By Shawn Williams – Dallas South News Editor
This time last year I was involved in very heated conversations about sportsmanship. These discussions came after The Covenant School in Dallas’ girls basketball team shutout Dallas Academy 100-0 on January 13th, 2009. Coach Micah Grimes was eventually fired, in part because he disagreed with Covenant School administrators calling the game “shameful.”
And now, Houston’s Jack Yates High School defeats HISD’s Lee High School 170-35 in a basketball game Tuesday night. Granted, Rivals.com ranks Houston Yates as the #1 team high school basketball team in the nation. But in my book, there’s no excuse for a team running up a 100-12 halftime. NO EXCUSE.
But the video below gives a clue on what Coach Greg Wise and his team had on their minds. One of the players in an interview (apparently before the game) said the team talked about scoring 200 points and setting a record on the bus ride over. Is there any question why the team kept pressing? Because they were trying to accomplish their premeditated goal breaking a record. I mean the 163 points they had scored against Sam Houston wasn’t enough.
When Yates’ Coach Wise was asked by ESPN why his starters came on the court to start the 3rd quarter after being up by 88 points, his response was “I don’t know (any) team that wouldn’t start their starters to start the third quarter.” What? Is there an unwritten rule or code that says a team should play their starters at the beginning of the third quarter regardless of the score? Probably would not have sounded as good to say ‘because we needed 100 more points’ huh?
One of the arguments made in this situation is that the 2nd and 3rd stringers who practice hard everyday should get to play as hard as they can when they get their turn. “We practice running, pressing, trapping every day,” Wise told the Houston Chronicle. “If we get to a game and I tell them not to do what we do in practice, I am not coaching well.” (No, if you apply pressure to a team that’s down by 88 points you are not coaching well.) I respect that argument but I don’t buy it. You can put non starters in a game and they can play hard without being on a mission to score 200 points.
Where has sportsmanship gone? Is sportsmanship even relevant in America today? I guess sportsmanship has been replaced by showmanship (according to videos of the game the highlight real dunks were quite the show).
I’m very put off by coaching today. This issue of running up the score isn’t as big of a high school problem as it is at the elementary levels. As the kids get younger, the behavior of coaches get worse. And parents serve as co-conspirators worrying more about playing time that what type of behavior their kids are really learning.
I have parents that come to me (proudly) saying their child won 70-0 in a Pop Warner football game or 68-12 in a basketball game. If the kids on your team are better than the kids on the other team, there’s no show of superiority in coaching technique. The more talented team is not showing that they work harder by continuing to beat there opponent into submission.
But in the example of Yates, it’s not as much of a personnel issue (obviously Yates had a much more talented team) as it is a strategy issue. Why did coach Greg Wise feel the need to continue to press? It’s the same question Coach Grimes was asked in the 100-0 girls game last year. It’s a question that I cannot answer and the answers given by these coaches just doesn’t suffice.
HISD shouldn’t get all high and mighty though, and try to make some sort of example out of Wise. They’ve watch Yates run up the score all year. If they didn’t say anything about the 163-71 score vs. Sam Houston, why start now?
I’m not suggesting that Wise tell his kids to stop competing or quit playing hard. And I don’t think that’s what opposing coaches are looking for either. But you can play good solid zone defense in the second half of a game without applying pressure, when it is clearly out of reach. Coaches do it all the time.
Believe it or not, Jack Yates doesn’t have the best team ever assembled. Better teams have shown better sportsmanship and pulled back the reigns as a show of respect to their opponent. Coach Wise is doing a disservice to his players and his school by pressing when the outcome has already been determined. His players should have bigger goals than scoring 200 points in a game.
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