What else can you do in basketball, if the ability gap is that lop-sided? You can't just start passing the ball to the other team - that's patronising. It's interesting how the whole running-up-the-score thing is such a big deal for people in the States - especially in College sports.

How do you get sacked for succeeding in your job? Surely there must be some unfair dismissal law.

Once he beat the 99 point spread and collected his cheque, his teaching job became sort of redundant.

You go Grimey - you finally won one!

mercy rule....20 to 30 point spread and the games over. solves a problem...

I think the main issue was that he ran a full-court press for the whole game. Oh, and the opponents were from a school which catered for girls with learning disabilities.

(Mod: Adding a quote from a newspaper to confirm.)

Dallas Academy has eight girls on its varsity team and about 20 girls in its high school. It is winless over the last four seasons. The academy boasts of its small class sizes and specializes in teaching students struggling with "learning differences," such as short attention spans or dyslexia.

He should come out and apologise.
Apologise that he is such a good coach and that his team is so good, say how sorry he is that the opposition is so bad and that maybe one day they will get better. hehe


In the spirit of the game they could have let them score a basket surely?

Anyone have the old 20 point lead no D in the backcourt when they were kids?

I can understand both points of view but Igiven it was a christian high school comp, and not say at district level then perhaps it wasn't played in the right spirt of the game from my experience.

I played district basketball in juniors for a club that didn't win notabaly a lot of games at the time, maybe two wins a season if we were lucky with some big loss margins. However, during one carnival when we played basically a near social team from Port Augusta in which we had a few players drop down from higher division as well to add to our stocks, a 100-0 point scorecard is what we could have looked forward to and certainly achieved if we really wanted. And after all those losses and pain that was inflicted on us by the stronger, competitive clubs (eg. North Adelaide, Noarlunga at the time) nearly every week in the usual distict comp, then surely we deserved this opportunity as some form of redemption. However, as we set out to thrash this team early in the game, I believe I witnessed a great manner of sportsmanship from my coach which I have never forgotten in which we were all called to a time-out and told that "We set out to beat a team, not humilitate them". From then on, we did things like drop down to a half-court press and basked off with our 3-1 defence to give them abit more of an opportunity to score and give them some more confidence. It's not like we had to pass the ball to them.

During the St Clair Carnival two years ago, whilst playing in a social team against a team of some senior current and ex-ABA players, this type of gesture was carried out as well. Had they played their normal game we would have been looking at a huge uncompetitive scoreline which would have been boring and not a good image for the game for all the spectators watching, however the fact that they didn't not exert their full skills and full press for most of the game (which would have been pointless anyway) and rotated their best players on and off the bench and took more shots from the 3-point line rather than fancy moves and plays to the basket, and despite the final scoreline, it was much appreciated!

Yeh DJ, i remember that rule. Used to be a pain in the arse, cos as soon as we scored a basket we'd have to turn and leg it back over the half-court line as fast as possible or the other team got free throws.

I love winning by huge amounts. It makes me feel like a man

I coached an under 18 div 2 boys team last year in NSW, we played in a junior league where most of the teams we played where from small country towns. We always had 8 or 9 players and usually played 4 games over the weekend. In the 4th game we played a team that only suited up 6 players. During the game one kid left with an ankle injury, and half way through the 3rd quarter with us leading by 20, another kid fouled out, leaving them with 4 fit players.

As we weren't playing for sheep-stations, I subbed one of my players out, so we could continue with 4 on 4. I didn't feel it was patronising and I was really keen in teaching my guys, making it a contest and showing some class.

The opposition coach told the refs to make me play 5 players. I declined and he chucked a sooky. During the 3rd quarter break I made the point to him, it wasn't about him, it was about the game and what could be gained by further humiliation that would obviously follow playing 4 on 5. We went on to win by 30 but I seriously hope the boys, their parents and hopefully eventually the opposition would learn its better to win with class, than ass.

It depends entirely on the spirit of which the game was played in. I personally have played for certain district teams where we were being dsetroyed by certain teams. But it wasnt a problem because they were genuinely better than us and played quality ball. Other teams i have been flogged against ahve been on fast breaks thrown an oop to themself of the backboard caught it an run out an shot a three. That is just not fair on an opposition that is trying their hardest and being humiliated.

My sister in under 10's was playing for woodville, who werent very good, and they were playing noarlunga, back when they were dominant, and they were losing by 30 or whatever, and everytime someone in my sisters team lost the ball, or made a mistake, the opposition team's parent + spectators laughed and cheered.

I guess thats just the south for you.

i played junior basketball with the adelaide southern suns and in a full season managed only 1 draw. thats it. made me want to strive to be better, and be a better leader. i moved to noarlunga and captained a div 5 team to a championship. and i would not have been able to appreciate it as much as i did if i had not suffered those many and often MAJOR losses. u cannot fully appreciate victory until u have tasted defeat.

#223530 I'm pretty sure he didn't press the entire game.. that was actually one of the arguments they tried to make in his favor and the funny thing is that the school only decided to fire him after he respectfully disagreed with their public apology. days after the event had already taken place. Also, back in highschool I remember our year ten team beating the other side by 90.. 100 odd to 10. No one cared.. whats the big deal? Political correctness gone mad perhaps.

This article is a good example of Religion vs. The Real World.

If I was the coach, I would look at sueing the school for the sacking. While it's known that teachers are meant to try and stay within the bounds of religious teachings while at a catholic/jewish/muselim school; firing someone for the mere fact that someone thinks "God" doesn't think its fair to trounce an opposing team is laughable.

That's like saying to one family "Sorry, you're not allowed to work hard to earn money to support your family and buy them everything they wish because the family over the road earns half as much money as you".

School , Church , Social - Once the lead is 30points, then go back into a zone.
At least allows the other team to get over half way and have a few shots.
The score line would have been about 65 to 5.

Big Marty - I don't think your analogy has much to do with it. It's not simply a case of the haves and the have-nots - it's whether or not the haves rubbed it in the noses of the have-nots in a mean-spirited way. Whether or not you think Christian teachings are relevant, I don't think it's in dispute that Christianity endorses charity over against one-upmanship. That's where they're coming from at least.

I also don't think many people in this thread realise how strongly many Americans feel about the so-called act of running up the score. For whatever reason, it's a taboo at every level of sports in the minds of many - even in the NFL and NBA. I agree that it's different here - I remember winning church games by close to 100 as a kid, and no one batted an eyelid.

The team I coached last year beat several teams by over 70 points. So what we did was ran our presses and full court man for the first half, then dropped back to playing man2man within the netball third to allow the opposition to get the ball into offense, but also to consolidate our half court man defense. Also a great time to give your bench players court time.

For me, it's more about the on-court attitude than the final score. I think you could win by 80 and still be respectful about it, or alternatively it's possible to win by 15 and be an utter assclown about it. Unfortunately, those things can't be quantified on the stats sheet.

How short has your attention span got to be that you can't beat a full court trap and score at least ONE basket? I hope this guy sues that nut factory he was employed by.

Something I heard from a workmate about a year ago... his daughter's district team, I believe she played in either div 1 or 2 in either the u/12s or u/14s competition. Anyway they were getting flogged by a much stronger opposition, Forrestville, I believe, although can't confirm this.

Anyway, as I'm not involved in bball anymore, I'm not sure at district level given those agegroups whether rules for the opposition to modify their game(eg. 10 point rule, go back to a zone, etc) take place. However, the point of the story is that her daughter's team were getting flogged and obviously the other team was playing some pretty competitive, full court percentage basketball so her coach went up to the opposition coach nearing towards the end of the game (say 5-10minns left) and asked him if they would reconsider giving the girls abit more of a go and the chance to score. From what I was told, he was reluctant and would not reconsider as his reply was it is district basketball and many of his girls/team were playing for a dollar a basket!

A dollar a basket!!! Anyone got any thoughts on this and ever heard about this before? Also, are the rules modified at district level for the juniour grades?

Cheers. As I said this is what a workmate told me regarding his daughter's team over a year ago, so it hasn't happened in recent times and I hope I haven't got my facts wrong or given out misleading info, but that is what I heard.

Remember this happened in a SCHOOL competition.
The coach taught the kids a lesson in selfishness by not allowing their opponents any success at all.
If you've got an unassailable lead a good coach sets challenges for his/her players; no scoring in the lane, only score off a screen, play defense with footwork and rebounding NOT stealing and blocking shots, etc.
But also, the School itself taught the kids a lesson about intolerance. They fired the coach over a difference of opinion that had little to do with his ability to perform the duties of his employment.
Imagine how the kids feel. If they didn't feel bad about being criticized for running up the margin, they certainly would about it leading to the firing of their coach.

This is probably going to be an unpopular opinion, but if you're really that annoyed about teams running up the score against you, then play some defence or just play better all round. The other team shouldn't have to hold back just because you're not good enough. If I were a coach, I'd want my team playing at 150% capacity at all times, no matter what the score. If the other team can't keep up, then that's good, because you're obviously then playing good basketball. It might be an unpopular way to do things, but that's how I feel.

I agree with 3, and its good mental practice not to lose focus. As long as the winning team isnt blatantly laughing at the opposition, i dont have a problem with it

And i have never lost by 80 since like under 10s. Funny story about that actually, lol, we were playing North, and at Norwood it was all our first year, and North had all second years, including erik burdon, gary b, etc, and the score was like 90 to bout 10 and gary b had about 40 points or something. But at the end of the game one of our guys launched a half court shot, and Erik burdon went for the block, and the ball hit him right in the face! haha!

I wonder if he remembers that.

ELG - that's hilarious.

3 - in this case, the opposition were from a small school for children with some sort of disability. Does that change the picture for you?

who scheduled this game is what I wanna know

Well in that case Isaac, it does change the picture. But then (as rodney carney kind of implied with their post), you'd have to wonder why a team from a school with children of some sort of disability is playing in this competition with their continued lack of success, as they are obviously out of their depth and it isn't fair on the kids at all.

I still stand by what I said earlier, so long as both teams consist of (for lack of a better way of describing it) fully able players. If you are simply better than the other team, you shouldn't have to play down to their level, they should play up to yours. And if they can't, then they just have to get better.