Girl blocks boy's shot!
 

Yesterday, we had our "orientation" meeting for this highly competitive middle school league I work. Part of the day was spent by having experienced refs "shadow" newbies during scrimmages. By the end of the afternoon, only two teams stayed that long, one boys and one girls, both 8th grade. They decided to scrimmage each other.

The girls actually did OK, considering they were smaller and slower. The "high point" came when one of the boys went in for a layup and the girls post player came across and swatted the ball OOB just as he was releasing it. It made a big "smack" sound when hit and traveled about 30 feet. :eek:

The girls team went nuts and so did their parents who were watching. The boys point guard went over to his teammate and said, "You got blocked by a guuurrrrllll!" The kid replied, "Shut up".

It was really cool to see. I was on the baseline with three of the newbies at the time and it happened right in front of us.

Girls may be generally smaller and slower, but they can still "ball it". Fun to hear about when it happens.

Pure F-U-N-D-A-M-E-N-T-A-L-S !!. This is what girls bring to the game of basketball. ;) boys may be more athletic; girls more fundamentally sound.

the guy is only in 8th grade. This won't be the last time he gets blocked when he tries to take a shot at some girl. ;)

Agree with this completely. A bunch of folks I've worked with can't stand officiating women's games but I prefer them most of the time. Instead of trying to jump out of the gym they seem to be more concerned with executing the fundamentals and that makes for an enjoyable officiating experience.

Contrast that, however, with my experience last Friday night during an 8th grade girls game that was 5-4 at the half time (one team scored 4 in the 1st quarter, the other team scored 5 in the second quarter). I had honestly thought with the proliferation of women's basketball at the professional and collegiate level that more talent would have filtered down to the sub-varsity level by now. Maybe I just got stuck with a couple of really bad teams who missed out on the talent pool.

A few years ago, when Portland had a women's pro team, they used to hold their practices at a venue in Beaverton where I routinely worked kids games on nights and weekends. One Saturday, they were practicing right after I finished my shift. One of their coaches came over to me and my partner and asked if we would stay for a while and work a scrimmage. They said they would pay each of us for doing so. We said sure. They then recruited a bunch of "gym rats" - guys who were just there to get some exercise shooting baskets - to play them.

Although these guys were just a pick up team, they thoroughly demolished the pro women. The coaches called it off after about 20 minutes. They weren't keeping score but if they were, it probably was about 60-20. At that level, as good as the women were, they had nowhere near the size and speed of even those unorganized guys and it showed.

Hey - I still talk about the time I "worked the pros". ;)

Agree!

I've also had the dreaded 20-15 games and 50-7 games.

I also make it a point to remind girls before the game starts to stop wrestling for the ball when the whistle blows. Man, I've seen some WWE matches that haven't had as much action! :p

Did you instruct the newbie to stop the game and high five her? ;)

I was impressed until I got to the OOB part.;)

Shouldn't that be F-U-N-D-A-P-E-R-S-O-N-T-A-L-S? :eek:

PS: Nice going for the girl.

I completely disagree with that statement. Have you ever watched a rebound and all the girls on the floor come together like a bunch of moths going to the light? No one boxes out, not one grabs the ball but slaps at it. And then the coaches and fans are crying for a foul with 8 players near the ball but no one put themselves in a good position to get the ball. Then when you have a team that is not as tall or as fast and they play with a great deal of fundamentals, they beat up on everyone. Now girls might have to do many things to be successful, but that does not make them more fundamental.

Peace

I didn't want to be the sexist pig, but since somebody else has started it. . .

I also disagree that basketball fundamentals are significantly better in girls ball than boys. There are just as many turnovers in the girls' game as in the boys' game. The girls don't shoot any better, or rebound any better, or defend any better than boys do.

The girls game is different, no question, but not because they perform these fundamentals better than boys in general.

It's not sexist to say that one group is different from another in some way. It's sexist to say that one person is inherently better or worse because of their gender.

When it comes to boys and girls (hs and lower), in general, I think you're right, Scrappy and Rut. But in college and pro, there are more male than female players who rely on their athleticism to help overcome a deficit in fundamental play, I think.

Even so, I think that's a matter of history and background. I'm interested to see how women's basketball changes over time. It's not going to be the same as men's changes, of course. Not better or worse, just different.

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You've got to be kidding. Some of the least fundamental play I have ever seen has been in some girls games. Granted, I've seen some shake and bake fundamentally unsound boy's teams, but you're making a dramatic overstatement here.