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Thread: Girls Team in Mich. Wins 115-2

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    Moderator & 2008 NFL Survivor Contest Champion sportdawg has a reputation beyond reputesportdawg has a reputation beyond reputesportdawg has a reputation beyond reputesportdawg has a reputation beyond reputesportdawg has a reputation beyond reputesportdawg has a reputation beyond reputesportdawg has a reputation beyond reputesportdawg has a reputation beyond reputesportdawg has a reputation beyond reputesportdawg has a reputation beyond reputesportdawg has a reputation beyond repute sportdawg's Avatar
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    Nov 20, 10:52 PM (ET)

    By DAVID EGGERT

    DETROIT (AP) - A Michigan high school girls' team is seething after it was beaten 115-2, while the winning team claims it tried hard not to run up the score.

    Everyone expected Walkerville High School to beat Hart Lakeshore Public Academy, a school with only 50 students whose team hadn't won a game this season. But the final score from Tuesday night's playoff game incensed Lakeshore academic director Steve Hamilton.

    "To me, if you run up the score like that, you have to answer for yourself," he said. "I have my doubts about a school that would go and run up a school by 100 points."

    Walkerville contends that it played girls brought up from junior varsity and freshmen teams. The team also says it didn't press on defense, which it normally does, and backed off from going for the state record for points in a game (151).

    "What do you tell our girls? Not to play?" Walkerville athletic director Ron Stoneman said. "It had the potential to be really, really bad."

    Walkerville coach Steve Kirwin said his school doesn't schedule teams like Lakeshore in the regular season. But during the playoffs, "you play who they tell you to play."

    By halftime, Kirwin said, three girls hadn't scored. So he said only they could shoot.

    "I'm not going to tell my kids to not continue to play," Kirwin said. "It's not that we wanted to score a ton of points."

    Before the season, the Michigan High School Athletic Association did away with a rule designed to keep margins from getting out of hand. Once a team led by 40 or more points in the second half, the clock ran continuously - unless the losing team cut the deficit to 30. MHSAA assistant director Nate Hampton said the association had to cut the rule to follow guidelines of the National Federation of State High School Associations.

    Hampton said the rule helped to spare teams from embarrassment or humiliation, but he added that "coaching tactics or strategies" can be used instead.

    A 115-2 score "is what we've been guarding against the last several years," he said.

  2. #2
    2003 BB&B Basketball Pick 'Em Champion inudesu has a reputation beyond reputeinudesu has a reputation beyond reputeinudesu has a reputation beyond reputeinudesu has a reputation beyond reputeinudesu has a reputation beyond reputeinudesu has a reputation beyond reputeinudesu has a reputation beyond reputeinudesu has a reputation beyond reputeinudesu has a reputation beyond reputeinudesu has a reputation beyond reputeinudesu has a reputation beyond repute inudesu's Avatar
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    I have a hard time believing that they "tried not to run up the score." I understand that they subbed in JV and freshman girls, but come on. . . How hard is it to switch to some kind of spread offense and kill some clock? You know, like when you're winning by 50-60 points?

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    Quote Originally Posted by sportdawg
    Walkerville coach Steve Kirwin said his school doesn't schedule teams like Lakeshore in the regular season. But during the playoffs, "you play who they tell you to play."

    What in the world was that school doing in the playoffs? They didn''t win a game all year.

    I, too, find it hard to believe that the other school didn't try to run up the score.

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    C'mon folks, the Lady Techsters have won by 101 points before. All of us have seen games like that. Do you really think there is much value in telling kids who can play not to? The kids that lost need to get over it. It is a game. Too much is made of protecting folks "feelings" and making sure their "self esteem" isn't damaged. If you suck at basketball, you suck and it is more important to know that than for folks to tiptoe around you giving a completely half-hearted effort to try and make you feel good about something you are terrible at. Last time I checked, we want folks developing their real talents and skills. Competitiors use whippings like this to get better and we should not be faulting a coaching staff who sent the deep deep bench in to get some PT when the team still cannot be stopped.

    It isn't heartless. It is a lesson in reality. In one way or another we have all been beaten 115-2 and been totally humbled by it. Those lessons are necessary to give us proper perspective. Ask the Cumberland College team how bad they felt losing 222-0. They didn't take it personally. They knew Georgia Tech was that much better .... and yes ... they finally called off the game by mutual agreement. CC was happy to get the $500. I overheard a conversation between a Tech student and a womens basketball player from Western Illinois (I think) that had just been defeated by the Lady Techsters by some sick large margin and the Tech student asked "Why do you do this?" Her response was twofold. "I like the challenge of playing against the best players" and "my university education is paid for, is yours?"

    Proper perspective. We live in the real world. Not some "nice" mandated approximation where everyone is mediocre at everything because they are encouraged to lay down to prevent from hurting someones feelings.

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    Puppy BULLDAWG is an unknown
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    Well said!

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    2003 BB&B Basketball Pick 'Em Champion inudesu has a reputation beyond reputeinudesu has a reputation beyond reputeinudesu has a reputation beyond reputeinudesu has a reputation beyond reputeinudesu has a reputation beyond reputeinudesu has a reputation beyond reputeinudesu has a reputation beyond reputeinudesu has a reputation beyond reputeinudesu has a reputation beyond reputeinudesu has a reputation beyond reputeinudesu has a reputation beyond repute inudesu's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by sportdawg
    while the winning team claims it tried hard not to run up the score.
    At least if they were thinking that way, they could admit it. I don't see a problem with letting your scrubs and underclassmen get some experience, but at some point you can lighten up without "telling your kids to stop playing." They weren't learning much in a 115-2 game. I would just think that somewhere around 50 or 60 points ahead of another team, you could spread the ball and slow the game down. I've been to those Lady Techster games where the only fun is hoping that we top 100, but as a general rule the opposing teams have scored more than 2. Seems like it would be hard to beat someone that badly if you weren't trying to embarass them. I'm also wondering how a winless team makes the playoffs (changing the playoff format might solve michigan's blowout problem better than their old rule ever did).

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    I don't have a problem with what you have stated inudesu. I agree with that.

    I still have a hard time believing that this other team could only score 2 points, though. That is a little strange.

    Also, WHY WERE THEY IN THE PLAYOFFS?

  8. #8
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    I cannot fathom how a football team was up 222-0 in any era however it happened. I am not going to tell my players to be nice and run out of bounds every 20 yards to extend the drive and keep the bleeding down a little. If you break the line of scrimage and there is nothing between you and an easy TD, go for it.

    115 points is not all that unreasonable when you consider a few things.

    First off, lets assume our "bad girls" team plays hardcore until they have a 30 point lead. I have seen Tech up 22-0 5 minutes into a game. We know this opponent is terrible. Reasonably, lets say it took these girls 8 minutes to hit 30-0. Then they decide to lay off a little. That leaves 32 minutes to score the other 85. The other team being down 30 needs to try and get back in this game and they need to score somewhat fast to do so. Since they are poor shooters, we are talking 10 seconds per average offensive set, including poor passes that are stolen by the other team prior to setting up. In no way to I call off the dogs defensively. You cannot let your players get soft defensively. Now lets also say that the other team takes their lazy time trying to score fewer points, instating rules like at least 6 passes before we shoot, run the shot clock down to 5 etc ... I give them 25 seconds per offensive set.

    10x + 25x = 1920 seconds where x is the number of combined sets each team will play. That is 54 offensive plays for each team or with perfect shooting 108 points for the "bad girls." To hit 85, even at a slow pace, they would have needed to shoot a blistering 78%. Alas, we can likley guess that they took less than 25 seconds to get down the court on average. Lets bump it down to 20.

    10x + 20x = 1920. Now we have 64 offensive sets to play with or 128 points. 66% at this, still slow, pace which is still a blistering pace, but with easy layups it is not unreasonable.

    Now there are tons of assumptions here but it is completely out of the question to think that a team can really hold it so much, with an inept team on the court, as to NOT score over 100. I have seen a bad girls HS basketball team play a really good one. My scenario is not unreasonable and the team did take measures to keep from scoring, as they say, 150. If they say it could have been worse, my scenario of 10 second or less possesions on the other side are likely the case. Also, it is very possible they could have been up 30-0 much faster than 8 minutes.

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