Good or bad sportsmanship?

[Mark Padgett]

MS girls game last night (please, don't start). It was obvious during warmups that the home team was going to win in a blowout. After Q1, it was 14-0. Halftime, 25-1. Please note the home coach took off the press during Q1, but it didn't matter much. About midway in Q3, he went to the "three passes before a shot and no breakaway layups" offense. Again, their lead just increased. Start of Q4, it was 35-3. With about 3 minutes to go, he requested and was granted (note the proper terminology) a TO. When his girls came back on the floor, they practically invited the other team to score. They let them go right to the hoop without trying to play defense and didn't even try to get any rebounds (visitors still missed most of their shots, even uncontested from 3 feet). On offense, they almost immediately intentionally had a turnover. The visitors scored 6 points to make the final 50-9.

After the game, the visitors head coach remarked to the home coach, "That was a cheap shot at the end. We don't need your charity. You made my girls look like fools." The home coach was really surprised. 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.

[kbilla]

Originally Posted by Mark Padgett

MS girls game last night (please, don't start). It was obvious during warmups that the home team was going to win in a blowout. After Q1, it was 14-0. Halftime, 25-1. Please note the home coach took off the press during Q1, but it didn't matter much. About midway in Q3, he went to the "three passes before a shot and no breakaway layups" offense. Again, their lead just increased. Start of Q4, it was 35-3. With about 3 minutes to go, he requested and was granted (note the proper terminology) a TO. When his girls came back on the floor, they practically invited the other team to score. They let them go right to the hoop without trying to play defense and didn't even try to get any rebounds (visitors still missed most of their shots, even uncontested from 3 feet). On offense, they almost immediately intentionally had a turnover. The visitors scored 6 points to make the final 50-9.

After the game, the visitors head coach remarked to the home coach, "That was a cheap shot at the end. We don't need your charity. You made my girls look like fools." The home coach was really surprised. 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.

I can understand what the H coach was trying to do - since he had no bad intentions, I can't call this "poor sportsmanship"...that said I understand the V coach's sentiments as well, I would never have done this if I had the strong team...just call off the dogs, run your offense, if you score you score....

[grunewar]

Interesting. As a coach I would advocate my players do as the winning coach did up until the part of rolling over at the end. I have called off the press, gone into a soft 2-1-2 defense, no long passes or breakaway layups, cleared the bench, etc. But, rolling over, that's a bit much. That being said, the losing coach was a bit harsh in his reaction....IMO, as I'm sure the other coaches intentions were pure.

I too reffed a game a few weeks back which I spoke of in an earlier post that ended up 90 something - 20 something. Tough on the kids/parents as that is how their entire season is going/will go. Any small victory might be appreciated by them.

But, on the bright side, the season will end, they'll get their team picture, talk of the one basket they score all year, get their mandatory HUGE trophy, eat season ending pizza, and their parents will sign them up next season!

[rngrck]

Had a similiar game 2 weeks ago and as a ref you really feel for the inferior team but the coach could have made it less obvious in letting the other team score. I don't blame the losing coach for his comments.

[chartrusepengui]

Maybe a better way to go about it would have been to have gone into a 4 corner stalling offense and play solid defense. If you get a steal - go back into the 4 corner.

[gordon30307]

Originally Posted by Mark Padgett

MS girls game last night (please, don't start). It was obvious during warmups that the home team was going to win in a blowout. After Q1, it was 14-0. Halftime, 25-1. Please note the home coach took off the press during Q1, but it didn't matter much. About midway in Q3, he went to the "three passes before a shot and no breakaway layups" offense. Again, their lead just increased. Start of Q4, it was 35-3. With about 3 minutes to go, he requested and was granted (note the proper terminology) a TO. When his girls came back on the floor, they practically invited the other team to score. They let them go right to the hoop without trying to play defense and didn't even try to get any rebounds (visitors still missed most of their shots, even uncontested from 3 feet). On offense, they almost immediately intentionally had a turnover. The visitors scored 6 points to make the final 50-9.

After the game, the visitors head coach remarked to the home coach, "That was a cheap shot at the end. We don't need your charity. You made my girls look like fools." The home coach was really surprised. 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.

Just goes to show you.....No good deed goes unpunished!!!!!!

[kbilla]

Originally Posted by chartrusepengui

Maybe a better way to go about it would have been to have gone into a 4 corner stalling offense and play solid defense. If you get a steal - go back into the 4 corner.

Even this strategy I don't like to see...the kids getting beat are not gonna get any better standing there watching a 4-corner...if you have an offense run it, don't take any shot but a layup...this way you give the other kids a chance to play offense too and the possibility of chucking one in!

[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.

[fullor30]

Originally Posted by Mark Padgett

MS girls game last night (please, don't start). It was obvious during warmups that the home team was going to win in a blowout. After Q1, it was 14-0. Halftime, 25-1. Please note the home coach took off the press during Q1, but it didn't matter much. About midway in Q3, he went to the "three passes before a shot and no breakaway layups" offense. Again, their lead just increased. Start of Q4, it was 35-3. With about 3 minutes to go, he requested and was granted (note the proper terminology) a TO. When his girls came back on the floor, they practically invited the other team to score. They let them go right to the hoop without trying to play defense and didn't even try to get any rebounds (visitors still missed most of their shots, even uncontested from 3 feet). On offense, they almost immediately intentionally had a turnover. The visitors scored 6 points to make the final 50-9.

After the game, the visitors head coach remarked to the home coach, "That was a cheap shot at the end. We don't need your charity. You made my girls look like fools." The home coach was really surprised. 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.

Patronizing and condescending are a few words that come to mind.

[mbyron]

I think the losing coach is just whiney: he was planning to complain about the other team running up the score, but decided instead to complain as he did.

[Mark T. DeNucci, Sr.]

No good deed goes unpunished.

MTD, Sr.

[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...