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Hawks Coach, I understand your point about paying for playing time and think it has great merit, but would like you to consider the blowout game from the viewpoint of an official trying to improve. We pay for court time too!
Let's assume that the official is not local and so has traveled to the tournament at his own expense and is also having to pay for a hotel, meals, and maybe even a rental car. Now, some of these expenses are going to be off-set by the game fees, but it is likely that the official will lose money on the endeavor. So why does the official do this?
For example, I flew to Las Vegas this week and worked 14 games at the Adidas Big Time tournament which attracted 400 teams of HS eligible boys from all over the country. I paid $150 for the flight, $105($35 a night) for a hotel room, and $180 for a rental car. I was paid $378 ($27/game) for the games. That's a loss already and I haven't even included my meals and gatorade!
I knew going into the event that I would lose money by going. So why would I go? Answer: for fun and to improve. The same reasons that you and your players attend these tournaments.
I wanted to see some of the best HS players in the nation play fast-paced, high-caliber basketball. I needed to see lots of above the rim play. In short, I wanted to test my officiating skills at a level of play that is simply not available in my local area.
We played two 16 minute stop-clock halves. I had a game that was 44-7 at the 8 minute mark of the first half and ended 113-69. This tournament did not use a running clock, but let's consider what would happen if they did. First, the winning team would not have put up 113 points. Kids, especially boys, always try to score 100 on somebody. This only leads to hurt feelings and poor sportmanship situations. (Like trying to dunk on somebody.) Second, the tournament would certainly be able stay on schedule. Don't you expect to play your games on their scheduled times and plan your teams meals and other activities around those times at a tournament? What if there had been a double OT game earlier in the day? I had two of those down there. The running clock game would allow the site to catch up. This was important for this tourney since the last game of the day at some gyms was starting at 10:20 PM and finishing near midnight. Maybe the tournament has to pay the security guards extra past midnight or there is some other expense, so they really don't want to be late. Perhaps the running clock mercy rule would ensure that the tournament wouldn't have to fear extra costs and thus could hold down the cost to the teams?
You would certainly like that, right?
Third, both the kids and the officials lose some time on the court. But the question to ask here is, is it quality time? Are the kids trying to execute an offense are they exerting themselves on the defensive end? If not, then it is likely that there isn't going to be much for me to officiate, and I am also likely not learning much from this time on the court. Perhaps I could better use the time to rest and be strong and sharp for my next double OT game where every call could make a difference.
Coach, in summary, what I am asking the members of this forum is simply, "What do we learn from blowout games, and do/can we really improve during them?"
My feeling is that both teams kind of quit when the score gets lopsided and that it is rather hard for an official to improve his game in this situation.
I am for the running clock because of this. I don't care about the money issue. If I did, I wouldn't even go to the tournament.
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