What happened to sport? - Page 2

Scott Kustes · 01-24-2009, 10:37 AM

Scott, not sure Spurrier truly understood the Art Of War then if blowing someone out is what he understands as the message. The main thing I took from that book is that it's better to win the hearts and minds of the opposition, rather than completely destroy them...destruction engenders only fear and hatred. "Taking whole" as it is known. Advanced preparation was another key theme, something I'm sure Spurrier did, as do all top coaches.

As for this game, the coach should be ashamed for pressing and shooting 3s that long into the game. It's pathetic and not sporting. And trying to forfeit after the fact is somewhat patronizing and useless. You can't unring a bell.

When I was in high school, we had a Top 10 girls basketball team. One season, there were three wins over very small, local all-girls Christian schools...the scores I recall are 126-16, 116-16, and 106-6. But key in those games was that our girl's coach called off the press midway through the first quarter, pulled the starters before halftime, and did everything other than telling his girls not to shoot. He tried to be sporting, but you also can't tell your team to just hold the ball and you can't help it if the other team can't not turn the ball over. You can help being a jerk-off and massacring the other team just for kicks though.

Mike ODonnell · 01-24-2009, 11:41 AM

College football is messed up because the big teams have to blow people out to move up in the rankings....not just Win-Loss.

Scott Clark · 01-24-2009, 12:46 PM

Scott K, I had the same reaction regarding how Spurrier took such a message from The Art Of War. I own the book and have read it several times... even went back to try to find what Spurrier's justification could be taken from. In the interview he said that no matter the score, you run your offense, period. Just as if you're down by 30, you play to put points on the board.

Who knows. Perhaps his distorting Sun Zsu's work is coming back on him at USC

Donald Lee · 01-27-2009, 09:20 PM

Did anyone see any of the bickering about this on the CrossFit Forum?

http://board.crossfit.com/showthread.php?t=41953

What a sad, sad thread.

Derek Maffett · 01-28-2009, 01:13 AM

More traffic there, more chance of people talking who have extremely different views. Of course, when somebody's wrong, disagreement is important, but the flaming there was unnecessary.

Still, that thread is their issue.

Garrett Smith · 01-28-2009, 04:56 AM

The winning coach has now been fired.
http://www.pegasusnews.com/news/2009...s-basketball-/

Derek Maffett · 01-28-2009, 05:33 AM

Garrett Smith · 01-28-2009, 05:43 AM

The article linked within the above link has many more quotes and details:
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcont...u.2781526.html
It has turned into a "he said, she said..." situation. The school apologized, the coach said he wasn't apologizing, the school has now fired the coach.

Quote:

Dallas Academy coaches and administrators say Covenant kept the pressure on until it reached 100 points midway through the fourth quarter.

Until Sunday, Grimes hadn't made any public comments since he e-mailed The News on Wednesday night. In that e-mail, which was also sent to Queal and athletic director Brice Helton, Grimes called scoring 100 points "unfortunate."

"It just happened," he wrote. "Please know Covenant intended no harm against them. I see this as a real learning opportunity, so we can prevent this from happening in the future."

Grimes said in his Sunday post that his team stopped applying full-court defensive pressure after the score reached 25-0 three minutes into the game, then dropped into a relatively benign zone defense and began resting its starters in favor of its three bench players.

Dallas Academy coach Andrew Lott agreed that Covenant stopped pressing at that point but returned with an alternate press later in the game.

"I am 100 percent sure," said Lott, who estimated that his team was able to take seven shots all game.

Dallas Academy, renowned for its work with students who have learning disabilities, is winless this season and has not won a game in at least four seasons.

I wonder if the Dallas Academy has been blown out this badly in the past, only to have this one event being made an example of.

Derek Maffett · 01-28-2009, 06:14 AM

I know, it's just that their thought processes are so epically mindboggling.

Garrett Smith · 01-28-2009, 06:22 AM

Well, as a business owner with employees, I can understand the situation from the school's side.

With this issue becoming a national news item, and the coach basically giving the school the finger on his own website, I see no foul on the school for canning him. He asked for it, he chose not to apologize and side with his employer.

Don't piss off the boss if you want to keep your job. That's pretty simple. As for the thought processes that led them here, I can't speak to that.