Lopsided scores

[Mark Padgett]

One of the emails I got from an assignor whose working one of the spring leagues around here asked me if I worked, or knew of, any lopsided scores in last weekend's games. I guess there were tons of them and he just wanted to know about them. I told him there was a game on the court next to one of mine in which the final score was 77-22. It was a boys JV game.

All the games I had last weekend (five of them) had final point differentials (notice I don't use the term "point spread") of between 12 and 25 points, which means they all had running clock the whole game (this league has 22 minute running halves with stop clock in the final two minutes if 10 points or less). He emailed back that one game finished 90-12! This was a 7th grade boys game and the most impressive part was that a 7th grade team scored 90 points.

Apparently, there wasn't any particular reason he wanted to know about the scores, he was just curious. BTW - the parents and coaches in this group are absolutely outstanding (comparatively) when it comes to sportsmanship. A lot of the teams (5th grade thru HS boys) are kids who are attending spring camps and the teams represent those camps. The biggest camp, which is located at the YMCA where this league takes place, is run by David Lucas - son of the late Maurice Lucas. I've known David since he was in 3rd grade and he is coaching some of the teams. It's his leadership that is mostly responsible for the attitude of the players, coaches and parents. He and his coaches are using these games as a learning tool.

Now if I could just make sure all my games keep the clock running until the end.

[tref]

Maybe he wanted to know if the favorites covered the spread on the underground gambling scene...

[BillyMac]

The assigner for the Catholic middle school league that I officiate in is also in charge of the league schedule. He only schedules the first half of the season, and then, based on those scores, schedules the second half of the season. He sets it up so that "weak" teams don't get scheduled against "strong" teams in the second half of the season. No more lopsided scores. "Strong" teams play against "strong" teams. Lessens the chance of a team going undefeated. "Weak" teams play against "weak" teams. Lessens the chance of a team going winless for the entire season.

[RobbyinTN]

I did a couple of AAU games over the weekend. First game was 43-0 and the second game was 68-1. Needless to say, these games were not fun to officiate.

[ODJ]

Originally Posted by BillyMac

The assigner for the Catholic middle school league that I officiate in is also in charge of the league schedule. He only schedules the first half of the season, and then, based on those scores, schedules the second half of the season. He sets it up so that "weak" teams don't get scheduled against "strong" teams in the second half of the season. No more lopsided scores. "Strong" teams play against "strong" teams. Lessens the chance of a team going undefeated. "Weak" teams play against "weak" teams. Lessens the chance of a team going winless for the entire season.

I like this because kids can play and learn without being demoralized. (Speaking from experience.)

[grunewar]

Originally Posted by RobbyinTN

I did a couple of AAU games over the weekend. First game was 43-0 and the second game was 68-1. Needless to say, these games were not fun to officiate.

I've done several lopsided AAU games where it appears one team is actually AAU level and the other, not so much.

[Mark Padgett]

This weekend, I had a 7th grade boys game in one of the two spring leagues I'm working and it featured a team from the urban metro area here in Portland playing a team from a small rural community near the Oregon coast. At halftime, the score was 64-4. You can guess who was winning. The metro team coach came to the table at halftime and suggested we take the score off the board just so the other team wouldn't feel so bad (we still have to keep score on the sheet and turn it in after the game). We all agreed and he continued to put in restrictions on his team to try to keep the score down, i.e. making a lot of passes before each shot, pulling the ball back on breakaways, etc. It didn't matter. The final was 102-12! Part of the reason for this was his team got virtually every offensive and defensive rebound because of the size of his players. He had four players who were at least 6" taller than anyone on the other team.

BTW - the scorekeeper was a gal who looked like Sarah Palin. Talk about your hot moms! ROWRRR!

[BillyMac]

Originally Posted by Mark Padgett

The scorekeeper was a gal who looked like Sarah Palin.

Could she see Russia from the scorer's table?

[Mark Padgett]

Originally Posted by BillyMac

Could she see Russia from the scorer's table?

I don't know. But she wore a short skirt at the table and I kept waiting for her to drop her pencil so I could bend over and pick it up for her.

In one of the other games, it was a 4th grade team against what was supposed to be another 4th grade team (yeah - this spring league starts at that grade) but they looked much younger and were much smaller. I'm sure they had a significant percentage of 3rd graders and maybe even younger. The bigger team won the game 56-5. Imagine going 44 minutes of running time and scoring only 5 points.

Oh yeah, before the game, one of the "bigger" 4th graders asked me if there was a rule against dunking. He was laughing as he asked it. I told him that if he dunked the ball, I'd give his team 10 points. He stopped laughing and said, "Really?" I just nodded.

[justacoach]

Originally Posted by grunewar

I've done several lopsided AAU games where it appears one team is actually AAU level and the other, not so much.

$14 bucks buys you AAU membership card