Well to make every one "feel better" they should have quit at half time. Or just blind fold the other team the second half. Yeah!!!!!

Does the fact that the winning team only scored 12 points in the fourth quarter mean anything to ya'll?

I'm not sure how I feel about this. But I do think that the losing team's administrators are more at fault because they should know the skill level of their students better than anyone yet have subjected them to losing repeatedly for the last four years. If they are unable to compete on that level why is the school allowing them to play opponents that are so much better. To me, the issue is much bigger than this one instance if they've been losing for four years.

objectively, this does not violate the rules of the game, but it does violate the spirit of the game.

Sometimes athletes do learn something from bad days on the court or field. As a kid/teen, I was on teams that could beat anybody or get beat down hard by anybody, and I suffered through my share of blowouts. You do learn to pick yourself up and get better, work harder, et cetera. But you can learn as much if not more as the winner about how to use your advantage.

Even in a blowout, you can play hard and honorably. In football, you can call only run plays and not blitz on defense. In basketball, there are things you can do as well, as Rodeo already broke down. This helps you pay attention to basic fundamentals, and gives you a chance to play and teach your young benchwarmers.

But if you have a coach who's going to press and fastbreak every second of a game against a weaker opponent whose team is made up of learning-disabled kids, he needs to go. The Dukes and North Carolinas of the world take it easier on the 15 and 16 seeds in the NCAA tournament than this team did. Not even a videogame will let you do that. These children were as powerless as they get and this coach stepped on their throat when they had cried uncle pretty early.

Plus, now every team they play from here on out is going to want to blow them out. The coach just put a target on his team's back.

Sports karma is a grandmother.

SCNDLS said:

They have to play The Game when they leave school. So why not compete while you're in school?

This situation says more about the winner than it does the loser.

Fury said:

You have to take THIS GAME into context over high school powerhouse teams. This was a game against a school that had 20 students and ONLY 8 players on the team, all who have very little basketball experience. This wasn't the Pats vs grown-ass men either. You can't compare pro/college to THIS situation. This was a special case.

But again, this truly is on those that scheduled the game - BOTH sides.

MuthaFunka said:

i used the powerhouse/patriots as an example that it happens on every level. other than little league baseball, i don't know any sport that enforces a mercy rule. the losing coach could have pulled his team and forfeited the game, but he let the massacre continue. if he was that damned pressed about his players' feelings, that's what he would have done. but he let the game play out and THEN bitched and moaned. it's not like this other team was that great anyway. when nobody on your team can make a damn layup..well you suck.

namepeace said:

So, you don't fault the losing team's administrators for constantly scheduling them against overmatched opponents. If they haven't won a game in FOUR years there's obviously a much bigger issue here than THIS game.

Fury said:

You don't see the difference between 14- to 17-year-olds in high school and professionals?

IMO, one of our most important jobs as educators and coaches is to help teach these kids to be responsible and respectful citizens. I know everyone wants to be a bad-ass and all, but this is precisely the time where these kids should be learning that things like running up the score, taunting, and belittling opponents are not acceptable.

MuthaFunka said:

I'm an ESPN.com junkie...in fact, it's probably the only site I go to more than the Org...and there are LOTS of writers who have issues with teams running up the score and showing bad sportmanship...especially with the built-in feature in the college football rankings that rewards "style-point" wins...huge margins of defeat against lesser opponents, throwing deep with 2 minutes left in the fourth quarter when the ranked team is up by 40, but jockeying for position to get to play for the National Championship....there are lots of pockets in society that frown on this stuff, but there are way too many sports fans that don't....the logic of "it's YOUR job to stop me from scoring, not the other way around" is prevalent and to the extent of college and professional sports its true...but not with grade/middle/high school kids...because IMHO all that does is humiliate the kids from the smaller, less talented school...

I agree with SCNDLS that if the smaller school was so bereft of talent that they hadn't won a game in 4 years, then maybe they should concentrate on other avenues of competition for their kids...pitting them against schools of the same relative size...or maybe just playing intramurals instead of varsity sports...at least until they can increase the number of students, and by default, the level of talent...

Fury said:

I don't remember the losing coach being the one that complained. I think it all started with the winning coach's principal calling to apologize to the losing school.

AlexdeParis said:

Yeah, that's the key issue here - THEY'RE FREAKIN' 14-17 YEAR OLD GIRLS! If this was college or pro, I'd be like "Well, stop them then! Don't complain about getting whorred! STOP THEM!" but in THIS case - naw, not cool. At all.

reneGade20 said:

Exactly. I agree completely with everything in your post.

reneGade20 said:

Also, everything I've heard locally says that the coach did everything to run the clock out, played 2nd string players in the 2nd half, and didn't really play any D against the losing team. If these kids were incapable of shooting and scoring a single basket when there's no defense, how is that the winning team's fault???

The only reason this made the news was because the score was 100-0 and it was a girls team. The team that won is supposed to be a really good team, that wins consistently and has beat other opponents by 40-50 points. So why would the losing team even be stepping on a court with them if they can't win in FOUR years. Why does THAT coach still have a job is what I wanna know?

MuthaFunka said:

But why should they not be expected to stop them just cuz they're 14-17 year old GIRLS? They're still playing a competitive sport with winners and losers.

here is a clip from the losing teams perspective....and I'm sorry, but I came away from watching this feeling like we're celebrating mediocrity.....

reneGade20 said:

I agree. They were so nonchalant about it. Reminded me of Romo. If they wanna play they can play on a non-district or intramural team. But if you're gonna suit up for district play and put an unprepared team out there, well you get a team with ZERO wins in FOUR years. To me, this loss says a lot more about their sorry coaching and school's administration than about the winners.

reneGade20 said:

I can see where you're coming from, but I think the point was supposed to be that the girls keep trying in the face of very long odds. While I worry that they may get used to losing so much that won't be a big deal for them, I'd still prefer a team like theirs to one that quits when faced with adversity.

AlexdeParis said:

Trust me, I applaud those girls for keeping their heads up throughout the whole history of that team....but sometimes it just feels that we (as a latter day, modern society) celebrate the "just showing up" aspect more than the "SUCCESS" aspect....for instance, in the military, we are re-enlisting guys who have rap sheets as long as some folks in the state penitentiary (relatively speaking) just because we need the bodies....

reneGade20 said:

Like I said, I get what you're saying. I agree with you, but I just don't think this is an example of that.

There is absolutely no need for a score like that...

My kid played in a game when he was just starting out where the other team was far superior...I'm talking 6-7 year olds.
The final score was 35-0...my son and his team were so dejected...at such a young age.

I not only blamed the other coach, for not calling off the dogs, but also the refs...they could have called a tighter game and gotten the poor girls to the foul line more often. When a game has been decided, there is no need to rub it in, on any level.

That is poor sportsmanship.

Revolution said:

The coach DID "call the dogs off" and how do you know they didn't go to the line a lot??? Did you watch the video? These girls cannot hit the rim in PRACTICE, so how are they gonna step up to one of the best teams in their district? Why is that the winners' fault?

SCNDLS said:

At some point, humanity has to take over, doesn't it?

SCNDLS said:

No he didn't. I can't even fathom how he can claim to have done so. Assuming all the info we have is correct, he pressed and trapped his way to a 25-0 lead after only 3 minutes. They also only scored 12 points in the fourth quarter. That means they had a 29-point 3rd quarter that was probably more than they scored in the 2nd -- after coming out of halftime with a 59-0 lead! 29 points is a good quarter for the NBA (and their quarters are almost twice as long), so I can't believe he called off the dogs and slowed the game down. And are we to believe they just happened to end up with an even 100 points?

AlexdeParis said:

The losing team was not playing ANY defense so I think the score coulda been MUCH higher which says that the winning team did ease up on them. Again, even with the winners easing up, the other team CANNOT make shots even during PRACTICE. What else should the winners have done to help them score? This statement, to me, shows that they were not playing them hard.

"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 is the first quarter, and only 1 in the 3rd quarter. I continued to sub in bench players, play zone defense, and run the clock for the rest of the game."

Oh and the NBA comparison is not the same because the other team would be playing defense and in THIS game the losers did not show up at all, from what I"ve heard and the fact that they haven't won in FOUR years attests to.
[Edited 1/26/09 19:16pm]

AlexdeParis said:

well, if you want to be "technical" about it, he did call the dogs off...if they were up 25-0 in three minutes, they could've easily hit 150 or maybe even 200...

I know I'm picking at straws because my original stance on this is that it WAS fucked up that they ran up the score....but that is the role of the devil's advocate, no matter how badly Keanu Reeves played the role...

Revolution said:

Yes, but IMO the coach and school administrators should have shown humanity by not subjecting these poor players to CONSTANTLY losing at the hands of superior players. That's the real problem IMO.

We're never going to agree. A team trying to run out the clock doesn't score 20 baskets in a half or 29 points in a quarter.

SCNDLS said:

exactly!! which is why I feel that until they had some kind of reasonable talent to put on the floor, they should compete in CYO leagues or intramurals with other schools....if you noticed on the vid, there were girls out there who were afraid of the ball coming off of the rim....which is generous considering that the shots they showed barely HIT the rim....

SCNDLS said:

Because the girls ONLY have 8 players and they're STILL NEW at the game of basketball! - I saw them on one of the morning shows talking about it. Now Mark Cubans crooked ass has invited them down to a Mavs game in the luxury boxes . But again, this is MORE about scheduling than anything else.

reneGade20 said:

Yeah, they didn't give a damn that they just swallowed a C-Note! They were just happy to be playing! ...And that's REALLY what it's all about for them.