Robservations: Scores get wacky in girls hoop
Pig!
Oh, wait. That was last week.
Now that we’re back to normal — or, at least as “normal” as it ever gets around here during the 51 non-pig weeks of the year, let’s get the ball rolling on some quick hits, pot shots, and other random Robservations.
• One of your friendly neighborhood news writers passed along a New York Times article earlier this week dealing with the growing concern caused by blowouts in girls high school basketball.
The writer of the piece, Mike Freeman, cites examples from all over the country of this growing problem, including the most extreme case, a 115-2 contest between two squads in Michigan.
He also brings up consecutive games involving Dunbar High School in Washington. During a recent tournament, Dunbar downed one team 89-12 and beat its next opponent 98-7.
It’s not always at some school across the country, however. If you remember a few weeks back, Boyd Christian’s girls found themselves on the upper end of a big mismatch, when they downed Richard Hardy Memorial 100-18.
Can something be done about this? Yes, the solution’s actually quite simple: Call the dogs off. If you’re up 30 at the half, put in the JV. If you’ve out-scored your opponent 22-1 over an eight-minute stretch, drop out of your full-court press and go to a zone.
Because by embarrassing your opponent, a lot of times you’re actually embarrassing yourself.
• Now, on the other end of the spectrum, we have Monday’s region tournament game between Chester County and McNairy Central.
In a double-overtime nail-biter, Chester County’s Rebecca Rowsey hit a basket and a free throw in the waning moments to propel her team to a victory.
A 7-4 victory.
Nelson Smotherman, the man to talk to about Tennessee High School sports history, says he is fairly certain the game set a record for the lowest score ever in a girls’ game.
McNairy’s head coach, Jerry Lott, decided to play stall-ball in the first quarter, while his team was down 4-2. The score remained the same until the fourth quarter, when McNairy tied it and sent it to overtime.
This same type of situation happened in the NBA back in the 1950s. In fact, according to nba.com, On November 22, 1950, the Fort Wayne Pistons edged the Minneapolis Lakers 19-18 in a game where the teams scored a total of eight baskets.
That barn-burner brought fourth the biggest rule change in the league’s history, and it’s a rule change that needs to come to the high school level if debacles like Monday’s 7-4 contest continue — the shot clock.
It’ll make the game more exciting, add a whole new element to teams’ offensive plans, and hopefully end the days of high school basketball scores that look like finals from the Boys’ Coach-Pitch League.
• Speaking of baseball, “Cat” looks to be on track to keeping his spot in the Detroit Tigers’ bullpen.
Through Wednesday, Jamie Walker has appeared in three of the Tigers’ eight spring training games, and has been all but untouchable.
The lefty reliever has one save, and has allowed no runs and just one hit, while balancing two strikeouts against two walks during three innings of work.
By the way, don’t pass any of that information on to any of the guys in my fantasy baseball league.
Our draft’s coming up Sunday, and I’m going to try to steal “Cat” out from under them.