Why it's wrong to beat your opponent 161-2

Posted by $ blarman 11 years, 1 month ago to Culture
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It's not.

Unless you're part of the PC crowd.

If you can't coach a basketball team of the same age of youngsters any better than this, you should resign. It's a sporting competition: my best against your best. If your best is only two points and mine is 100+, what that says is that you've got some improving to do. But whining about what I did right is no way to improve your game.
SOURCE URL: http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/01/16/calif-basketball-coach-suspended-after-161-2-victory-what-he-did-was-wrong/


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    Posted by freedomforall 11 years, 1 month ago
    Losers telling winners how to play the game.
    AS non fiction.
    I don't think this is the way:
    the Britsh thought in defeating the Spanish Armada or stopping the French at Trafalgar,
    the US Navy commanders thought after they crushed the Japanese at Midway (likely saving Australia from invasion.)
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    • Posted by NealS 11 years, 1 month ago
      What's the big deal? Vietnam Veterans came back to a country that disrespected them for winning every battle of the war. We only lost some 58,000 troops, the enemy lost millions. Should we have lost more?
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  • Posted by Robbie53024 11 years, 1 month ago
    This reminds me a bit of a discussion I had during the Big 10 football championship game this year. WI was getting beaten big time and the comment was made to the effect of "why don't they - O-State - just start running the ball and taking time off the clock?" My reply was that they were looking to make a point, and prove that they deserved to be in the final 4 playoffs for the national championship. Well, they did, and they won the championship.

    From the article, the winning coach told his players to take their time and even put bench players in, who themselves scored. The fact that the losing coach feels that they were "wronged" tells more about their team and coach than anything. Good sportsmanship means to lose with honor and grace as well. If you're not good enough, then practice and do things to get better, don't blame those who are good enough for being so.
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  • Posted by richrobinson 11 years, 1 month ago
    I don't see how the losing team could suck so bad. I hate the message here. They don't want the losing team to get better, they want the winning team to play worse.
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  • Posted by $ winterwind 11 years, 1 month ago
    My guess is that the disparity was not all in the coaching, but a great deal in the teams and probably their approach to the game.
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    • Posted by edweaver 11 years, 1 month ago
      Yah, like high schoolers playing middle schoolers. I have no idea how one could win or lose so badly. Something just doesn't seem right here. I play basketball and don't consider myself good but I can make a couple hoops in 40 minites even against 20 something's and I more than 50.
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  • Posted by $ jbrenner 11 years, 1 month ago
    It's not wrong to beat someone that badly, but why would a team schedule such a weak opponent?
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    • Posted by ewv 11 years, 1 month ago
      Sometimes teams are hopelessly mismatched in the wrong league, which defeats the purpose of meaningful competition. It proves nothing that you can slaughter someone with no ability -- what's the point? Any of them could beat the kindergarten class, too, which is why they aren't in the same league. Among the problems is that it renders school records for both individuals and the team meaningless.

      But the mismatch isn't the coach's fault. Once the leagues are set, then every team is supposed to do the best it can for itself, which typically includes giving the non-starters experience.

      One of the worst lines in the article was:

      "Anderson said he is excited to get back to work, and will not to make the same mistake again. 'It wasn’t a good feeling,' he told the Orange County Register. 'It’s not something I’m proud of. It’s not something I would put on a mantel'.”

      If there wasn't much to be proud of in such a mismatch, that was still no way to describe it. What was his "mistake"? It sounds like he's pandering to weakness.

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      • Posted by Maritimus 11 years, 1 month ago
        In my opinion, the "league" is not based on a proper criterion. Just that both are high school teams is irrelevant. Those two teams should not have come to the same court. One of these two teams needs a different league.

        In some comments above I saw people draw analogies between sport and warfare. I think that such reasoning is mistaken and out of place. Just my opinion.

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        • Posted by ewv 11 years, 1 month ago
          In some regions leagues are least based on relative student populations of the schools. We do not know anything about the reasons why these two teams are so different in ability. There are a lot of possibilities.

          Yes, it has nothing to do with war.
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        • Posted by Robbie53024 11 years, 1 month ago
          So, you would want to evaluate every team every year, and then assign them to groups based on some specific criteria, regardless of whether that meant that a team would need to travel tremendous distances to compete against other similarly ranked teams? And that any specific group would only be fleeting since every year the capability of those teams will change, thus eliminating opportunities for friendly rivalries?

          Why do you think that competition must be "fair" or "even?" Where in life (at least those areas that are still free) are things "fair?"

          As I tell my children, "Life's not fair, get over it, and excel where you are best."
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      • Posted by $ Snezzy 11 years, 1 month ago
        A friend plays geezer rugby. They enjoy beating up players 30 or more years younger than them. They were scheduled by mistake against a higher-rated and younger team, far away. Upon discovering the mistake they played anyway. Didn't win, but took advantage of every time the younger players "held back" to avoid hurting the old-timers.

        That losing basketball team needs a better coach. surely one of us is qualified? It's an obvious job opening, whether the team's sponsoring organization knows it or not.
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  • Posted by Boilermaker 11 years, 1 month ago
    Having played and coached sports for over 40 years, common sense should play a part. It is foolish to risk injury to your best players against such an inferior opponent. Pull everyone except your bottom 5 players and let them have some fun, they work hard in practice too.
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  • Posted by jimjamesjames 11 years, 1 month ago
    Reminds me of the story my Uncle Boyd (best uncle in the world) told me when I started playing basketball in high school (1957). I asked if he had played and he said, 'Yeah, and I was the high scorer in one game. I made one basket and one free throw." I said, "That's only 3 points." He said, "We lost 55 to 3."
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  • Posted by khalling 11 years, 1 month ago
    My son 's tennis team won state in their division for many years. The way the roster worked you were supoosed to play other HSs in your city. The coach knew his team would not get the level of play they needed (many of the players had private coaches etc) so they sent their C team to those matches and the varsity team had its own schedule with the best teams in the state. I think much depends on the history of the team, coach, parent involvement and training and practice
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  • Posted by gerstj 11 years, 1 month ago
    To punish the winning coach and team is just wrong. The school needs to get some grief about their decision and a demand that they restore the coach with a clean record, any pay deducted returned and an apology. Otherwise, the coach and the players should go on strike and make severe pains of themselves.
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  • Posted by Herb7734 11 years, 1 month ago
    It is all part of muddying up the difference between right and wrong. No good, no bad, just a homogenized swill of bland so that everyone is neither good nor bad. Keep everything and everyone the same. Welcome to the Dark Ages, Part 2.
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  • Posted by H6163741 11 years, 1 month ago
    I would say this is the stupidest thing I've read, but there are so many contenders... So the coach whose team only scored 2 points is "teaching the game right, and the one whose team scored 161 is wrong?! A coach getting suspended for winning ?? Isn't that the whole point of the game? Maybe the members of the losing team will be recruited by the pros!!! Hahaha. I am completely disgusted.
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  • Posted by $ jlc 11 years, 1 month ago
    The winning coach should be congratulated, and should be praising his players for their good work.

    This is an incredible article. It highlights a lot of what is wrong with our culture.

    If you are in a competition where the stated purpose is sportsmanship and elegant behavior, then winning is not important and behaving well is. If you are in a competition where 'winning' is the stated goal, then doing so whilst abiding by the rules of the game is nothing but commendable.

    Jan
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  • Posted by wiggys 11 years, 1 month ago
    the game should have been stopped after 2 or 3 minutes as it was very obvious that this was not going to be a game. the coach of the better team should have said we will give your team lessons.
    these are kids and letting one team just score at will as happened is a disgrace.
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  • Posted by MelissaA 11 years, 1 month ago
    I don't believe they should have let the bad team win, but you must admit 161 to 2 is a little unsportsmanlike. I was taught that if you where up by more than 20 (in basketball at least) just start running plays you need to practice, and if you score whatever just be courtious
    Not supporting letting loosing team win just supporting good sportsmanship :)
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    • Posted by $ Susanne 11 years, 1 month ago
      (1) losing by that much means the loing team was in no way prepared for the game. You blame those who did their homework that those who did not failed? Bullpucky.

      (2) The losing teams coach should have been the one suspended, for taking his or her team to such a rousing defeat. The winning coach - did his job. By punishing him for winning... teaches the whole team they better not produce.

      If I were on the winning team and a coach had the audacity to suggest we "tone it down", throw the game, whatever, I would have sat down in the middle of the court (and encouraged my teammates to do the same)... you want us to throw the game, then we'll do it right. And if the media takes pix, c'est la vie.

      You join a team to do your best and WIN, not to allow others to kick your butt becuse "it's only fair..." Unless you live in a socialist country, you are taught to EXCEL, not to MEDIOCRE...
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      • Posted by ewv 11 years, 1 month ago
        The article didn't provide enough details to know the facts behind the reasons for the score or what various people in charge did. There are a lot of possibilities. Without doing further research the best one can do is evaluate the comments and basis given for them in the article.
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  • Posted by Sextant 11 years, 1 month ago
    I suppose I am most appalled at the comments of the coaches. One of taking a contrite position, apologizing for their actions. It points to how we must bow our heads and submit to cultural thought that will doom us.
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  • Posted by plusaf 11 years, 1 month ago
    Are sports games metaphors for real life, guys?

    Where's the "mercy rule" in business competition?
    You're getting too much market share, so what should you do? Have the government reset your selling prices higher to 'level the playing field for your competition'? Oh, wait... they already do that...

    At some point, the "winning coach" should have realized the PR hazard he was chipping into and changed the entire tone of the game. They were going to win. Doubt was gone.

    He could have had his team literally coach and help the inept team to develop their skills. That might have turned it into a source for better PR and maybe a sappy Hollywood flick, too, but that apparently doesn't cross the mind of coaches or players.

    Ah, well, the media will figure some way to reward the incompetents for having 'stuck it out to the bitter end,' rather than acknowledging their limitations compared to the other team.

    Everyone (should/must) go home with a trophy, right?

    Real real-world teaching moment for everyone.

    Feh!
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  • Posted by frodo_b 11 years, 1 month ago
    It was wrong for the team to win 162-2. The score would have been much higher had the coach not told his players to only shoot in the last seven seconds in the third and fourth quarters.

    Instead of best effort against best effort (no matter how mismatched) the winning team for all intents and purposes hopped on one foot for the last part of the game. That’s rude and a bit insulting to the opposing team.

    I think a two-game suspension is a bit harsh, but hopefully he’s learned his lesson and won’t try to hold his team back next time.
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