[Nevadaref]

Originally Posted by Scrapper1

A while ago, I posted about my first AAU games of the season: First AAU of the year

Last weekend I attended a camp and the games that we worked were all AAU games. There was a lot of talent, big kids; but AAU. One of my games was a really good game. Back and forth, pretty good flow, good players. With 6:30 left in the game, it's a 1-point game with Team A leading. Team A brings the ball into the front court and holds the ball out near the midcourt line. Team B falls back into a zone.

Six minutes left, Team A holding and Team B sitting in the zone.

Five minutes left, Team A holding and Team B sitting in the zone.

Three minutes left. . .

One minute left. . .

We're thinking, Team B has to jump out and foul. But they just sit there.

30, 20, 10. . .

At 10 seconds, Coach B stands up and starts to clap wildly, enthusiastically as he watches the clock run to all zeros. Team A wins by one, without ever having to go to the line at the end of the game. We literally stood in our positions for six and a half minutes.

Come to find out, Team B was a game up on Team A in the "pool standings". So if Team A won, the teams would be tied for the playoff spot. Team B also had the point-differential tie-breaker, so that Team A not only had to win, but they had to win by 7 to win the tie-breaker.

So by winning by only 1 point, Team B advanced to the playoffs due to the point-differential tie-breaker.

What a surreal experience.

We had a situation a few years back that was quite similar in the last game of our HS regular season play. A win by Team A created a three-way tie for the final play-off spot, which meant that the relevant tiebreaker become the point differential in the games played amongst the three teams involved in the tie.
Anyway Team A knew going in that not only did they have to win, but they had to win by six. So when they were ahead by three with under a minute left, it was Team B who was playing keep away, and the team that was AHEAD was chasing them and giving fouls! But it got even crazier. With only 10 seconds left Team A was still only ahead by 2, so instead of trying to score four more points they simply gave the ball to Team B and fouled. Team B now missed the FTs on purpose(!) and when Team A got the rebound their coach instructed them to toss the ball into the opponents basket, which they did with less than five seconds remaining and proceeded to let the clock run out. This sent the game into overtime and gave them four more minutes to get the necessary points. I don't know how it came out.

In my opinion, it was a travesty of the game.