Pikeville led 25-0 just 1:48 into the game, when the team dropped its full court press and Johnson removed all five of his team's starters. . . A second-half performance in which Pikeville coach Bryan Johnson allegedly told his team to "stop playing defense" in an attempt to let Kimper score.

Sounds like the coach recognized the blowout in progress and tried to mitigate it. That seems sporting to me.

Uzzah: Pikeville led 25-0 just 1:48 into the game, when the team dropped its full court press and Johnson removed all five of his team's starters. . . A second-half performance in which Pikeville coach Bryan Johnson allegedly told his team to "stop playing defense" in an attempt to let Kimper score.

Sounds like the coach recognized the blowout in progress and tried to mitigate it. That seems sporting to me.

If this is true then I can't really blame Pikeville. You can only lay down so much. If he had the benchwarmers in for the majority of the game and put defense in the off mode, that's as sporting as he can be.

How do you only score two points in a game? I mean you could just chuck it from half court all game and get more than that

He should cancel the season. They can't put out a competitive team and are just wasting the time of the other teams who have to play them. I can't imagine the kids are having any fun out there. There's no shame in saying "Hey, we have 180 kids, we can't compete with larger schools in team based sports" and focus on areas where they can compete, like a golf team, or tennis.

This is crazy. I suspect a random group of Farkers would get more than two points against any NBA team. Of course, it would probably be 279-12 or something. So kudos to these kids for holding them to 100, I guess. Seems like even if you just inbound and chuck a three every time you crossed half court you'd at least get some points somewhere. Maybe even get fouled here and there. Just bizarre.

I played basketball in fourth grade in a tournament against an all-star team (or as all-star as you get in 4th grade) and we were losing so bad they turned the scoreboard off in the second half and just let us play. Almost every player on that team ended up playing highschool and college basketball. We didnt stand a chance.

Creoena: How do you only score two points in a game? I mean you could just chuck it from half court all game and get more than that

Doh, I gotta get quicker on the draw.

Uzzah: Pikeville led 25-0 just 1:48 into the game, when the team dropped its full court press and Johnson removed all five of his team's starters. . . A second-half performance in which Pikeville coach Bryan Johnson allegedly told his team to "stop playing defense" in an attempt to let Kimper score.

Sounds like the coach recognized the blowout in progress and tried to mitigate it. That seems sporting to me.

If you remove all five starters 1:48 into the game, then tell your team to stop playing D, and the other team only scores 2 farking points...well, the school board is shutting down the wrong team.

/maybe move them to another division?
//the "short yellow" division?
///not talking about Asians here

I only saw one black dude.

Wasilla Hillbilly: This is crazy. I suspect a random group of Farkers would get more than two points against any NBA team. Of course, it would probably be 279-12 or something. So kudos to these kids for holding them to 100, I guess. Seems like even if you just inbound and chuck a three every time you crossed half court you'd at least get some points somewhere. Maybe even get fouled here and there. Just bizarre.

I highly doubt it that a team of average Farkers would score more than 2 points on an NBA team if the NBA team was taking the game seriously.

Just so we're clear, TFA is talking about the winning team potentially cancelling its season. I can't tell if the headline is misleading or not -- judge for yourself, but I'd say the word "defeat" implies it's talking about the losing team.

/no judgment on whether that would be a good idea or not
//okay, okay, I'll judge -- it's a bad idea

ddam: Wasilla Hillbilly: This is crazy. I suspect a random group of Farkers would get more than two points against any NBA team. Of course, it would probably be 279-12 or something. So kudos to these kids for holding them to 100, I guess. Seems like even if you just inbound and chuck a three every time you crossed half court you'd at least get some points somewhere. Maybe even get fouled here and there. Just bizarre.

I highly doubt it that a team of average Farkers would score more than 2 points on an NBA team if the NBA team was taking the game seriously.

Maybe, maybe not, but just like in this game, once the contest is out of hand, they would start letting up. These guys actually tried to let the other team score and they couldn't do it. I imagine they were missing uncontested layup after uncontested layup towards the end. I just have a hard time imagining a game like this ever happening.

Limac333: 4NSpy: He should cancel the season. They can't put out a competitive team and are just wasting the time of the other teams who have to play them. I can't imagine the kids are having any fun out there. There's no shame in saying "Hey, we have 180 kids, we can't compete with larger schools in team based sports" and focus on areas where they can compete, like a golf team, or tennis.

It is the team that won that is considering canceling the season.

Wow. I skimmed the article but thought it was the other way around (headline lead me to believe such).

Well nevermind my previous post.

Can't they just move up to a more competitive division?

If the team that won stopped playing defense, how can they be blamed for being unsportsmanlike? The other team apparently had open shots and they missed every one of them except for one. What else could they have done?? Not rebound, too? Not take it down to the other end to score, just toss it back to the other team? How could that even be considered a 'game' anymore, especially during a tournament?

Cancel the other team's season if they can't even manage a lay up.

ha-ha-guy: If this is true then I can't really blame Pikeville. You can only lay down so much. If he had the benchwarmers in for the majority of the game and put defense in the off mode, that's as sporting as he can be.

You know, the coach should just come out and say, "Hey, I sat my starters and played the guys that get the least minutes on my squad, I canceled the full-court press, I canceled the half-court press, I told my kids to not play aggressive defense, I told them to use the entire shot clock, but I'm not going to tell them not to play."

100-2.

Another sports story about kids getting raped.

Oh dear God:

In fact, that might be the worst news for Kimper after the game: The team still has Pikeville on its regular-season schedule in mid-December. Of course, that rematch would be contingent on the entire Pikeville season not being canceled first, and that may be less of an eventuality than any of us might imagine at first blush.

Yeah, this game needs to not happen.

Creoena: How do you only score two points in a game? I mean you could just chuck it from half court all game and get more than that

I played in an elementary school league where we only scored 2 points in a game. The other team scored 70 something.

Nobody complained about the other team's sportsmanship, we knew we were horrible and were just there having fun. Got better in the following years though. Honestly, the adults are over reacting here. The kids probably know they suck and are just playing because they like playing basketball whether they win or lose.

I get the feeling their season is in jeopardy because the coach instructed his players to let up and they refused, not because they're worried about a huge margin of victory. Watching the video made it seem like they were playing incredibly aggressive defense for the purpose of humiliating the other team, not to make the game competitive.

This marks the first time in recorded history that anyone from Pikeville has won anything, ever.

/Go Red Devils!

Somehow, this is the libruls fault.

I'm guessing one team stressed competition and skills and the other team stressed participation and fun.

logggur: I get the feeling their season is in jeopardy because the coach instructed his players to let up and they refused, not because they're worried about a huge margin of victory. Watching the video made it seem like they were playing incredibly aggressive defense for the purpose of humiliating the other team, not to make the game competitive.

Noticed how the jersey's changed color multiple times? That video was not from a single game, it was more instead a "greatest hits" of Pikeville (the good team)

CSB Time:

My sister's high school team won seven games her senior year by 100 points or more en route to the state championship - a contest they won easily.

During fall break, I headed home to see her team play, as she was the starting point guard and the team had already posted some gaudy wins (these were the nascent days of the internet, but I could still see the scores online in the local home paper).

By the 3rd quarter of the game I attended, her squad was already up by 65 points. But the starters were still in. And the other team had two points. And the horse's ass of a coach still had the ladies in a zone press on D. The last straw was when the 2 guard - defending another girl six inches shorter (the 2 was 6') - created a trap in the corner and got a five second call. My section started a chorus of boos - in our home gym - that rang down till nearly the end of the 3rd quarter when the school principal made a visit to our sideline and magically caused the scrubs to enter the game. The final score was something like 118 - 6. It was embarrassing, for us.

I've captained teams that won by 40 and lost by 40 - in the same season (sometimes you run up against weak squads, sometimes you run into Parade All-Americans, but I digress) - and, provided your coach wasn't the aforementioned horse's ass with an inferiority complex, the vast majority of coaches know when to say when. The coach TFA seems like he did all he could short of having one of his player stand at half court and hold the ball till the quarter expired.

It's hard to only score only 2 points. Really, really hard. Hard to the point that the level of inability reaches biblical proportions. It sounds like the defeated squad was just that kind of team.

FTFA:

Now, the school district's superintendent and school board are allegedly considering canceling the team's entire season because of a perceived lack of sportsmanship shown in the 98-point drubbing.

Isn't deliberately playing poorly to give a false sense of accomplishment to another the exact opposite of good sportsmanship?

It's like telling a retarded kid he is the next Einstein because he counted to potato. It makes you a condescending jackass, not a great humanitarian.

These kids may suck at basketball, but if the other team had played honestly at least they could have had the satisfaction of knowing they went toe-to-toe with the best. The other team trying to let you score is far more humiliating than losing 500-0.

Every competitor deserves the dignity of their opponent giving it their all, regardless of skill levels.

I can't get the cap off!: Isn't deliberately playing poorly to give a false sense of accomplishment to another the exact opposite of good sportsmanship?

There's a big difference between conservative play and poor play. You do the former for sportsmanship and more importantly to protect your players from injury.

pion: ha-ha-guy: If this is true then I can't really blame Pikeville. You can only lay down so much. If he had the benchwarmers in for the majority of the game and put defense in the off mode, that's as sporting as he can be.

You know, the coach should just come out and say, "Hey, I sat my starters and played the guys that get the least minutes on my squad, I canceled the full-court press, I canceled the half-court press, I told my kids to not play aggressive defense, I told them to use the entire shot clock, but I'm not going to tell them not to play."

Yeah, pretty much. After everything he did, his only move after that would be to forfeit.

12349876: I can't get the cap off!: Isn't deliberately playing poorly to give a false sense of accomplishment to another the exact opposite of good sportsmanship?

There's a big difference between conservative play and poor play. You do the former for sportsmanship and more importantly to protect your players from injury.

That's my point.They are being criticized for only playing conservatively (though telling your guys not to play defense probably verges into that insultingly condescending zone).

From the article I get the impression that "good sportsmanship" would have involved "accidentally" scoring in their own basket followed by forfeiting "to the team with the biggest hearts".

I'm a decent athlete, but I SUCK at basketball. I mean, suck to the point where a lay-up isn't always a 100% guarantee. With that in mind, I'm still thinking a team full of people like me could, at least, put 15-20 points on the board. The team had to have at least a couple kids with decent athletic ability; however, I can see where not wanting to bust your ass when you're losing by so much can come into play as well.

I have to wonder what the score would have been if they'd played 2 on 5. My best guess: Still 100-2.

4NSpy: 100-2.

Another sports story about kids getting raped.

But it's not RAPE! rape.

Being born and raised in Indiana, I almost cannot fathom games like this. I feel you could randomly pick boys out of the bleachers and have them throw balls from half-court and hit at least one or two of them. Two points means you aren't even trying.

ArkAngel:

Look at the scoring timeline, they eased up quite a bit. That being said, what else could the coach have done? Was he supposed to tell his players to simply run out the shot clock every time they get the ball? If I was on the losing team, I would be more upset at that. The losing team should have just forfeited at halftime

Yeah I dunno, that's the only thing I could come up with for a reason that they'd cancel the season. They should have forfeited.

kidgenius:

Noticed how the jersey's changed color multiple times? That video was not from a single game, it was more instead a "greatest hits" of Pikeville (the good team)

I was talking about the first 40 seconds, the footage from the game in question. I realize that different jerseys mean different teams.

I was on a middle school basketball team that got beat 63-11 one game. It felt like 100-2.

HellRaisingHoosier: Being born and raised in Indiana, I almost cannot fathom games like this. I feel you could randomly pick boys out of the bleachers and have them throw balls from half-court and hit at least one or two of them. Two points means you aren't even trying.

It isn't stated in the article, but the most plausible thing to read between the lines is that the winning team did not, in fact, follow their coach's instructions to stop guarding the other team, and that's why the issue of sportsmanship got raised. Ultimately, it's the coach's responsibility for not giving sufficiently explicit instructions to his players or for letting them ignore his instructions. If they players thought they were being easy enough on the other team, the coach should have called a timeout and explained that they weren't playing easy enough until the other team was scoring. And if they still didn't get it, he should have laid down the law: any player who touches the ball while the other team is on offense sits the next three games, even if that means forfeiting them.

Whether the coach wasn't in control of the players or they committed this act of egregious douchebaggery with his implicit approval, both the coach and the team deserve to be punished. Cancelling the season is harsh, but possibly appropriate. The only scenario in which the kids should be let off lightly is if the coach misled them about the appropriate way to handle the situation.

(Or, I suppose, if the team showed concern for the other team's morale and only continued to play because the other team was taking things in good humor and actively assured them that they didn't want any special treatment, but... I'm thinking that wasn't it.)

First game I played in as an 8th grader, our team won 60-4. We actually had a shutout going until the 4th quarter. Nobody seemed to be upset about it. Guess times are different now.

/Later on, in a college intermural game, I scored the two points in a game we were down 34-2 at halftime

pion: ha-ha-guy: If this is true then I can't really blame Pikeville. You can only lay down so much. If he had the benchwarmers in for the majority of the game and put defense in the off mode, that's as sporting as he can be.

You know, the coach should just come out and say, "Hey, I sat my starters and played the guys that get the least minutes on my squad, I canceled the full-court press, I canceled the half-court press, I told my kids to not play aggressive defense, I told them to use the entire shot clock, but I'm not going to tell them not to play."

That's why I like being a hockey coach. A lot easier just to tell my kids to start missing the net. Won a game 7-0 recently. Starting midway through the second lots of shots screamed right by the net, just a little to the left or right. There was a Meijer ad right to the left of the of the net and the kid who hit the j in Meijer the most got a gift. In basketball I imagine it is a little more obvious if you constantly miss layups.

I won't tell my kids to back off defense and hurt the goalie's save percentage, but I will pull the offense's horns in.