Mercy Rule

[Hawks Coach]

I am going to have a 20-25 point lead before my starters are done, in all likelihood. 25 is not out of the question if we jump our opponents early in the game. I have come back from 16, 17, and 19 down in one quarter playing running clock when a team backed off, so 25 is not as big a lead as it may seem to you.

Now I start leaning on my second string who maybe doesn't get that much opportunity for extended run. They have been giving me some fill-in minutes in the second and third quarter (say they normally get 4 per quarter) in a normal game. But my second string is pretty good, and simultaneously my opponents start going to their even weaker second string, and now the lead is 40, and I am just getting the bottom of my bench in the game.

It's easy when you don't coach a team day-in and day-out to judge what you are seeing and think we are crazy. And of course some of us are, myself included at times. But sometimes what makes sense to you isn't going to be what makes sense to a coach dealing with specific team issues.