Ohio Chatter DEV

ernest_t_bass

Admin looks to possibly cancel entire season, due to unsportsmanlike routing:

http://rivals.yahoo.com/highschool/blog/prep_rally/post/100-2-middle-school-hoops-blowout-may-have-reper?urn=highschool-wp9112

There are routs, there are blowouts, and then there are epic one-sided losses that would make the likes of Woody Hayes blush. The 100-2 victory by Pikeville (Ky.) Independent Middle School against Kimper (Ky.) Elementary and Middle School at the Pike County Preseason Tournament falls squarely in the last category. Now, the school district's superintendent and school board are allegedly considering canceling the team's entire season because of a perceived lack of sportsmanship shown in the 98-point drubbing.As first reported by ScoutsFocus' Joe Davis, Pikeville raced out to a 70-0 lead in the game by halftime, eventually cruising through a second-half performance in which Pikeville coach Bryan Johnson allegedly told his team to "stop playing defense" in an attempt to let Kimper score. You can see highlights from the mismatch in the first 40 seconds of the video above.
To say that the game was always going to be a mismatch is an understatement. Kimper is a small school of only 180 total students, and features players as young as 11 on its squad. That's a stark contrast to Pikeville, which might indeed boast one of the nation's most talented squads of eighth-graders; the same team which routed Kimper rolled past Virgie (Ky.) Middle School 75-32 in the championship game of the tournament. The Pikeville squad consists of the best members of the school's sixth- and seventh-grade teams from the past two seasons, when Johnson served as the head coach of those squads. He also coached the most select players from those teams on the AAU circuit, giving the team a cohesiveness that stands in stark contrast to the Kimper squad.
As one might expect, the full statistics from such a one-sided romp are even more shocking than Pikeville's 70-point half. Perhaps the most astonishing is the following: Pikeville led 25-0 just 1:48 into the game, when the team dropped its full court press and Johnson removed all five of his team's starters. Do the math, and one quickly realizes that Pikeville essentially scored a bucket every eight seconds when its starters were in the game.
According to Davis, who was informed of the situation by Johnson, that first two-minute span and the continued offensive performance by the Pikeville reserves have been enough to prod the Pikeviile Independent School Board into quietly considering canceling the entire Pikeville basketball season. Whether or not the school district would cancel one of its team's seasons because of a single blowout remains to be seen, but if ever there was a one-sided scoreline that could elicit such a response, the 100-2 rout might be it.
Still, while Johnson may have always been due the largest share of criticism for letting his team rack up a 98-point victory in a preseason tournament against an overmatched foe, the fact that the two teams were even playing in the same bracket deserves further inspection as well. Sure, the two teams play on the same Kentucky middle school circuit, but that hardly justifies setting the two up against one another when such a game isn't absolutely necessary.
Does that mean that the Kimper head coach, Chase Haley, deserves criticism himself? Perhaps, though it's hard to find much fault with a coach looking for somewhere for his young team to play games before the regular season heats up.
In fact, that might be the worst news for Kimper after the game: The team still has Pikeville on its regular-season schedule in mid-December. Of course, that rematch would be contingent on the entire Pikeville season not being canceled first, and that may be less of an eventuality than any of us might imagine at first blush.

darbypitcher22

Saw this story earlier.

I don't know what to think of it. pretty harsh to cancel a whole season but you wonder how those two teams got matched up in a bracket in a tournament against each other anyways

Mr. Russell

I think it is pussified to cancel a season when your team does good. I could understand being angry, but don't punish the kids. What does that teach the other team? Obviously the team that dropped 100 put in the work to do so.

justincredible

darbypitcher22;992528 wrote:Saw this story earlier.

I don't know what to think of it. pretty harsh to cancel a whole season but you wonder how those two teams got matched up in a bracket in a tournament against each other anyways

Well, in most tournaments I've heard of the top seed plays the bottom seed in the first round. So it makes perfect sense.

karen lotz

What does she mean?

thavoice

I agreed. The ssason should be cancelled.

For the team that lost.

My God...how can a middle school team give up that many points? We had a good Jr Hi team and if ya hit 50 you were hitting on all cylinders!

dlazz

they should cancel the season.

inexcusable.

tcarrier32

hahah. that's my hometown. what a smack down

darbypitcher22

justincredible;992537 wrote:Well, in most tournaments I've heard of the top seed plays the bottom seed in the first round. So it makes perfect sense.

Yes I understand this but how you could let this team get games in your tournament knowing their skill level is beyond me. I know of tournaments who have turned people away in the past because they just couldn't hack it

THE4RINGZ

Tough shit, you got your asses kicked.

If you think that is the last time life kicks you in the ass at age 13, you are in for a rude awakening.

Let the kids play. Quit making today's youth such pussies.

sleeper

Only in the SEC...

ernest_t_bass

I am disappointed in all of you. You should all be very ashamed.

We've made it this far in this thread, and no one has made reference to NCF/middle school basketball.

Mister Twister

I wonder if they did a victory swim in the Big Sandy after the game??

se-alum

Yea, these two teams playing at all was the problem. I mean, the team was up 25 two minutes into the game, what were they supposed to do the rest of the time, dribble in circles? They should've just stopped the game if they were concerned about the rout.

FatHobbit