Tuesday, September 23, 2014
Jesse's Game
We had played Notre Dame earlier in the season and lost, after finding out we were playing them in the regional tournament our coaches took a few days and watched a lot of film to try and figure out what the best strategy would be in order for our team to win the game. Right before the game started our coach informed us we were going to "hold the ball". When coach told us this I imagined something completely different then what actually took place. I imagined our guard would stand at the top of the key and once ND realized what they were doing they would pressure us and make us play. The complete opposite ended up happening, Nd stood back and all ten players just stood around on the floor staring at eachother. Our coach yelled from the side line to just keep standing, and their coaches huddled up to decide how to handle the situation. Eventually ND got the ball and then they ended up just holding it while we stood there and watched them. The game ended up with a final score of 13-8 and lasted about 33-35 minutes. Had we made a few easy shots we could have won the game and the strategy would have worked. Also the refs called several very questionable walk calls on our team which added up to about 6 points.
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I believe that this type of a strategy, while it isn't against the rules of the game it devalues the competitive nature of the game. Some people may call this bad sportsmanship, but I believe that is due to who won the game. Winners write history, if Jesse's team would have won they may have called this a brilliant strategy. Now I have played basketball from second grade to my junior year in high school and I absolutely love the game. To me this type of a strategy destroys what the game is to me. Some people may see this as poor sportsmanship, which could have grounds in the fact that if they apply the code of playing to your best abilites as a rule of the game then this could be seen as poor sportsmanship. The competitive nature of the game is what makes people want to watch it, that's a reason why more people watch basketball than chess.
ReplyDeleteI disagree with you because if ND wanted to keep it competitive they would have just kept playing their game but instead they went along with them and in doing that they created a different kind of competitiveness. It is just a different way of playing basketball.
DeleteI completely agree with you Nick. Both teams devalued the competitive nature of the game but NDA somewhat more because they followed suit and did not encourage the opponent to play to their best ability. If they were to run the score up ten points more, Highlands would of had to run some kind of offense. This strategy tells me the Highlands coach does not have trust in his/her players ability to beat a good team with their best abilities. I would feel offended as part of the team. As for the NDA coach, why would you not run up the score by running plays and doing what you've always done (i.e. score points). Game way closer than needed to be with a strategy that lasted too long.
ReplyDeleteI think that this is an excellent example of the problems inherent with the formalism perspective in that what happened here was completely within the constitutive rules of the game but constituted poor sportsmanship (I mean no offense to any of the participants) and was not in the true spirit of the game. Application of a broad internalist or conventionalist position to this example would reveal that holding the ball restricted competition and did not take into account the supposed “interests” of the sport. Neither team competed at their best level or pushed each other to become better—yes, they were following the rules of basketball and going through the motions of the game, but no one there that day was actually playing basketball and so I do not think that Notre Dame should be considered meritorious of their victory.
ReplyDeleteTheoretical analysis aside, I want to comment that this is an interesting and somewhat comical anecdote. I cannot believe that the game was able to be carried on for over half of an hour with only a total of twenty-one points scored altogether. While I disagree with the strategy adopted by Highlands, it really should have behooved Notre Dame’s coach to capitalize on their opponent’s unwillingness to play and pressure them rather than become exasperated and emulate what Highlands was doing. It actually would have been pretty interesting to be present at this game—maybe not for the totality of the seemingly uneventful thirty minutes—but at least to see for myself the implementation of such a strategy.
I have been on both sides of this story. Yes, it does some what take away the competitiveness of the game. However, it is a good strategy if you are going up against a team that is significantly stronger than yours. It does take away from the competition but in today's world winning is everything and if you do not win you will lose your job as the coach.
ReplyDeleteI have played in a game where this had happened. the team we were plating elected to not just try to slow down the pace of the game, but to literally stand at half court and hold the ball. As a competitor you hate to see a team take this strategy, it is understandable to take the approach to slow down the pace but not to that extinct. Is it legal? Yes it is at some levels, this is why the shot clock was put in place in all of college basketball and also in some highschool levels. This rule was put in place to prevent this from happening which clears backs up the fact that it is not right to do, it is not a good strategy in anyway. If my coach told me to do this in highschool I probably would have refused.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion there is nothing wrong with this type of strategy. Even though Jesse's team decided just to stand out at the top of the key and hold the ball, the other team did nothing about it. They could have went out and tried to steal the ball or just apply some pressure that would make them move the ball. Instead Notre Dame decided just to do the same exact strategy as Jesse's team was doing. When I look at the big picture, I do feel like this type of play is not necessary but there is no rule in the rule book that says a team is not allowed to do this type of strategy. Every coach has a different approach when preparing for their opponent. It just so happened that Jesse's coach decided to use an approach that is hardly ever used. This type of strategy was almost successful for Jesse's team.
ReplyDeleteI believe that if a team is outmatched against another team then they should do what is in their control to win the game. Even though the strategy did not work for Jesse's team, there is no rule against stalling in high school basketball. When I played in high school, when we got a decent lead against a good team we would hold the ball until they came out to guard us. It worked for our team quite a lot too. We would get booed by the crowd every now and then but the point was to win the game and if it works more times then it doesn't then I think that it is a good strategy. At the end of the day it doesn't matter if you win 9-8 or 100-30, the only thing people look at is if they won or loss.
ReplyDeleteI believe that this is a shame because I think this just shows the coaches being selfish. It makes it seem like the coaches did not believe in his players enough to win the game. If i were an Athletic director of one of these schools i would be embarrassed because that is just embarrassing to a team. No competitive athlete would want to be apart of this type of game. These coaches should have been punished for this by either getting fired or suspended.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you here Blake. This strategy completely ruined the integrity and competitiveness of the sport. Basketball is an uptempo game with many runs and swings that can affect the game. Who knows what could've happened if both teams went out and COMPETED. Just because a team may be better than your team or the favorite, the strategy used by the coach is a poor one. Yes, this similar strategy is used in different sports, such as pulling your team back to play defense in soccer or running the ball on a majority of downs in football to run the clock out. But even in those situations, you are still competing and not just standing around. There should be a rule for this situation in basketball.
DeleteI think that this strategy like Nick says, devalues the competitive part of the game. I feel that it was the coaches going at each other rather than the team trying to compete for the win. Also i believe that this was unfair to the senior players. Its not fair to take their last high school game away from them without a fight. They'll never know what the outcome could've been if they have played the game. If i was a senior on that team i would have wanted to attempt to fight for a win instead of waste my last minutes standing on the floor not doing anything.
ReplyDeleteI believe this is a bold strategy Cotton. If the rules of the game allow the team to hold the ball, I don't believe they are in any wrongdoing in holding the ball. The other team still has the ability to steal the ball and pressure them into mistakes, but ultimately the team who can hold the ball better will win the game. No matter how long you hold the ball, you still have to get scored on to lose the game. so if the other team is holding the ball, just don't let them score. Games like this help expose the sport, were it's weak spots are and what rules need to be changed. They now have several rules that limit this type of gameplay, with the shot clock, 5 second violation (if a defender guards the ball handler within arms reach for 5 seconds) and the ten second violation for bringing the ball across half court.
ReplyDeleteI don't know a whole lot about the logistics of basketball, but from what i do know is that a basketball game shouldn't be that fast of a game, nor should that score be that low. I agree with everyone stating that this game technically isnt cheating and it is just a strategy. However, like Korhs said it does devalue the game. There was no "game" I would've been pissed if i would of paid money to go watch a bunch of basketball players standing around on the court not "playing". As a fan, how are you suuposed to get excited and pumped for that? How did the crowd react?
ReplyDelete