Wow. I was on the fence on going last night. Glad I didn't. I feel bad for the seniors on the team. Ashley Kraus, Sidney Watson. Kelsey Kowolonek. All very dedicated to the program. Highlands should be returning a decent team next year with a nice current jr. class. However if a "superstar" middle schooler catches the coaches eye and jumps over the upperclass players, I don't see the results ever being any different.

 

Even if the 8th grader is better?

Girls games are hard enough to watch. Can't imagine paying 8 bucks to witness this one! I still won't root for UC because of the Yates era.

 

I'm right there with you on that one!

Please don't overreact to this occurrence. It is exceedingly rare. I've seen thousands of HS games and only seen this used once. A shot clock in HS hoops, especially girls' basketball, would encourage shooting percentages to plummet below 30 percent. It would not be a good thing.

Agreed. Most girls teams FG% hover WELL below 40% as it is.

This has to be a BGP record for posts in a girls b-ball thread, right?

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absolutely no one would attend games if this strategy were employed regularly.

 

Since when are HS players and coaches responsible for putting butts in the seats? Coaches want to win, coaches get paid to win. They'll do whatever they think is right to win. They could care less if you show up.

I don't get the comment by Nicole L saying "...we didnt see the need for the girls to run around."

 

Wouldn't they have "run around" if HHS had played a normal game? Couldn't they force HHS into shots or bad passes? Or was she worried that her players could not guard HHS players one-on-one?

 

I'm so confused by this.

I remember coach Tim Shields and Conner did this to Highlands in the 9th region tourny in the late 90's. They gave up on it in the 2nd half but that was the most boring game I had ever seen.

I remember coach Tim Shields and Conner did this to Highlands in the 9th region tourny in the late 90's. They gave up on it in the 2nd half but that was the most boring game I had ever seen.

 

Coach Shields was not afraid to go against the grain.

coaches at this level should do what is best for their players.

 

They did. They put the team first and executed their best strategy to win. Didn't care about seniors last game or individual scoring averages. The team wins, you win. A lot of people on here don't seem to get that.

 

This one was about someones grand idea which in the end just fissled and made people wonder why they even bother going to a girls game.

 

By all accounts the plan darn near worked. Again with the attendance thing? Would a 20+ point blowout been more enjoyable to watch?

What would be interesting is polling the players anonymously and asking "slow down game because we think it gives us our best chance to win" or "play hard the entire game and see what happens."

I thought all of you two cent millionaires play to win in any sport

 

Each of your posts references " play to win " which is exactly what Coach Ritchey's strategy was. She came up with a game plan not to keep it close, but to win. The score got to 6-0 in the third quarter. It was never out of reach. It would have been interesting to see the style change if the game got to the 4th quarter with a 10-12 point margin. It didn't happen. HHS down 10-8 with the ball with 1:30 to go in the 4th. I'll submit that there wasn't a lot of action, but a lot more excitement than the other 3 blowouts in the first round.

 

As others stated, I am way more puzzled by ND's decision to not force action. The Lady Birds are not the type of team that I would think would be a great ball control team. Except for Leah S., who has the size and strength to be strong with the ball, the other girls are young/small/inexperienced. I can't imagine that HHS would have been able to avoid turnover after turnover under the pressure.

My favorite quote in all of sports is 'That's why they play the games'. On paper, NDA wins this one by 20. Highlands strategy may have been perfectly legal but I'm certain that many of their kids will be thinking about the what ifs for a long time. Upsets happen every day in sports, and by employing a run and hide strategy Highlands players had no chance of winning a game that they would have been proud of for the rest of their lives. The players who worked so hard for so long deserved a chance to run the floor and maybe, just maybe, pull out a legit win. This strategy may have a place in sports, but definitely not at the high school level and certainly not in a tournament game.

My favorite quote in all of sports is 'That's why they play the games'. On paper, NDA wins this one by 20. Highlands strategy may have been perfectly legal but I'm certain that many of their kids will be thinking about the what ifs for a long time. Upsets happen every day in sports, and by employing a run and hide strategy Highlands players had no chance of winning a game that they would have been proud of for the rest of their lives. The players who worked so hard for so long deserved a chance to run the floor and maybe, just maybe, pull out a legit win. This strategy may have a place in sports, but definitely not at the high school level and certainly not in a tournament game.

 

Good grief

Wow, what a thread..........so far 5+ times more posts than points! :lol:

 

For what it's worth, as a former player who played in a stall game (the other team did the stalling, not mine) one time in my career (can't see that it had any lasting emotional effect on me but some who know me might disagree!) and as a former youth coach, I think it was great strategy. I never did it as a coach but I would have if I had felt it was the only way to have a chance to win a game, particularly in a lose-and-out-situation. I think it is a coach's job to give his/her team a chance to win, again particularly in a tournament lose-and-out deal.

 

As a fan I don't think I would have enjoyed being there but I don't fault the strategy. And I agree that ND could have forced the action but chose not to. I'm not sure how I would have played it had I been ND so I won't comment on their decision to "sit" on a 4 point lead.

 

Again, interesting that a 13-8 game has created such a stir!

 

 

100% agree!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! As much as I would have hated this as a fan the coach side knows it was a good plan. Kudo's for the coaching staff to have the guts to try it.

Here is what is so shocking to me. Folks are saying the only way for Highlands to win was to pull off this game plan. Is there really that much of a difference between the # 3 team in the region and a # 6 team?? Highlands had a winning record going into this game and had thrown up 81 points on the 20th of this month and 98 on the 22nd. I did see that Notre Dame crushed Highlands during the regular season, but still don't understand the thought process. It's just bad for the game! Bad for the girls, bad for the fans. Highlands only played in 3 games this year where the score was decided by 4 points or less. Not fun to watch! This will not help attendance to girls games just like when they tried switching the games to Friday every other month.