Blowout Win - 78 points

The Softball forum has been hard on certain teams in the past for running up a score on an overmatched opponent. I want to understand more about the Hickory game.

How can a team win by 78 points? What are the details of these teams and this game in particular?

Is this kind of outcome okay in your opinions?

I am not from the area - just curious!

 

What's so significant about it? McDowell blew out Burns by 85 points earlier this season by a score of 111-26. Burns was so bad our third string was scoring at will. You cant keep those second and third stringers at bay...You got to see what they could do in garbage time.

 

Hickory is 17-0 and ranked #3 in the state and Patton is a new high school that could be the weakest team in the state. When you combine those two factors it equals a blowout. Alot of middle schools could beat Patton. I've not seen a box score, but i would be shocked if the starters for Hickory saw more than 12 minutes of playing time.

 

Patton's leading scorer went down earlier this season with an knee injury. I believe they also lost a couple of other decent players to Freedom When they chose to stay there instead of playing in their district for various reasons.

 

I don't know the teams so I am just asking...

A certain softball coach was suspended 2 games for a blowout win in 1995. Is their a double standard?

When is a wide margin too much? Are you properly promoting women's athletics by beating another team by 78 or 85 points?

Are you really learning anything about your second and third teamers when they are running loose on a first year school that could lose to a middle school team? It seems like you would learn more when scrimmaging against the good competition of your first team.

Is the game of basketball not better served by limiting fast breaks, taking off pressure, passing 5 - 7 times down court prior to shooting, playing a small line- up, etc...

 

Burns is not a first year school by a long shot. What do you suggest these powerhouse teams do in this situation just stand outside and dribble the ball for 16 minutes. I know it's not pretty but you have to play ball. Now I would not condone a team pouring in 3's with a score this out of hand but you have to run your offense and defense. I also believe it can hurt the winning team also. When you have a blowout game like this and then have to play a Wakefield it can't help.

 

This is definitely a touchy subject that everyone has a different apparoch on. First off...I think softball has a mercy rule which trys to take care of the possibility of running up the score. Basketball does not have that pleasure at the varsity level.

Unfortunately at the high school level you can run into some really bad matchups. I think the key is for the coaches to try as much as possible to keep it classy. And sometimes that isn't as much the ones who's winning as it is the one who's losing. For example, we had a game earlier in the season against a team and we were up by large margin to begin the fourth quarter. The coach of the team who was losing told his girls to stall...just to get the game over with. Our starters had been long gone before this happened so it wasn't like we had main players in there. I actually thought that was classy by their coach because he figured he needed to keep some dignity for his girls by getting the game over with. And it was right on our part not to go out there and try to disrupt what they were doing. BTW in that particular game, the winning team at no time applied a full court defense. Infact that night I think we played mainly 1-3-1.


Now, up to the particular game in which this thread was based on...It was pretty much a situation where you had a really talented Hickory squad going up against a first-year school who hasn't won a game all season. I don't know what happened first-hand but I will say this...I've seen Hickory in the past and I've seen some things that I wouldn't consider too classy on their part. I've also heard some rumblings from others about the same exact thing. I just hope they didn't do that against Patton.

 

Your right BigDan. We are in Hickory's conference so we get the pleasure of playing them. They are very good. They do press alot even after the game is Way Over.

 

My thoughts:

It’s OK for a team to run their normal offense/defense the entire first half, as long as the coach is giving all the players playing time. For instance, if a team is up by 30 in the first half, there is nothing wrong with them continuing to press if substitutes are in the game. They work hard in practice and need to get game time experience as well.

After halftime, a team up by a large margin should not press and probably play a zone defense with little pressure on the ball.

The team that is down by the large margin has a responsibility also. After halftime they should substitute liberally and should not be pressing. I attended a Wakefield game a couple of weeks ago where they were up 30-5 after one quarter and every available player for Wakefield had been in the game in the first quarter. At the end of the game, the other team was down by 40, pressing full court, and still had their starters in. Sportsmanship should go both ways.

 

one other angle on this is should a game against an easy opponent hurt your kids as far as their Stats go?
The intent is to win BUT everyone else looks at stats- so should the Coach let starters play enough to get their average? I say yes- I don't think these games should be used to pad someone's stats--but they shouldn't hurt the player either.
I do agree that Helms seems to be making it clear - that she cares nothing about a COY award and won't hesitate to demoralize your club.
Still hasn't gotten her a state championship---yet.