161-2 coach suspended

[zico20]

In California, the girls Arroyo Valley high school basketball team beat Bloomington 161-2. The school board suspended the coach for two games for running up the score. The coach, Michael Anderson told reporters that he pulled the starters at halftime leading 104-1. He also stopped the full court press for the second half.

Further, he instructed his players in the second half not to shoot until the shot clock was under 7 seconds. In California, you cannot go to a running clock until the 4th quarter. He tried to get it implemented in the 3rd quarter but the refs said it wasn't allowed til the 4th.

Anderson said he didn't know Bloomington was that bad and that he didn't expect his bench to play so well in the 2nd half. One sub hit 8 of 9 3s in the second half. The other coach was not happy with the way Anderson ran up the score. He called it unethical and said what Anderson did was wrong.

So, what is a coach suppose to do? Tell his players to miss on purpose. I think he tried his best to keep the score down. These things happen, especially in basketball.

[NJ Stinks]

Originally Posted by zico20

So, what is a coach suppose to do? Tell his players to miss on purpose. I think he tried his best to keep the score down. These things happen, especially in basketball.

How about calling off the full court press as soon as it became apparent that the other team was totally out-classed? How about going to your bench in the first half?

How about telling your kids not to shoot inside 20 feet?

How about teaching the girls how to win with class?

[thaskalos]

How about disbanding the basketball team from Bloomington?

[Stillriledup]

. If you're going to be very sensitive about large margin wins, its important to not put games together where one team is 200 points better than the other team.

[Marshall Bennett]

Once it becomes obvious that one team is that much superior to the other the game should be stopped.

[Stillriledup]

Originally Posted by Marshall Bennett

Once it becomes obvious that one team is that much superior to the other the game should be stopped.

Shouldnt it be obvious BEFORE the game even starts that the score is likely to be incredibly lopsided? Huge margin wins like this don't just jump up on people, if one team is 200 points better than the other team, someone has to at least have an inkling the game is a mismatch.

Right?

[Robert Fischer]

Originally Posted by Marshall Bennett

Once it becomes obvious that one team is that much superior to the other the game should be stopped.

Yea, at some point about mid-way through the first half when it was 40-1 or so, the coaches and the referees should have had the sense and class to agree on the result, and shake hands.

[cj's dad]

Originally Posted by Marshall Bennett

Once it becomes obvious that one team is that much superior to the other the game should be stopped.

MB- I coached a BB team of 12-14 year olds many years ago. They were very athletic. All but two of the 10 players were Af-American. Most of our opposition was predominately Caucasian. It was very evident that my players had superior ability. We played the worst team in the league and were up by some ridiculous margin at the half. I pulled all the starters and played the bench the entire 2nd half. We continued to widen the lead. What was I supposed to do; tell my boys to go in the tank? After the game, the other coach was so pissed and called me several names for "running" up the score. My reply was that he should coach his team better or get better players. \

How do I tell my kids to lay down? They want to play too and show coach that they should be starting !

[Dark Horse]

Many good suggestions. The worst of all possible 'solutions' was to suspend the coach. How about firing the coach of the team that scored two (!?!?) points? The grannies wheelchair team can score more points than that.

[burnsy]

Originally Posted by Stillriledup

. If you're going to be very sensitive about large margin wins, its important to not put games together where one team is 200 points better than the other team.

I hear you. When I heard about this....that's the first thing I thought too. I also agree with Dark Horse. Its not the winning coaches fault. Where the hell were the ref's and the opposing coach??????? Fire that fool, the losing coach, he didn't know enough to throw in the towel and pull his team at some point???? C'mon man. This is so bad I thought it may be a publicity stunt.

[cj]

Originally Posted by NJ Stinks

How about calling off the full court press as soon as it became apparent that the other team was totally out-classed? How about going to your bench in the first half?

How about telling your kids not to shoot inside 20 feet?

How about teaching the girls how to win with class?

This is pretty close to what I would say, other than the 20 foot thing. But definitely stop pressing, there is no call for that. I don't think he needed to wait until it was 104-1 for that.

[MONEY]

Originally Posted by cj

This is pretty close to what I would say, other than the 20 foot thing. But definitely stop pressing, there is no call for that. I don't think he needed to wait until it was 104-1 for that.

The only correct things that could have been done in this case were either the refs call the game or for the losing teams coach to throw in the towel.

If a coach tells his team to play down to the level bad teams then they may not be able to ramp it up when they play against tough competition.

[zico20]

Originally Posted by CurtisontheBay

MB- I coached a BB team of 12-14 year olds many years ago. They were very athletic. All but two of the 10 players were Af-American. Most of our opposition was predominately Caucasian. It was very evident that my players had superior ability. We played the worst team in the league and were up by some ridiculous margin at the half. I pulled all the starters and played the bench the entire 2nd half. We continued to widen the lead. What was I supposed to do; tell my boys to go in the tank? After the game, the other coach was so pissed and called me several names for "running" up the score. My reply was that he should coach his team better or get better players. \

How do I tell my kids to lay down? They want to play too and show coach that they should be starting !

The only thing I would like to add to your post is I hope you were NOT "coaching" the team when it was a blow out. Here is my example. I played soccer through out my life, hence the name Zico. We played a team so bad in the first round of a tournament that our coach told us before the game to have fun. We all knew this was a blow out coming. He didn't say a word or get his butt off the bench the entire game. He pulled the starters at halftime and had forwards play defense and vice versa. We won 18-0 and it could have been 30-0 had we "tried." Our coach didn't try to run up the score, it just happened. Kids want to score. End of story.

Now if you were screaming out instructions to your team during that lopsided win, then I could see another coach being pissed at you. If you remained quiet like you were not there, then the other coach had no reason to be pissed at you.

[Rookies]

Thaskalos has the best idea.

No way the other team should be playing B Ball.

[Bettowin]

When I was a kid we were killing the other team and the coaches agreed to even up the teams so a few of us went to the other team. Seemed to work out fine.