When games turn into blowouts, human ugliness sometimes prevails. It can be a coach continuing to embarass a team or angry parents or even players who make dirty plays out of frustration.
The winning coach is put in an extremely bad situation when blowouts occur, and in my opinion, many of them don’t know the best way to finish out a blowout game. This all is pertinent because of a Dallas girls basketball team that beat its opponent 100-0 and then saw its coach get fired.
I don’t have the answer, but the Positive Coaching Alliance has some tips and I thought they’re good ones. They come from Jim Thompson, founder and executive director.
- Don’t try to build a comfortable lead and then let up. Start your subs even if it means a slower, less-stable advantage. Even if your team falls behind, your strong players can then enter, challenged to play their best.
- Start players in unfamiliar positions. Got a big center who doesn’t dribble well? Have them bring the ball up. Let your smaller guards post up.
- Have your players dribble with their weak hand. Caution them not to show up the opponent. Have them dribble weak-handed without a big show.
If you would like to receive more information about the Positive Coaching Alliance, visit their Web site at this link.
About Me: Leland Gordon is the prep sports writer for the Chico Enterprise-Record and a 2006 graduate of Chico State with a journalism major and French minor. His prep sports writing career began when he was 17 years old at the Mountain Democrat in Placerville and he has also done news writing for The Orion at Chico State and Silicon Valley Community Newspapers in San Jose.
Also known as “Lee,” Mr. Gordon is a fanatic when it comes to the following things: long car trips, hiking, snowboarding, wakeboarding, bowling, disc golfing and a whole bunch of other stuff. But his passion (for now, at least) is Northern Section prep sports.
Leland earned seven varsity letters at El Dorado High School and refereed prep wrestling in the north state before getting hired at the E-R.
Lee:
Those tactics are fine for a completely lop-sided game. Sometimes a game gets a little lop-sided but the losing coach still goes with his starters as though the game may still be won. Sometimes they do get back in the game. This is where I do not think that the winning coach should bow to the pressures of early substitution until the losing coach concedes and puts in his bench. I am sure that you have witnessed a game where a team has come back from what appeared to be unsurmountable odds and won. The most recent example that I can remember is when Chico was up by 20 at half in Paradise and started the 3rd quarter with the second team. Paradise came back hot with the Maehl brothers making every shot from all over the court. The starters came back in with a saunter, expecting to take control but found that the momentum had swung and could not be overcome. Paradise won going away.