original mercy rules?

[rotationslim]

I run a small Church league, sometimes big inequities in abilities of teams, so we have a fairly activist mercy rule:

* up by 15 in second half you can not play defense past half court
* up by 20 in second half you can not play defense past the 3 point arc
* up by 15 clock runs in final 2 minutes (running clock rest of the game)
* If at halftime the game is absurdly uncompetitive the refs with advise and consent of coachs can re-align players to opposite teams.

Keep in mind this is a Church league.

Anyone heard of or seen any other good/creative mercy rules? Looking for anything that can lend some quality of play experience to blowouts.

[Eastshire]

Too complicated.

Pick a spread and make it a running clock for the rest of the game. Anything else is just too difficult for the officials to have to take care of.

[M&M Guy]

Originally Posted by rotationslim

* If at halftime the game is absurdly uncompetitive the refs with advise and consent of coachs can re-align players to opposite teams.

How does that work?

"We'll give you Mike and John, in exchange for a bingo card to be named later"?

I agree - don't make it too complicated. It sounds like you're trying to be "fair", but all it does is put more pressure on the officials. What does "playing defense past the 3-pt. arc" mean? Does the defender need to keep their feet inside the line, or just on the line? Can one foot be inside the arc, while the other foot is outside? Is there a "plane" where the defender can't reach past the arc, like there is on throw-ins? See how it can get unecessarily complicated? A simple running clock after a certain point spread seems to be the easiest to administer.

[Mark Padgett]

Our local rec league (3rd grade thru HS) is much simpler. Up by 15 or more at any time (20 at HS level), no backcourt guarding. The lower grades play running clock but if the lead is less than 10 at the 2:00 minute mark in the 4th Q, then stop clock the rest of the way.

Pretty simple to remember and administer.

[Adam]

I work a middle school league here where there is no backcourt defense, period, except the last two minutes of each half. And then, you can only play bc defense if your team is behind by one or more points. If you're tied or ahead, no bc defense at all.
Running 9 minute quarters, too, except for the last two minutes of each half.

Originally Posted by M&M Guy

How does that work?

"We'll give you Mike and John, in exchange for a bingo card to be named later"?

Now that's a good line.

The middle school league here allows only b/c guarding the last two minutes of each half and none if you are up by 10. Running clock in 4th quarter if up by 20.

How many teams are in this league? IMHO if the teams are that mismatched, they should seriously reconsider how they are selected to begin with. It can't be that enjoyable for the kids.

[Mark Padgett]

Originally Posted by Mark Padgett

Our local rec league (3rd grade thru HS) is much simpler. Up by 15 or more at any time (20 at HS level), no backcourt guarding. The lower grades play running clock but if the lead is less than 10 at the 2:00 minute mark in the 4th Q, then stop clock the rest of the way.

Pretty simple to remember and administer.

I forgot to mention that in 3rd and 4th grades, no backcourt guarding is allowed at all and for 5th/6th girls and 5th boys, it's allowed only in the 4th Q and in OT (of course, I never have to worry about OT since I don't allow it in my games).

[Adam]

"OT?" Doesn't he play for the Cowboys?

[Mark Padgett]

Originally Posted by Snaqwells

"OT?" Doesn't he play for the Cowboys?

You mean the Cowpies?

[rotationslim]

The teams are from individual congregations (wards), so there is really no way to more equally distribute the teams. It is mostly demographics, the league covers 14 to 18 year olds, so when teams are on the older side they do well, and when teams are full of younger boys they stink.. so it is cyclical.

We could dump all boys into one pool, then assign for more even teams.. but they like representing their congregation, we have discussed it many times with the boys, and that is how they prefer it.

They would rather lose with their team-mates then be tossed into a more equitable distribution system. Maybe the quality of basketball competition suffers just a bit.. but I kind of like that they would rather represent their "tribe" and lose, then be assigned randomly with a better chance of winning. Even when a team is getting blown out at halftime and we offer to call the game, and re-set teams to a more equitable arrangement, they prefer to take the licking with their buddies. I kind of think their loyalty is refreshing. I am just looking for ways to keep the pain down during the thrashings. In the end we have a little "outcome based" scorekeeping.. and typically we don't post any points past a 20 point lead on the scoreboard. It may offend some of the "Inspector Javert"s on this board, but it is right for our program

[Jurassic Referee]

Originally Posted by rotationslim

It may offend some of the "Inspector Javert"s on this board, but it is right for our program

Why post and ask the question then if you already had your mind made up and you weren't going to even consider the responses?

Inspector Javert is kinda wondering......

[Adam]

I've seen leagues where they turn the scoreboard off after a certain lead as well.

Originally Posted by rotationslim

We could dump all boys into one pool, then assign for more even teams.. but they like representing their congregation, we have discussed it many times with the boys, and that is how they prefer it.

Sounds reasonable to me.
I do think your mercy rules are little too "activist", as you say. I wouldn't want to be adding more restrictions into the mix.

[Back In The Saddle]

Probably a little too activist. Once you get it all evened up by constraining defenses and realigning the teams, how do you decide who should win? Coin toss? "You won last week so they get to win this week?" What if the wrong team wins anyway? Basketball is a competitive team sport; don't get too involved in removing the competition.

[Mark Padgett]

Originally Posted by Snaqwells

I've seen leagues where they turn the scoreboard off after a certain lead as well.

I don't recommend this. We used to do it at the lowest grade levels until we found out kids were teasing other kids at school by saying things like "HA HA - we turned the score off on you on Saturday!" Plus - during games we heard kids tell their teammates how many more points they needed to score before they turned the score off on the other guys and to try to run up the score just to do that. It completely ruined the idea of why we were doing it in the first place.