Biggest Blow Out

BigK72

Well-known member
Saw Tri-Village beat Hardin Houston the other night 101-36. Made me think about biggest blowouts you've seen this year or ever. I know in boy's basketball, TV beat Ansonia a few years ago by 90. It was 130-some to 40-some
 
 
Saw Tri-Village beat Hardin Houston the other night 101-36. Made me think about biggest blowouts you've seen this year or ever. I know in boy's basketball, TV beat Ansonia a few years ago by 90. It was 130-some to 40-some
Africentric girls just won a game last week over a fellow Columbus City League opponent 113-3. Eastmoor girls beat a Columbus City League opponent 84-0 that same night. Africentric and Eastmoor got together a few days later, and Africentric won 90-19. The most lopsided games I ever saw in person were a 72-15 win and a 79-21 loss.
 
The blowout conversation is always interesting to me.

The OHSAA has made it legal (and actually encourages) for schools to schedule cross-level games, without a win-loss punishment for the "JV" team in the match-up. So for instance - last year teams like Hiland would send their JV team to play Newcomerstown's Varsity. Loudonville sent their JV team to play 4 different "Varsity" games. This counts as a Varsity game for the lesser opponent, but only a JV game for the better team. This keeps games closer and encourages top schools to go "schedule up". I am shocked that Africentric isn't doing this.

Unfortunately for Hiland - the IVC decided to vote and make it illegal for Hiland to do this in league games - which makes no sense to me. I am sure that Columbus City League opponents would be fine if Africentric wanted to do this though.
 
I don't understand coaches who feel the need to score 100 points regularly... and yes it falls squarely on the coaches. You control/manage the score via coaching. I have however seen scores that neared or reached 100 points despite all efforts by the winning coach to slow the game down/not have the score run that high. I guess it's all in how the game is played. There is nothing to be gained from 100 pt games/victories with those margins though.
 
The blowout conversation is always interesting to me.

The OHSAA has made it legal (and actually encourages) for schools to schedule cross-level games, without a win-loss punishment for the "JV" team in the match-up. So for instance - last year teams like Hiland would send their JV team to play Newcomerstown's Varsity. Loudonville sent their JV team to play 4 different "Varsity" games. This counts as a Varsity game for the lesser opponent, but only a JV game for the better team. This keeps games closer and encourages top schools to go "schedule up". I am shocked that Africentric isn't doing this.

Unfortunately for Hiland - the IVC decided to vote and make it illegal for Hiland to do this in league games - which makes no sense to me. I am sure that Columbus City League opponents would be fine if Africentric wanted to do this though.
Can you give me were I can look at the new rule so I can pass it on to the correct persons in the Columbus city schools
 
There is no rule in the basketball handbook or state guidelines - except for the one stating that a team may only play 22 games. Any "rules" for the W-L in a cross-level league game (can be added as cross-level on Arbiter when creating a game) would need to be determined by the conference.
 
Part of Africentric problem is that was a league game not out or conference. They may be better off trying to find a way to make girls basketball independent doubt thats possible though
 
I don't understand coaches who feel the need to score 100 points regularly... and yes it falls squarely on the coaches. You control/manage the score via coaching. I have however seen scores that neared or reached 100 points despite all efforts by the winning coach to slow the game down/not have the score run that high. I guess it's all in how the game is played. There is nothing to be gained from 100 pt games/victories with those margins though.
I watched (rather suffered through) a Hiland-Toronto girls sectional game once that I believe ended 104-4 or something in that neighborhood. The skill level gap was the problem. One team had an elite level of skill and the other had almost no skill - couldn't dribble, pass, shoot with form, box out, do fundamental defensive skills, etc. Coach Schlabach did everything you would want a coach to do in terms of playing everyone, pulling back the defense, letting the opponent shoot, not fast-breaking off of steals, etc. Fans across the state saw the score and were aghast that a coach would run up the score like that. I was there, and I'm saying that score represented tons of restraint because it could have been 250-0. Not kidding.
 
In other sports I have seen leagues excuse a poor performing team from league play allowing them to schedule lesser opponents until it was felt they could be competitive in the league again. I don't have any examples.

I think the City league should do the opposite and allow Africentric out of their league games and let them play up, or in their case competitive opponents. They already play a very strong non-league schedule. A city league trophy at the expense of overmatched opponents can't be much of a goal. As of January, no city league opponent has reached 20 against them.
 
I have an open mind and can be swayed by good arguments on what a coach should or shouldn’t do. However, what about a running clock similar to what is used in FB or a variation thereof where the starters still receive some 2nd-half playing time with most of it going to JV members of the winning team vs. the starters for the struggling team. I think both gain good experience in such a scenario.
 
They have running clock now in tournaments... I'd be for it in regular season games also in extreme score situations.. don't want to deny kids playing time/an opportunity to get better but when scores get to that level, nothing is being gained on either side aside from the chance at an injury to players.
 
This goes back to the argument of whether or not the better team should keep trying. If you were a coach would you say "just hold the ball, we can't score too many points." Clear the bench, try some new plays, and coach for better execution of the plays being run but don't stop having the kids bust their butts trying. If a bench warmer gets in I expect them to give it their all. If that means they score then they score.

As a coach you're hurting kids a lot more by telling them not to try in an attempt to avoid running up the score.
 
This goes back to the argument of whether or not the better team should keep trying. If you were a coach would you say "just hold the ball, we can't score too many points." Clear the bench, try some new plays, and coach for better execution of the plays being run but don't stop having the kids bust their butts trying. If a bench warmer gets in I expect them to give it their all. If that means they score then they score.

As a coach you're hurting kids a lot more by telling them not to try in an attempt to avoid running up the score.

No one's saying tell the kids to not try.... but you can def manage the game to limit the score while still having the kids play hard.
 
Is it a wonder why girls basketball is down? Complete and total blowouts are not cool. Im not saying to not play basketball, but when the other team cant even get the ball up court, call off the dogs. Ive been on both ends of games like these. Rediculous scores only make the whole game go down. Ridiculous scores are a sign of bad sportsmanship.
 
This is always a difficult conversation and it seems to come up with girls basketball more than any other sport. The gap between the top and bottom is so vast, and there are multiple ways to handle it. First if it's not a league game, simple do not scheduled these games. It would be better to Africentric to play a good team in their area 3 times rather than play these kinds of games. If it's a league game, there's not much that can be done other than just talk as much before the game so things don't get too out of sorts. The coach of the team that's going to get pounded likely knows how bad his or her team is, so you have to use some good old common sense.
Now the big next step is with the school, and it involves long term thinking. Devise a plan, coach, AD, principal , superintendent, school board. Make a commitment to the "right" coach for multiple years so you're not constantly changing coaches annually. Get a program in place where the jr. high begins to do things the right way and starts to have some success. You're likely not going to transform 16-17 year old bad players in a year, so you have to focus on the younger groups. If you've got good basketball players in the school NOT playing, find out why.
 
This is always a difficult conversation and it seems to come up with girls basketball more than any other sport.
Seeing it some in boys basketball at the sectional level. Hiland led Connotton Valley 55-4 at half this past Tues. With a running clock and Hiland playing its JV team in the 2nd half, the final was 64-13. So, it can be done. I suppose the question is what is really accomplished when one team basically lays down and beats a team by 51 vs beating them 110-8? I guess there is something achieved, but I'm not sure it has anything to do with sports.
 
I think many times we get too caught up in the score. does it really matter if you lose by 50 or 80 points? The running clock only masks the problem because it shortens the game. The other thing is there are 6-7 guys at the end of the winning teams bench that probably doesn't play much, get them in the game for significant time, not just one quarter, and allow them to play. Work on different situations. As we know, teams don't get this way overnight.
 
I will say that bad sportsmanship plays a large part in a lot of these mega blowouts. But also, the problem is the way the OHSAA does the tournament. Toledo Notre Dame won 93-8 against Toledo Waite last week. Although I didn't go to the game, I'm guessing they didn't run up the score. Waite had won maybe 1 game all year. They had no business being in the tournament playing against Notre Dame. I equate it to a really bad 0-10 football team that had a terrible season and gets the pleasure of playing a 10-0 team in the playoffs. A long season made longer for no reason. Basketball {and soccer for that matter) need to pare down the tournament and have it be like football, where only the most deserving teams get in.
 
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Unless I'm mistaken a team can opt to not play in the tournament.
You are not mistaken. Several teams removed themselves from it this year. Deadline is only a week or two before tournament draw if I remember correctly.
 
You are not mistaken. Several teams removed themselves from it this year. Deadline is only a week or two before tournament draw if I remember correctly.
A team can withdraw at any time, but this year's deadline for withdrawal from the girls tournament without incurring a penalty (usually of a financial sort) was January 27. That was 6 days before the seeding meetings were held and more like 4 days before seeding votes had to be submitted online in some Districts.

The NE changed its process a few years ago to where teams are automatically placed on the bracket based on their seed, a la the NCAA tournament. In other words, the #1 seed occupies its corresponding line at the top of the bracket and would automatically meet the #16 seed if there was one. If no #16 seed, then #1 has a bye and plays the winner of the #8 and #9 seeds' game. This was done to cut down on the number of squash matches that were occurring in the sectionals because many of the #1 seeds were not taking the byes. Coaches wanted the easy early round wins and also wanted their teams to avoid a longer lay-off before their 1st tournament game. If the #1 seed decided to play in the 1st round, everyone would run away from them. The 2nd to last seed would take the bye in the #1 seed's sectional, and the last seed would have to play the #1 seed in the 1st round. Thus, the #1 seed would get 2 squash matches in the sectional and an easy path to the district semifinal. The NE District Board got tired of seeing that.
 
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