170 - 35 (100-12 at half)...Starters start 2nd Half

[bbcoach7]

Originally Posted by Camron Rust

I disagree. There are a lot of things you can do.

Or maybe I wasn't clear. Yes, I agree there are a lot of things you can do.

If you're a M2M team, you change to zone, so they can learn a new part of the game...and vice versa. If you're a pressing team, you fall back and play half court.

I essentially agree with you. I'm a defensive minded coach, and any coach who presses a lot is too. So I have multiple defenses. If I'm way up on the board, then I will work on my weakest defense by playing it a lot. But it isn't going to make a lot of difference because as any coach will tell you, you can run anything -offense and defense- against an over matched team and it will be effective. I agree about not pressing. There's no such thing as a pressing team that doesn't have a half court defense. You have to. Even this TX team will eventually meet a team in the playoffs that can beat its press.

It does you no good to tune your press on a team that can't challenge it. You put your team into a situation that will challenge them...at least more than doing what they're best at.

I essentially agree with you. Except that in this particular TX situation, and in that particular game, there's no such thing. When one team is that much better, you can't even the playing field; and if you really try, the humiliation is even greater. Best thing is to just get it over with.

You match your guards up on their post players, you match your post players up on their guards. Make your guards learn to play against bigger opponents and make your post players learn how to defend on the perimeter. That will do them a lot more good for their personal skill development than letting them dominate a weaker opponent in their strongest positions.

I've done exactly that, and against an overmatched opponent, it made little difference in the dominance. It's just embarassing to them. I know, I've been on the recieving end of such attempts at charity. This did work to keep the score down at Jr High level. But my posts in HS can put the ball on the floor and shoot from outside much better than when they were in Jr High. And my smalls work on post moves and post defense 2-3 times a week.

But, I agree with your premise.... there's always something a coach can do to make it more fair. For me the goal is to balance that with not appearing to be giving "charity." That's worse.