Yates High School has one of the top 5 high school teams in the nation. After following them all season, I would be bold enough to say they are in the top 2 and perhaps in the running for the "national championship".

 

Sporting a blazing style of hoops that has led to record-setting point totals, the Lions have basically destroyed their opponents this season. Some are raising sportsmanship concerns following several recent incidents, however.

 

A couple of weeks back, Yates made national headlines after rolling a hapless opponent 170-35. The score was not the issue, though. Rather, it was the methods used to obtain that score. Leading 100-12, Yates put the starters back in and continued their full-court pressure defense.

 

Now, Yates is facing controversy once again after intentionally fouling a beaten opponent for the final three minutes of the game in order to get the ball back and try to score 100 points.

 

Here is an excerpt of an article from the Houston Chronicle:

 

Scoring six points with 1:30 remaining in a basketball game may sound like an attainable goal, but for Yates, it was mission impossible.

 

Unable to log its 12th 100-point plus game for the season, the Lions, ranked No. 3 in the nation on USA Today’s Super 25, had to settle for a 94-64 win over Westbury Wednesday night at Barnett Stadium. …

 

With less than three minutes to go, [brandon] Peters broke away for a crowd-pleasing, 360-degree dunk to push the Lions’ total to 84.

 

From that point on, Yates employed a strategy of their own: immediately foul on the inbounds play. Westbury went to the free-throw line seven times in that span, giving the Lions plenty of opportunities to pad their point total to triple-digits, but missed shots and broken plays tripped them up as the clock wound down.

 

My thoughts: I have enjoyed following Yates this season and they would be my pick for the top team in the nation at this time, but I feel they are risking good sportsmanship to obtain success. I have no problem with them winning by 100 points if they are simply that good but I have an issues with intentionally fouling a beaten opponent to get the ball back for number padding.

 

I discussed this with a good friend earlier and he has a differing opinion. He thinks they are striving for high-level goals and that they are doing what is necessary to obtain those goals.

 

What are your thoughts on this? Is this poor sportsmanship and something the coach should change immediately or is this a really good team doing what is necessary to reach a national championship?

The old adage "It's not whether you win or lose, it's how you play that game" holds true here. It seems to me that when your goal is to average 100+ points per outing, the logistics of the game itself has changed.

The old adage "It's not whether you win or lose, it's how you play that game" holds true here. It seems to me that when your goal is to average 100+ points per outing, the logistics of the game itself has changed.

 

My opinion is that this is one of the most terrible displays of sportsmanship that I can ever remember.

 

My buddy's opinion is that it's not really a big deal and the kids should be allowed to enjoy the spotlight.

 

I just can't agree with that :idunno:

Shoe on the other foot thing comes to mind for me. What would be the response it they were on the receiving end of this type of play?

I agree this is a very bad showing of sportsmanship by the Yates coach. We can't fault the players here becasue they just got out and play the game.

 

This all falls solely on the Yates coach and also athletic director for allowing these poor showings of sportsmanship by simply trying to embarass other teams.

 

If I was an opposing coach, I'd be furious about the latest events that occurred. I hate to say it but sooner or later, someone isn't going to take this lightly and one of the Yates players are going to get hurt because of a coach's methods.

I agree this is a very bad showing of sportsmanship by the Yates coach. We can't fault the players here becasue they just got out and play the game.

 

This all falls solely on the Yates coach and also athletic director for allowing these poor showings of sportsmanship by simply trying to embarass other teams.

 

If I was an opposing coach, I'd be furious about the latest events that occurred.

 

Those are my thoughts also, BTW. This falls squarely on the ADULTS in charge.

Those are my thoughts also, BTW. This falls squarely on the ADULTS in charge.

 

And like I said in my previous post....this could lead to one of the Yates players being hurt.

 

I don't want to say a coach would deliberately tell a player to hurt another one, but teen emotions run high and eventually it's going to boil over for someone and when a Yates player is going for a dunk, they're going to be injured and fouled very hard.

 

Let's pray for the players' safety this doesn't happen, but when a coach is running up the score like this it's much more likely to happen.

If I was an opposing coach I would make sure someone paid !!! Thats all I am saying.

He is making his team be perceived as the "bad boys" of high school basketball, as well. How is that fair to the kids to be perceived that way when they are likely a bunch of great kids?

He is making his team be perceived as the "bad boys" of high school basketball, as well. How is that fair to the kids to be perceived that way when they are likely a bunch of great kids?

 

Just goes along with the image of the NBA....why not.

He is making his team be perceived as the "bad boys" of high school basketball, as well. How is that fair to the kids to be perceived that way when they are likely a bunch of great kids?

 

I agree completely. I wouldn't blame the players at all. They simply go out and play the game.

 

This falls solely on the coach. I saw in a interview after the 170-35 win where the coach said something along the lines of "my team is striving for a national championship. In order for us to accomplish this, we have to play the same way 32 minutes and do the same things from start to finish. I can't ask my team to back off because that sets us back."

 

That's not the exact comment, but very similar from what I remember. This coach is an idiot and is going to end up getting one of his players hurt.

Interesting comments from the head coach...

And we wonder why some kids act the way they act today,when we have them playing for coaches like this.

Great FSU Coach, Bobby Bowden, was asked a while back on how he would respond to another coach who thinks he is running up the score and he said he would tell the opposing coach-- "It's your job to keep the score down, not mine. If you don't like the score, either recruit harder or coach better. I've got to coach my team and you've got to coach yours. You can only coach one team."

Reminiscent of a certain southern Ohio football coach not too long ago.