Two cool items

[Celtic]

Both I got from yahoo this afternoon.

First is a double alley oop, yes double.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j8SKdQYAB2I

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/blog/ball_dont_lie/post/Video-Designed-double-alley-oop?urn=nba,136223

The second is a story about a girl's high school basketball team that won a game 100-0 and now feels bad, or more than likely is being made to feel bad. I don't know about everyone else, but a 100-0 win is something to be proud of. Yes they could have softened up on the opponent, and there is a small mention that they did this against a high school that consists mostly of children with "learning differences," but that is an issue to be taken up with whoever allowed these teams to play. When you are a team and play another team, your objective should be to win and play hard for the whole game, not to get wrapped up in politics. I guess my point is rather than looking at this as a bad thing, it should be looked at as an impressive feat, not just the 100 points, but the zero, wow.

http://highschool.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=903780

[Redz]

How is that impressive Celtic?  It would be impressive there was some semblance of even talent level, but clearly there wasn't.  The winning team was toying with them.  If the Celtics beat Orlando 100-0 that would be impressive...

[Lucky17]

"I think the bad judgment was in the full-court press and the 3-point shots," said Renee Peloza, whose daughter plays for [losing team] Dallas Academy. "At some point, they should have backed off."

I'm sorry, full-court pressing a team when you're up by 50 points or more is not good sportsmanship. I understand that coaches want to use games to develop players and practice situational play, but that's just ridiculous.

"Even if you are losing, you might as well keep playing," said Shelby Hyatt, a freshman on the team [Dallas Academy]. "Keep trying, and it's going to be OK."

Perhaps the losing team got more out of the game than the winners.

[fairweatherfan]

Nice clip; I saw a double alley-oop at a Midnight Madness scrimmage at UNC - I think it was Felton to McCants to David Noel - but I've never seen it in a game situation before.

As far as the other one goes, full court pressing in that situation is pretty classless, but I find it hard to take girls' basketball seriously enough to be impressed or angered by it.  Unusual either way though.

[Celtic]

How is that impressive Celtic?  It would be impressive there was some semblance of even talent level, but clearly there wasn't.  The winning team was toying with them.  If the Celtics beat Orlando 100-0 that would be impressive...

To me anytime you win a game 100-0, that's impressive, I also root for the bad guys in a lot of movies. Seriously, I feel like if I was in a game where I felt like my team could score 100, and keep the opposing team to 0, I would totally go for it. It's something that never happens.

[yall hate]

the girls thing is a disgrace, and it is a farce that they are (the winning team) now all of a sudden saying they shouldnt have done it.

I would bet that the starters played a fair amount of minutes...and it was likely obvious after the first 5-10 minutes that this wouldn't be a game.  The winning team should have had their bench players in the game for the majority, and if they did (I dont know) and they were still running up the score, well then thats when you do a lot of dribbling, passing, and shooting deep 2's...no layups. 

Sorry, but it seems every year something pops up like this, whether it be girls basketball, baseball, football, etc...  and unless we are talking about the pro's, it shouldnt ever happen.  It is bs when college teams schedule puff teams so that they can blow them out for things like BCS rankings.  it is absurd when high school teams schedule teams they know they will cream.

[Redz]

How is that impressive Celtic?  It would be impressive there was some semblance of even talent level, but clearly there wasn't.  The winning team was toying with them.  If the Celtics beat Orlando 100-0 that would be impressive...

To me anytime you win a game 100-0, that's impressive, I also root for the bad guys in a lot of movies. Seriously, I feel like if I was in a game where I felt like my team could score 100, and keep the opposing team to 0, I would totally go for it. It's something that never happens.

Maybe impressive's the wrong word...  Unusual...absurd...extreme...

I'm an above average to excellent Scrabble player.  I just taught my daughter how to play, but we didn't keep score.  I'm pretty sure I could have kicked her ass and maybe broken the single best scoring record ever.  In fact, I probably could have challenged a bunch of the words she used on the basis of them being misspelled or placed invalidly on the board.

Admittedly, not an exact parallel example - someone did schedule the hoops game , and it takes two to tango, but you see my point.

I'm not saying the winning team should have stopped in the middle of the game and given the losing team pointers on how to shoot layups or anything, but displaying complete dominance over the meek doesn't strike me as "impressive".

[Lucky17]

Sorry, but it seems every year something pops up like this, whether it be girls basketball, baseball, football, etc...  and unless we are talking about the pro's, it shouldnt ever happen.  It is bs when college teams schedule puff teams so that they can blow them out for things like BCS rankings.  it is absurd when high school teams schedule teams they know they will cream.

Yes, it's crap like this that fuels the namby-pambies who want kids to play competitive sports but not keep score.

As for college teams padding their schedules, the losing team gets something out of it, usually money. I work at a state university whose football team is technically in Div I, but is more Div I-AA (Big Sky Conference). We've played top #25 ranked programs within state, at our request, since in return for the scheduled loss, our school gets a nice 6-figure check.

[kenmaine]

I also saw the story about the 100-0 game.
Impressive wasn't the word that came to my mind. Classless and  disgusting maybe. The coach should be relieved of her coaching duties- maybe she could help tutor some of the girls on the other team.
And good for Mark Cuban- he's taking the girls on the losing team to a Mavs game.

[MattG12]

How is that impressive Celtic?  It would be impressive there was some semblance of even talent level, but clearly there wasn't.  The winning team was toying with them.  If the Celtics beat Orlando 100-0 that would be impressive...

To me anytime you win a game 100-0, that's impressive, I also root for the bad guys in a lot of movies. Seriously, I feel like if I was in a game where I felt like my team could score 100, and keep the opposing team to 0, I would totally go for it. It's something that never happens.

Maybe impressive's the wrong word...  Unusual...absurd...extreme...

I'm an above average to excellent Scrabble player.  I just taught my daughter how to play, but we didn't keep score.  I'm pretty sure I could have kicked her ass and maybe broken the single best scoring record ever.  In fact, I probably could have challenged a bunch of the words she used on the basis of them being misspelled or placed invalidly on the board.

Admittedly, not an exact parallel example - someone did schedule the hoops game , and it takes two to tango, but you see my point.

I'm not saying the winning team should have stopped in the middle of the game and given the losing team pointers on how to shoot layups or anything, but displaying complete dominance over the meek doesn't strike me as "impressive".

TP for the analogy...
I let my niece beat me in ping pong a couple of weeks ago 21-20 and i think she only hit the ball on the table about 4 times.

[Steve Weinman]

How is that impressive Celtic?  It would be impressive there was some semblance of even talent level, but clearly there wasn't.  The winning team was toying with them.  If the Celtics beat Orlando 100-0 that would be impressive...

To me anytime you win a game 100-0, that's impressive, I also root for the bad guys in a lot of movies. Seriously, I feel like if I was in a game where I felt like my team could score 100, and keep the opposing team to 0, I would totally go for it. It's something that never happens.

Maybe impressive's the wrong word...  Unusual...absurd...extreme...

I'm an above average to excellent Scrabble player. 

Just keep rubbing it in, Redz.  I'm building up the bulletin board material and comin' at ya for a rematch soon...

As for the piece Celtic posted, I will say that regardless of one's thoughts on running up the score, the quote below is where some of the 21st century youth sports culture stuff absolutely crosses a line of absurdity in my book:

Queal said school officials met with Dallas Academy officials to apologize and praised "each member of the Dallas Academy Varsity Girls Basketball team for their strength, composure and fortitude in a game in which they clearly emerged the winner."

He has to be kidding, right?  

They could have taken off the press.  They could have cut the threes.  But the idea that what happened makes the team that wound up on the short side of 100-0 the "winner"...ugh.  When we play games, there are most often winners.  Which means there are also most often losers.  It happens.  Arrgh, the "finding a way to make everybody a winner" thing really gets to me sometimes.

-sw

[Redz]

How is that impressive Celtic?  It would be impressive there was some semblance of even talent level, but clearly there wasn't.  The winning team was toying with them.  If the Celtics beat Orlando 100-0 that would be impressive...

To me anytime you win a game 100-0, that's impressive, I also root for the bad guys in a lot of movies. Seriously, I feel like if I was in a game where I felt like my team could score 100, and keep the opposing team to 0, I would totally go for it. It's something that never happens.

Maybe impressive's the wrong word...  Unusual...absurd...extreme...

I'm an above average to excellent Scrabble player.  I just taught my daughter how to play, but we didn't keep score.  I'm pretty sure I could have kicked her ass and maybe broken the single best scoring record ever.  In fact, I probably could have challenged a bunch of the words she used on the basis of them being misspelled or placed invalidly on the board.

Admittedly, not an exact parallel example - someone did schedule the hoops game , and it takes two to tango, but you see my point.

I'm not saying the winning team should have stopped in the middle of the game and given the losing team pointers on how to shoot layups or anything, but displaying complete dominance over the meek doesn't strike me as "impressive".

TP for the analogy...
I let my niece beat me in ping pong a couple of weeks ago 21-20 and i think she only hit the ball on the table about 4 times.

Believe me, I'm a competitive person.  I love competition.  I'd rather compete at something and lose than just play for the hell of it.  Even in the example of playing Scrabble with my daughter, I'm anxious for her to learn how to play at a high level so we can play a "real" game (we'll see how I feel about that when she starts beating me - and I know darn well she will!).  But to me, it's not a competition if your opponent is not at anywhere near the same level of mastery of the game.

[BballTim]

How is that impressive Celtic?  It would be impressive there was some semblance of even talent level, but clearly there wasn't.  The winning team was toying with them.  If the Celtics beat Orlando 100-0 that would be impressive...

To me anytime you win a game 100-0, that's impressive, I also root for the bad guys in a lot of movies. Seriously, I feel like if I was in a game where I felt like my team could score 100, and keep the opposing team to 0, I would totally go for it. It's something that never happens.

  There's a reason it never happens...

  I used to coach my son's soccer teams. There were plenty of games we won 6 or 7 to nothing where we could have easily scored 20. Winning big over crappy teams isn't something to be overly proud of, in fact it was a waste of the team's time. Beating a tough opponent 2-1 was much more satisfying.

[yall hate]

Sorry, but it seems every year something pops up like this, whether it be girls basketball, baseball, football, etc...  and unless we are talking about the pro's, it shouldnt ever happen.  It is bs when college teams schedule puff teams so that they can blow them out for things like BCS rankings.  it is absurd when high school teams schedule teams they know they will cream.

Yes, it's crap like this that fuels the namby-pambies who want kids to play competitive sports but not keep score.

As for college teams padding their schedules, the losing team gets something out of it, usually money. I work at a state university whose football team is technically in Div I, but is more Div I-AA (Big Sky Conference). We've played top #25 ranked programs within state, at our request, since in return for the scheduled loss, our school gets a nice 6-figure check.

oh yea, I certainly understand the economic benefit to getting blown out by ranked teams.  but I tend to have a problem with the 'good' teams basically 'buying' huge wins.  Sure there is incentive for the other team, but doesnt it seem cheap to buy wins and at the same time deliberately run up the score.  oh well.  I guess they make their own decisions.

[wil]

I saw the story about the girl's basketball game this morning and thought it was a disgrace.  I have no problem with teams beating inferior teams heavily, but to press and shoot 3's when you're up 50-0 is grounds for a fight.  You have to have more class than that.  There was a link on True Hoop a week or two ago about a similar situation

http://www.coloradoan.com/article/20090115/UPDATES01/90115010

This team won 94-1 (which actually is funnier to me) but the article notes that once the game got out of hand the leading coach rotated 5 new girls in ever 4 minutes and played man to man defense the whole time and didn't press.  That's the way to do it.  Play hard, but respect the game and your opponent.