[Rick Reily] Someone Stop This Man (Yates' Greg Wise)

What is it that a third stringer is going to learn against a clearly inferior opponent? Players get better by playing opponents that can push them, players that are similar in skill level and athleticism. It's a totally bogus argument. Kobe doesn't learn anything from playing Mike Harris and Mike Harris doesn't learn anything from beating his opponent by 100 points.

 

You still haven't answered my questions. How is it fair to the 2nd and 3rd string players to have them in the game, not giving their all? How does that not penalize them? And if you want the better team to not give full effort (i.e. quit), then why not forfeit? That is an option.

I'll be patiently waiting on a response to these questions....

Oh, and there is a lesson being taught to 2nd and 3rd string players that continue to play their hardest even though the game is over. This is a sports board so that lesson shouldn't be hard to figure out.

 

You learn to play hard and give your all every minute on the court, no matter if you are up by 1 or 50. That isn't a lesson to learn? That doesn't take discipline to give your all when you don't have to? When else will these kids be able to give their all? Are they going to get a scholarship from what they do in practice? No, they get scouted and offers from what they do in games. So again, why penalize these kids for being better? Should we now tell A students to make C's so other kids won't feel bad?

 

So that includes pressing against a team you are already embarrassing? Your players can work as hard as they want on offense and even in half-court defense...but pressing with a lead like that is terrible sportsmanship...another lesson that is important to teach young kids...and something that isn't done nearly enough

It isn't "penalizing" the 3rd stringers by not having them press. You can work on that in practice. What kind of a lesson does forfeiting teach the kids on the opposing team, BTW? You play the game and try regardless of how badly you are being beaten. But your opponent, when they have already succeeded in beating the crap out of you, shouldn't continue to run a full court press every time you inbound the ball. It's classless.

 

The four corners offense requires quite a bit of effort and is part of the repertoire of every other basketball team in the history of mankind.

If you sodomize a defeated team, then you are teaching them that it is OK for fat cats in in banking to offer predatory loans in their neighborhoods with the express intent of foreclosing. Or do you think preventing that sort of thing is penalizing the rich bankers for being better financial wizards than poor people?

 

Jimmy Johnson school of coaching.

 

To those of you backing Yates: Have you ever been on one of the wrong sides of a blow out like that? It freaking sucks. I can't imagine ever wanting to voluntarily give that feeling to someone else. Blah Blah Blah... call me a wimp, whatever.

What Coach Wise needs to realize is that he is dealing with teenagers here. What happens when your team is down by 100? You get frustrated. And what happens when teenagers get frustrated? They get aggressive. One of these games, someone on the other team is going to make a dangerous foul, or lay a cheap shot on a Yates player, and they will have no one to blame but themselves. And while I'm sure no one would openly advocate something like that, I can guarantee that hardly anyone will blame that kid for his actions.

 

It's hard to for me to take sides. If these players were in college, I wouldn't even begin to care. Just like no one cares when UT or Oklahoma pounds some patsy 70-3 in college football. But at a high school level where players are very impressionable, you'd think they'd try to at least have some semblance of sportsmanship.

Now, all this talk of 2nd string and 3rd string players "trying their hardest" is pure BS. If I were a fan of Yates high school, I don't see any reason to justify the team's actions. And honestly, if their actions really bother their opponents that much, they should just forfeit over and over until the power that be look into the situation.

 

Or in the NCAA tourney when the 1 seed beats a 16 100-40. Really what is the difference in avg. age of a high school team and a college one? 3 years? Do we all magically transform from ultra-impressionable cry babies to hardened men in the couple years after high school? I think high school students are mature enough to handle an athletic beat down. These kids getting beat actually have a good story to tell if any of the Yates players makes it to the NBA.
I played football in 7th and 8th grade. We were a combined 0-13 for the 2 years. We got dominated often, some teams even used trick plays that embarrassed our already terrible defense. I guess I can't speak for the whole team, but it didn't look like anyone was hurt by it. I know I wasn't. I had fun playing the game.

 

yeah..unfortunately, I agree with you.

 

Exactly. If I were coaching the opposing team, I would have my players foul the crap out of Yates every time they went to the basket. I'm talking like Rick Mahorn/Bill Laimbeer style. Make them think twice about that Busch League crap.

 

Personally, I really haven't had a problem with it in the past, though the large margins seem a bit over the top. however, if stuff like the fouling thing is true, it certainly alters my opinion a bit.

The questions are disingenuous, Icehouse, because the reality of the situation is far greater than this specific one.

What do third stringers normally do on high school basketball teams? How often are teams mismatched on a day to day basis, especially when including more than just basketball at the high school level? A lot of high school sports would thin out. And you are throwing out cliches 'you give your all every minute on the court!' when brushing off others (such as 'sportsmanship').

It really isn't about high school sports, as your questions don't really apply to them on a normal basis. It is about this specific team that you are defending. A team that, apparently, will do things like foul at the end so they can reach a point total.

 

Those questions have already been answered numerous times. It's just that in your twisted view, the only way to "give your all" or "give full effort" is to full-court press every second of the game. Anything less is "quitting", according to you. Just about every coach or player at any level of basketball that's ever played disagrees with you, which is why Yates is getting so much attention for this.

 

Funny that Wise probably thinks he's the ****, but hey buddy, news flash, you're coaching high school.

 

I've shot about 10 Yates games this year (and will be at their game tonight), the latest when they played Friendswood in the playoffs. Their pressing every minute of every games pays off in the playoffs. The kids from Friendswood were worn out in the first half of the first quarter. Friendswood played hard and had some talent but not enough.

I have a hard time believing the kids from the losing schools are distraught over losing big. In fact, I shot a game where Yates was blowing a team out in the first half of a mid season game, when the teams came out of the locker room to start the second half one of the kids on the losing team came up to me and said "did you shoot my dunk"?

They play virtually the entire team. They lose some good players this season, but it'll be interesting to see what they do next season. I'm also quite happy that high flying Brandon Peters is going to be a Hilltopper.

 

I found a solution!

Play 4 on 5*. Have a player run suicides to keep 5 players on the court. After a suicide, a player switches with someone playing. Maximum effort from everyone.

That or people need to quit whining. (If what has been posted in this thread is true.) That no altercations have arisen is a testament to the character of the teams that Yates demolishes. Why don’t people quit worrying about them and give a round of applause instead?






*Adjust accordingly.

P.S. Do you think the other team would feel better about themselves losing 4v5?

 

I have trouble believing that kids' self-worth is being destroyed by losing a basketball game to an awesome opponent, even if it's by 130 points. You go into the game knowing you're probably going to lose big, you play hard and lose big, and then you go eat some nachos. If a win is a win, then a loss is a loss.

 

What hurts more losing by 100 in a blow out or 1 in a close game? They're both losses.