Several questions for those of you upset with the winning coach: 1) beyond eliminating the press and benching his starters for the entire game what SPECIFICALLY would you have done? 2) Is there a particular score margin a coach is not to exceed? 3) Is there a danger of a perceived mocking of the less skilled team by not playing hard? 4) What instructions would you have given the third string as they entered the game—something like “Have fun but don’t score any points . . .”
The first specific thing is to stop the press. I’d also probably fall back into a zone. Other than that I have no problem playing hard. I never want to see the leading team stop trying. My kids have been on the losing end of some of these scores and it infuriated me more when the winning team stopped trying.
There’s nothing to be gained for the winning team. It’s not even a good practice. But they should never let up.
Work on other aspects of the game. Work on the close in defense. Work on midrange shooting. Work on screening and passing. Intercepting a pass, going after the dribble and making a layup are important skills, but they aren’t the only skills. Kobe Bryant recently made a statement about how poorly trained US players are. It’s because of coaches like this. He’s not developing players. He’s trying to advance his career and it’s at the expense of the players.
This coach has super-developed his kids on speed. Speed is a critical component of the game. It’s not the only component. A coach only gets so much practice time. If you spend all your practice time on speed-development, trapping and pressing, then you’re shorting your players. You can win a lot of games at that level, but it will catch up to the players eventually. I’ve seen it.