Run up the score much?

[The Straight Story]

Run up the score much?

Would you consider a 108-3 victory in a high school girls' basketball game running up the score? I say it is, no matter what the winning coach says.

No need to do a double take. That really was the score last week as Christian Heritage (Riverdale, Utah) defeated West Ridge Academy (West Jordan, Utah), a school with a motto of "We help teens with substance abuse or other difficulties."

Christian Heritage coach Rob McGill apologized but suggested slowing down or playing a bit softer would have been more insulting. "I have been on the other side of this equation," McGill told ABC 4 in Salt Lake City. "It was very insulting when teams slowed the ball down and just passed it around. That's why I'd rather have a team play me straight up, and that's why I played them straight up. Because I didn't want to taunt them, I didn't want to embarrass them, I didn't want them to think we could do whatever we want." McGill clearly believes this ideology given that some of Christian Heritage's other recent victories have been by margins of 61, 56, and 54.

Oh yeah, a score of 108-3 is not at all embarrassing. I don't know if McGill skipped the whole high school experience, but I know if my high school basketball team lost by 105 points we would have been laughingstocks (and the inspiration for many new parodies) for years to come. Honestly, this is the stuff that quitting and joining the badminton team is made of.

http://espn.go.com/espnw/blog/_/post/6054754/run-score-much

[tularetom]

1. Certainly it's what I've come to expect from "Christian" institutions

[Skittles]

2. disgusting

[abelenkpe]

3. HOw very Christian. nt

[Codeine]

4. It wouldn't have been any better

if the superior team relented. when I was in HS tennis there were a few times I met up with kids from wealthy schools who had grown up playing the sport from the time they were toddlers. They invariable beat me in straight sets, but I'd have felt even worse if they had "given" me points.

[Sonoman]

6. Thank you, see my post below.

To get this concept, you would have had to play the game.

Sonoman

[Sonoman]

5. I have mixed feelings on that, SS

In basketball, you can slow down the game, but I think it a somewhat condescending thing to do. Humiliation is humiliation, whether it comes from a lopsided score or a patronizing game plan.

I once coached a fearsome National Select baseball team with guys 15-18 years old. We killed everyone, with most games called due to the Skunk Rule.

There was no way I could have asked my players to run slowly, make bad throws or whiff at hamburger pitches. People would get so pissed at us but I couldn't risk injury (which is what happens when you damp down your game in baseball) to my players. It got to the point where some teams would simply forfeit as soon as the tourney schedule was announced. These were outstanding teams, too, but they knew they couldn't handle us.

That being said, I do feel sorry for those poor girls. But I will bet you that in the years to come, they will often find themselves laughing at the memories from that game.

Sonoman

[The Straight Story]

7. Me, I was on the chess team, and I do recall one game our team played

I had played my first tournament in Granville, Ohio. For unrated players (not a school game). The winner got a trophy and a subscription/membership to chess life and the US chess federation. I didn't win the tournament but did pretty well. Some kid from Granville did.

Months later I ended up facing him in a school tournament (we both played second board) and I beat him so bad he looked like he was going to cry. Now in chess you can resign, but he just would not do so. I felt bad for him (while feeling good about myself) but there was no way for me to really just 'dial down' the game without it being obvious. That was almost 30 years ago and I still remember that one game more than all the others I played in high school (in professional tournaments people tend to resign, something I had done a lot of in those types of games....).

Not sure what someone is supposed to do, or how they do it in a game like basketball - you want your players to play their best, I know my coach wanted me to, but at some point you just feel bad and want it to be over and move on.

Now if we could just get the wolverines to resign before they even get on the field with the buckeyes....

[Sonoman]

11. The last time I played chess...

I was checkmated in four moves.

That's when I figured that chess was probably not my game.

Isn't there a term for that (King's Mate, maybe?)?

Sonoman

[Codeine]

13. The term for that is

"what happens whenever I'm dumb enough to sit down at a chessboard." I'm great at all sorts of board games, but completely hopeless at chess.

[The Straight Story]

14. Four moves for white or black :) Shortest game is 2 moves white and 2 black

But yes, some have called your loss king's mate (e4, e5, bc4, bc5, qf3, nc6, qxf7 - or some variant of that).

[Ricochet21]

16. Unfortunately, it's called "Fool's mate"

we learn by losing badly
but, there was to reason for them to go over 100

[Sonoman]

19. That's it.

Did you read my reply up-post?

Winning vs Losing can all too often get to Really Winning vs Really Losing.

I am wholly competitive, maybe unhealthfully (is that a word?) so. When I was in combat, I never thought we should lighten up when we had them moving backwards. I always thought we should kill them all.

I have always thought that games were like combat, albeit with less dire results.

Sonoman

[TlalocW]

22. Close. It's called Fool's Mate (Sorry)

I've used it often. The four moves are this (I don't know chess notation so I'll just describe it).

1. Move the pawn in front of the king one or two spaces.
2. Move the Bishop on the King's side out three spaces.
3. Move the Queen out two diagonally.
4. Move the Queen across the board and take the pawn in front of the opponent King's Bishop.

If your opponent hasn't left his king an opening or done something to defend on that side, checkmate.

TlalocW

[catabryna]

8. What incredible insensitivity...

We've all heard these stories before, but now it's a girl's team. Come on ladies... don't let that coach turn you into a bunch of over-competitive boys.

Edited to add: Hey coach... lay off a little!

[Codeine]

10. Sports isn't about sensitivity.

And there is no reason to make girls play less hard or compete less vigorously than boys. Sports - on the competitive level - are played to win regardless of the particular combination of X and Y chromosomes on the court/field/pitch.

[catabryna]

23. When I was in high school...

I had a history teacher; best teacher ever. He was also a coach of a national championship high school girl's basketball team. He would have never allowed his team to compete at such a level as to demoralize another team. And, obviously, he was a great coach, in spite of his "sensitivity". His name is Brad Smith... go look him up in Sports Illustrated. :hi:

[Gidney N Cloyd]

9. How about a slaughter rule where at some point the game becomes a clinic?The better team teaching...

...the lesser team a little bit in the spirit of sportsmanship? Maybe even choose up new sides that are more evenly matched?

[Codeine]

12. "choose up new sides"?

Have you ever played a competitive sport? A losing team would march off the field with their battered pride before they'd pull some shit like agreeing to mix the teams up.

[Cid_B]

15. I agree with the coach...

It is exponentially more humiliating and degrading to have someone slow down so you can catch up...

Good lord. I understand that not everyone plays sports but everyone has to have done some sort of competition at some point in their life, right?

[gratuitous]

17. My dad coached high school basketball

His team was competitive, often near the top of his little league in East Bumblefuck. His team had their arch rivals from another bitty town about 10 miles away. There was a team one year where all the upper-class players quit over some difference with the coach. They were left with one junior, a sophomore or two, and filled out the roster with freshmen. They were horrible.

Arch-rival played that team, and beat them by some ridiculous score, 85-15 or so, and this was in the days when a big score was 40 points or so. Dad came in to practice the next day, and of course the topic of conversation was how Arch-rival had clobbered the other school. There was a lot of big talk about doing better than Arch-rival, how they might even score a hundred, unheard-of for a high school team.

Dad listened for a few minutes, then called the team together. He said that he was making some line-up changes for Friday's game, and announced that the usual starters would be sitting out and the second-string would play. 10 mouths dropped open, but Dad had his mind made up. Even with the second string, his boys outclassed the other team, but it was at least competitive. Afterwards, the other coach came up for the post-game handshake and said, "I know what you did. Thanks." Dad pretended he didn't know what the other coach was talking about.

The horrible team hung together, and a couple of years later, with a veteran squad of varsity players, they went around the league paying everyone back. Except for one team that they still beat handily, but it wasn't the usual slaughter.

Granted, this was more than 60 years ago, and now they're probably handing out fabulous cash rewards for the best teams, enormous trophies, and heueueuege endorsement deals for the best players, so it's a totally different game nowadays, and sportsmanship is just another quaint concept for losers and those who can't keep up.

[Sonoman]

20. That's just one of the reasons...

I always look forward to your posts, gratuitous.

I always read 'em.

You paint great pictures and always make your point.

Sonoman

[gratuitous]

21. Why, thank you

:blush:

[Dappleganger]

18. Well, if slow ball is what you want then stick with Upwards teams...

but if it's real ball there is no slowing down for those who aren't able to keep up. When my team played a school which clearly had little talent, we never let up but typically played 2nd and 3rd string. When we played the best downtown city league they whooped our catholic asses like there was no tomorrow. None of the games was a waste, we learned a lot even while losing and I got to play against some amazing women.

[postulater]

24. UW Madison is known for that tactic

83-20 vs Indiana

70-3 vs Austin Peay

They should find different teams to play.

[Odin2005]

25. That is awful.

:(

[bullwinkle428]

26. Even the Globetrotters allow the Washington Generals to score more than that!

[Octafish]

27. Sportsmanship.

Try it sometime, Mr. McGill.