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I can think of at least a dozen things I would do with an extra 20 minutes. Numer 1 though would be ...more
posted 01/26/11 at 1:55pm
on Managing your busy sports life & a $50 Sports Authority gift card giveaway
108-3
 | posted by Kaci Kust, a Women Talk Sports blogger About Kaci Kust: Also check out my other blog at http://kacitalkssports.wordpress.com !...more |
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When looking at those numbers together, you’re probably not thinking it’s a basketball score… but it is. Last week in Utah, Christian Heritage High crunched West Ridge Academy 108-3. That added up to 28 points in the first 3 quarters, and 24 in the fourth… or an average of 2 baskets per minute. That means Christian Heritage scored more baskets each minute than West Ridge scored the entire game. My first thoughts were that I was impressed, and either Christian Heritage is insanely good, or West Ridge is insanely not… or maybe a little bit of both.
The real question comes in when you start to think about sportsmanship. Most of us have been taught some pretty contradicting things when it comes to this topic. We’ve heard coaches and teams called unsportsmanlike after running up scores. But, we’ve also heard losing teams complain that they feel insulted when their opponent doesn’t try hard while beating them.
In my opinion, 108-3 is running up the score a little much.. Of course, you encourage players to always play to the best of their ability, but 108-3? Two baskets per minute? They probably could have slowed down the scoring without embarrassing the other team by simply passing around them like the Christian Heritage coach claims he was trying to avoid. Plus, I’d say losing 108-3 left those girls feeling pretty embarrassed anyways.
So, what do you think? Is 108-3 unsportsmanlike? What would you have done?
And check out the original Yahoo post with quotes from coaches and players here: http://rivals.yahoo.com/highschool/blog/prep_rally/post/108-3-girls-basketball-rout-raises-questions?urn=highschool-311327
- Filed Under:
- Basketball, Sports, High School, Sportsmanship, HS/Club Basketball
There is 1 comment on this post. Join the discussion!
I've debated this topic with my friends a lot, and the first thing I note is that the outrage is always most pronounced when girls are involved. To me, it's because the media wants to pkay on our subconscious desire to "protect" these girls and their "fragile" self-esteem. Unfortunately, in doing so, it completely undermines the virtue of a team honing its skillset by striving for perfection or excellence. Especially in basketball, where the potential for serious injury is slight, there is little to be gained by slowing the pace, not executing on offense, and being lax with defensive assignments. These players drill every possession because they never know when a game will come down to one possession. Bench players often play harder than the starters, because they want to show the coaches what they can do, so that they can get increased minutes, or more importantly, crunchtime minutes. "Garbage time" as a concept works on the professional level, but for student-athletes, every minute of competition is valuable, and we shouldn't denigrate a winning team for wanting to be part of something special, so long as they're doing it with class and sportsmanship.
As for the losing team, sometimes a really bad defeat is a wakeup call. However, sometimes it doesn't take an entire game. Maybe a team falls behind by 50 at the half, but they are able to battle back and finish strong, so that they lose by twenty. The fundamental principle is to "never give up," and if these athletes learn that falling far behind is an excuse to give up, because their opponent will stop playing hard, or worse, that battling back is a hollow moral victory, because their opponent let up, then they haven't gained from defeat the way they should've. I say let the kids play, whether the score is 108-3 or 108-103.
Wednesday, January 26, 2011 at 11:14am EST