A tale of 2 coaches

[blindzebra]

On Saturday I did the 3rd place game in the big holiday tournament here in the Phoenix area. Going in we knew we had the toughest game of the last day because both teams lost their last game, both figured they should be playing for the championship and neither want to end the tournament on 2 straight losses.

One team is local, a pretty small, not particularly athletic team that plays smart, together, makes few mistakes and is extremely well coached. They are playing without their only possible D-1 prospect who took an elbow the night before and had a bad cut and possible concussion.

The other team was from California, extremely tall, very athletic, with probably 3 or 4 kids with D-1 potential.

So we enter what will be a hard fought game, with what at first look should be a mis-match, and with a coach and players we have no previous experience with.

When the local team withstood the initial onslaught of height and speed and made some easy baskets by breaking the press and working the back door cut to perfection to get the lead the team from California and their coach began to lose it. Comments nearing the line were addressed. Contact became rougher and more fouls needed to be called. An out of control player fouled and then pushed a player drawing a T. The fans that came with them fueled the issue with comments of their own. A tech to the coach came when it was getting clear that no comeback was coming, so the comments crossed the line to aid in the post-loss excuse making.

All obviously making the game a pleasure to do.

The flip side was the local team played hard and clean. The players never questioned a call, the coach rarely asked for clarification on a call. They justed coached and played. Their fans even followed suit and never took the dislike of a call to an extreme level.

The contrast was amazing and got me thinking. The amount of extra effort required to "maintain" the other team had me fighting the urge to explain calls and go over to the quiet coach to give "equal time".

It also made it stand out why taking care of business with unsporting behavior is so important and looking for reasons to not T a coach or player is a disservice to every official that follows you.

You see, what message do we send to players and coaches doing it the right way when we ignore that behavior? Don't we give them the okay that they should act that way too? It's a slippery slope indeed.

I'm so glad that we did TCB and the team too small, not as athletic, that did it right kicked their butt.

[Mark Padgett]

Originally Posted by blindzebra

It also made it stand out why taking care of business with unsporting behavior is so important and looking for reasons to not T a coach or player is a disservice to every official that follows you.

You see, what message do we send to players and coaches doing it the right way when we ignore that behavior? Don't we give them the okay that they should act that way too? It's a slippery slope indeed.

Thank you - and I don't mean that in a sarcastic way.