[Dan_ref]

Originally Posted by Big2Cat

As another official who also coaches, please know that some teams get bent out of shape if you win by 10, or 15. I have had and seen plenty of teams blow a 15 point lead in the 4th quarter, and a lot of times it was because they didn't want to be seen as "running up the score".

For some reason, we get to the point of thinking that we have to stop scoring and keep it close. My job is not to keep the score close. My job is also not to stop my team from scoring--that is the other coach's job.

That said, I can usually tell immediately if we are just having great success against an equally matched team (and keep all the pressure on) or if the team we are playing is vastly inferior in skill to our team. If it is the latter, then the press comes off almost immediately, we do not fast break, we still play man to man but do not pressure the ball until the top of the key. If it is really, really bad we might also go to a tight zone and not challenge outside shots.

However, each coach reads each situation differently, and yes, sadly, some are just jerks who don't care.

Yeah that's a good point and I am certainly not the type to get between a losing team and a good azz whuppin. But I'm pretty sure the visiting coach was miffed because he had just emptied his bench.