Good or bad sportsmanship?

[rainmaker]

Originally Posted by Mark Padgett

He thought he was just trying to give the visiting team some good feelings about scoring some points.

What do you think? Should he have done this or not? Note this is a competitive, not strictly recreational league.

Rec league, maybe this tactic is okay. Competitive league, well, he made the other kids feel like fools. On the other hand, it's not unsportsmanlike per se. They probably didn't have any insultive intentions.

[BktBallRef]

I think the winning coach has to think about how he would feel if he was on the other end. No competitor wants anything handed to them.

Clear your bench, don't press, no fast breaks, three passes before a shot...all good ideas. But intentionally turning the ball over or allowing your opponent to score without opposition...nope, not a good idea.

[Jimgolf]

The losing coach has no business complaining about anything other than his poor job in preparing his team. He's likely to get further experience against tough teams and he should be worrying more about that than about a misguided but well-intentioned attempt at keeping the score down.

[Mark Padgett]

Originally Posted by Jimgolf

The losing coach has no business complaining about anything other than his poor job in preparing his team. He's likely to get further experience against tough teams and he should be worrying more about that than about a misguided but well-intentioned attempt at keeping the score down.

It wasn't that they weren't well prepared. They just don't have any talent, speed and/or size. It's a shame they are in this level of play. This league is pretty competitive, even at that grade and gender. It's 6th grade and their city is somewhat smaller than the others, so their talent pool is smaller.

[Y2Koach]

I coach at the high school level so it may be different with dealing with younger kids, but in the rare instances we've been blown out, I tell my guys there is something to be learned from taking your whooping like a man. Remember how it feels to be whooped and how helpless it feels, and practice your butt off to make sure it never happens again. You can't classlessly take your frustration out on the other team because they're supposed to try to beat you. And if they are really that much better, faster, stronger, more skilled, you should take advantage of the 8 minutes of "scrimmage" time against athletes that we can't duplicate in our own practices. Several years back, my merry band of JV guys were getting our butts kicked in a Varsity summer league (our var guys had an SAT prep course). We were down by 30+ Mid-way through the 3rd Qtr, and the opposing team stopped pressing. During a time-out, I asked the opposing coach to let his guys keep pressing us. By about 5 minutes left in the 4th quarter, we were able to manage their pressure and actually get some layups. The opposing coach looks at me and tells his guys to call off the press.

During the season that year, we were in a tournament with this same team, and we were playing in a game right before that opposing team was supposed to play, so they were there watching us. We shredded the other teams press and won by 20+. As we were leaving the floor, a couple of my players walked by that opposing coach from the summer and thanked him for pressing and helping them learn how to break the press. When we played them the following day in the semi-finals, they pressed us for a total of 1 minute 12 seconds. The 6 pts we scored off their press were the only 6 pts we managed in the first quarter. They beat us by about 7 or so, but didn't press us for the rest of the game. That coach has vowed not to listen to anything I say every again...

[kbilla]

Originally Posted by Y2Koach

I coach at the high school level so it may be different with dealing with younger kids, but in the rare instances we've been blown out, I tell my guys there is something to be learned from taking your whooping like a man. Remember how it feels to be whooped and how helpless it feels, and practice your butt off to make sure it never happens again. You can't classlessly take your frustration out on the other team because they're supposed to try to beat you. And if they are really that much better, faster, stronger, more skilled, you should take advantage of the 8 minutes of "scrimmage" time against athletes that we can't duplicate in our own practices. Several years back, my merry band of JV guys were getting our butts kicked in a Varsity summer league (our var guys had an SAT prep course). We were down by 30+ Mid-way through the 3rd Qtr, and the opposing team stopped pressing. During a time-out, I asked the opposing coach to let his guys keep pressing us. By about 5 minutes left in the 4th quarter, we were able to manage their pressure and actually get some layups. The opposing coach looks at me and tells his guys to call off the press.

During the season that year, we were in a tournament with this same team, and we were playing in a game right before that opposing team was supposed to play, so they were there watching us. We shredded the other teams press and won by 20+. As we were leaving the floor, a couple of my players walked by that opposing coach from the summer and thanked him for pressing and helping them learn how to break the press. When we played them the following day in the semi-finals, they pressed us for a total of 1 minute 12 seconds. The 6 pts we scored off their press were the only 6 pts we managed in the first quarter. They beat us by about 7 or so, but didn't press us for the rest of the game. That coach has vowed not to listen to anything I say every again...

True story?

[Y2Koach]

Originally Posted by kbilla

True story?

Actual factually true story...

[Texas Aggie]

I understand the V coach's sentiments

I don't.

Competitive league, well, he made the other kids feel like fools.

BS. This is a damned if you do, damned if you don't. The winning coach isn't responsible for the other team, only his team and his actions. You can agree or disagree with those actions in terms of what you would have done, but there was nothing wrong with them. He made a decision based on his info at that point, and did what he had to do. You can't make 8th grade girls understand the "just back off, but make it look good", or if they do understand, they aren't likely to do it well. At any rate, he deserves a pass on this and if the V coach is upset, that's his problem.

Had this jerk (V) said that to me, I would have said, "OK, next time, we're going to run your face into the ground," and walked away. V coach had no business saying anything, regardless of talent, skill, or other issues.

Sorry for the rough tone, but I'm sick and damn tired of these blowout sub varsity games. I just wonder if some schools need to drop from competition their teams that, like this one, just aren't competitive. I'm not talking about a few blow out losses; I'm speaking of teams like this. Unfortunately, I've seen one or two of these this year. I had a varsity girls game 2 Mondays ago involving 2 private schools where the H team go blown out. This past Monday, I'm back there and now they are playing a public school in Texas' largest classification. First quarter score: H 24, V 2.