More running up the scoreage

One of the private schools in our area has a clock operator who has become my personal hero.
During blowouts, he'll quietly shave minutes off the clock. Six minutes left in the fourth quarter? Make it five.
Four minutes left? Let's flip the switch as it turns from :00 to :59 and call it three minutes.
Last week I covered a doubleheader there where both games turned into 30-point routs by halftime. He clipped a couple minutes off the clock here and there in the second half, and the losing team asked for a running clock. The first game started at 6, and I walked out of the gym at 8:10.

 

Oy. That's rough.

My rag is near a state line, so we cover one state without a shot clock (Oregon) and one with (California). On the north side of the state line, scores typically stay lower and rarely are out of hand. We'll get the 30- or 40-point blowout every once in a while, but even then subs/swing players are in at the end.

On the south side, things can get ugly, esp. at the small schools (teams aren't as deep and can't swing players). Even with the running clock, one of our boys coaches decided 90-18 was absolutely necessary.

 

Elizabethtown (the Kentucky girls' state runner-up) - yes, we have one class - beat Fort Knox tonight, 128-13.

Outing myself a bit, but the AP has already called and asked if we staffed the game - thus, this game might make national news like the Yates (Texas) boys team - but here's my rag's web (quickie, non-optional) recap of the game:

http://www.thenewsenterprise.com/cgi-bin/c2printstory.cgi?053+article+sectionname+20100206014234053053011

Fort Knox, FWIW, got beat by North Hardin (which is in Elizabethtown's district) by 104 less than five seasons ago. Fort Knox, a school of less than 800, has lost more than 70 consecutive games against district teams (most of which have more than 1,000 students).

Fort Knox's game-by-game:
http://scoreboard.12dt.com/scoreboard/khsaa/kygbk09/31330

Posters on the state's biggest anonymous high school sports site, www.kentuckypreps.com, are all over Elizabethtown.

I've covered both schools for a decade now and it could have been a lot worse. Only one starter played more than 20 minutes. Elizabethtown did not press and played a sagging 2-3 zone in the second half (and Fort Knox still turned it over 16 times in 40 possessions and shot 3-of-24 after halftime). Elizabethtown made 12 FTs and attempted 13 3-pointers, so it's not like it was trying to drive the lane and get fouled or just launch on Fort Knox.

One Elizabethtown girl appeared in 10 games before Friday, scoring just 18 points on the season. In 10 minutes against Fort Knox, she scored nine points on 4-of-6 shooting.

Problem is Elizabethtown had 34 uncontested layups and scored 63 points off turnovers. Elizabethtown, which has two D-I small-school players, also goes just 10 deep.

I wish Kentucky had a mercy rule (like it does for baseball, softball and soccer) or a running clock (like football).

 

That's a lesson for the Norman Dale disciples (they exist in every state) who swoon over the good ole days of one-class basketball (or any sport for that matter).

Once every 20 years Hooterville High with 87 students makes the state quarterfinals. In the meantime, over those 20 years, you have 5000 games in which Metropolis City Central beats Mayberry Barney Fife High 97-22.

At some point, there's a responsibility on the coaches/principals/ADs to make sure they're playing opponents they can compete against.

If (the usual excuse) the opponent has some mean nasty evil totally unfair and insurmountable advantage (they recruit, their parents are rich, their parents are poor so they learn how to play on the big-city schoolyards, they play on travel teams, they practice 24/7/365 while our rhodes scholars concentrate on schoolwork, they pay the refs, etc etc etc), it's simple: Don't play 'em. Cancel the game. ADs and principals, get out of the league and play teams at your own level.

Or, coaches: quit and walk off the floor. If the other team in your opinion is engaging in utterly unfair and blatant unsportsmanlike conduct, why give 'em the satisfaction? Fuck 'em. Walk out the door and let 'em shoot layups in an empty gym.

 

Starman,

I get what you're saying, but Elizabethtown-Fort Knox must meet twice a year (home and home) due to district scheduling. When Fort Knox got beat by over a 100 a few years back (KySportsWriter covered that game), they had to play due to district scheduling.

Fort Knox's coach is also its AD. She told E'town not to let up. Told them not to play stall ball/four corners. E'town's coach, FWIW, is the reigning Area (given by my paper, but most of the voting is done by coaches), Louisville Courier-Journal State Coach of the Year, Lexington Herald-Leader State Coach of the Year and Associated Press State Coach of the Year. He's a respected dude by the media and fellow coaches.

They took 71 total field goals, 19 FTs and 13 3s. I've seen plenty of teams take more shots than that in games this year. Elizabethtown just finished - 73 percent FG percentage for the game - and Fort Knox couldn't score or couldn't keep control of the ball even when Elizabethtown wasn't trying.

 

Well, there you go. Some coaches can deal with it.

If on a given day Team A is 100 points better than Team B, to coin a phrase, it is what it is.

 

In high school my team lost to the tune of 110-40 (somewhere in there, anyway).

We were a "rural school" of sorts, they were a "city school."

They were I forget how many classes bigger than us.

But my head coach was friends with the opposition's head coach.

The two schools played every in year.

My coach used the same philosophy: Don't let up. Do what you have to do. My guys are young men, they'll handle it.

And we always did.

Not in my three years on the team and not before nor after my career — that I know of — did our guys ever whine.

Some teams are much better than you and others are much worse. Deal with it.

 

As ridiculous as this sounds, there is IMO a way to win by 100 with class.

If you've emptied your bench, aren't pressing and just keep hitting shots and/or getting rebounds and getting putbacks, I've got no beef with that. You could argue it would be just as insulting to the other team to obviously stall.

If, however, you're pressing and running and doing everything you can to beat a team by a thousand (including the ever-so-fucked-up foul the losing team so you can get the ball back *cough*Yates*cough), then I've got no problem if the losing team decides to target somebody and sends him 16 rows deep.