2015 at 10:07 PM ^
Then switched to a half court trap for the entire second half. I think that's the issue rather than anything they did on the offensive end. I don't think it took very long to establish the opposition couldn't handle a press.
January 16th, 2015 at 8:25 PM ^
January 16th, 2015 at 8:30 PM ^
they may not have long term futures as basketball players, and if the backups got extended playing time it is hard to get them to not actually try. If i was a benchwarmer on the team I would take the opportunity to go out there and compete regardless of the score.
If you can't handle getting dominated by superior opponents either don't play sports or work even harder to get better. There is no shame in getting beat by a far better team, I would be more offended it the team just dribbled out the clock or turned the ball over on purpose.
January 16th, 2015 at 8:29 PM ^
January 16th, 2015 at 9:18 PM ^
January 16th, 2015 at 11:04 PM ^
Sent from MGoBlog HD for iPhone & iPad
January 16th, 2015 at 8:18 PM ^
It probably falls on the AD for scheduling the game.
January 16th, 2015 at 8:18 PM ^
Someone should fire the coach of the team that put up 2 points.
January 16th, 2015 at 8:19 PM ^
restrictions to make 161 impossible to attain. Once you are up by 50 points it's time for a ref to pull the plug.
January 16th, 2015 at 8:24 PM ^
I've coached travel soccer for a long time and what I do - even in that level which is "very competitive" is get a 6 goal lead or so and then have the kids work on keep away and skills, i.e. pass the ball amongst each other, and then work on dribbling and passing with their off feet. Usually their off feet are quite average (or below) so it creates a lot of turnovers, which of course the superior team quickly gets the ball back but it at least creates some actual competition. In basketball terms that would be shooting with your (for most players) with their left hand, and dribbling with their left and passing out the shot clock and only taking a shot with under 5 seconds to go. (in basketball you have to shoot, in soccer you don't). Not sure what equivalents you can do in football other than running off tackle every play. In baseball make every player switch to the other side of the plate - most youth are not switch hitters.
There is no good to come from domination like this, but there are ways to alleviate it. I hate games like this, I've been on both sides of it. (not to THAT extent, but the type of games you can see within 3 minutes it's going to be a long day for one of the teams) I don't know if you suspend a coach for this but damn I don't know how that person goes home at night feeling great.
January 16th, 2015 at 8:27 PM ^
Sent from MGoBlog HD for iPhone & iPad
January 17th, 2015 at 1:19 AM ^
coached travel softball for 15 years. One game we were leading 22-2 and I had all my girls bat left handed (all were RH hitters). How does a cosch tell his girls "Not to hit the ball?"
My daughter hit one down the RF line and she motored it all the way around home. I had one of the team captains coaching 3rd and she waived her home. I still was critisized by the opposing team. You can never win.
I like the soccer technique where the coach can tell the team to play "keep-away". But I would not tell a girl to strike out on purpose and let her BA suffer when she busted her @ss all season to improve.
This is a very difficult situation for all involved. However, suspension??? I guess it depends on the coach. If he says, "I want blood and I dont care what the score is" versus "Girls, I am putting in the third team and I want them to have fun and play hard"
January 16th, 2015 at 8:27 PM ^
100 points in any kids sport is over the top when your opponent is way ovematched.
When he saw it got as high as 99 he should have called a timeout and told his team "It's over. Nobody shoots. Nobody scores. Period. End of discussion."
Consider it the "Victory Formation" of basketball, and take a figurative knee.
BTW, kudos to the girl that scored her team's 2 points. At least it was not a shutout. Take that.
January 16th, 2015 at 9:22 PM ^
The ref should've called the game. I don't see how the coach is to blame, he pulled his starters and milked the clock. It's not very fun for his back ups if they hand the ball over to the other team every time.
January 16th, 2015 at 8:21 PM ^
Whoever scored the 2 pts gets Dairy Queen
January 16th, 2015 at 8:23 PM ^
Sent from MGoBlog HD for iPhone & iPad