Bumblin' B's

[Pat Coleman]

Wylie said his coach's pre-game talk inspired the performance.

"He like really got on us for the loss and I don't like it when my coaches get on me. So I had to take it out on the team that we were playing," Wylie said.

Yuille said the reality of the performance by Wylie and his team started to set in later in the game. He noticed they'd piled up more than 180 points when he turned to an assistant and started talking about Wylie breaking the record for 3-pointers. "I said this is crazy."

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2006/basketball/ncaa/12/02/DIII.scoring.ap/index.html

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

Honestly, at this point, it's become clear that Yuille created this whole issue by accident.  Honestly, I would prefer to see the bench guys in for 30+ minutes (especially since Marion's only bench player is 44 years old); that's one side of the argument.


But look at the other side?  If he was really intending to be a jerk he would have played Wylie 35 minutes and let him score 100.  Somewhere in the heat of the moment he got caught up and didn't realize the repercussions.

It's very true what everyone is saying.  If this game had been 183-87, there might have been a little talk, but no one would have said anything.

What I've learned from this whole debate is that there are two kinds of people out there.  People who feel the bench should play the most minutes in a blowout and the people who feel like the coach can do what he or she wants in that situation.  It's really not about Lincoln at this point.  They've just provided us with a concrete example over which to haggle.  If anyone wants to continue to discuss this, you might as well leave Lincoln out of it and just use generalities, because that's where we've descended to anyway.

[wilburt]

Well stated Hoops Fan!

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

Maybe I can reclaim some of my karma.  I lost 14 points over this whole thing.  Rediculous!

[sunny]

How can I not grasp when the starters are in as relevant?  They would have had the same impact no matter when it was in the game.  Without being the coach of Lincoln, I can't tell you why Yuille played Wylie for 24 minutes, but no matter what 24 minutes he played, his impact would have been the same.

This is simply NOT true.  OSU-M had SIX players and Lincoln pressed the whole game with a full squad.  You think OSU-M even had the gas to try to defend Wylie those last nine minutes - even if they wanted to?  (I'm sure, by that point, they just wanted the game to end.)  I saw a couple of the clips and it looked like OSU-M was just playing "token" defense (winded, throwing up one hand to attempt to guard someone from several feet away) and there was a FRESH (since he had been sitting so long) Wylie taking what amounted to uncontested three-pointers.

If Lincoln had started their best five guys and played their top eight the whole first half and put up 120+ in the first half and then played the end of their bench the whole second half, so be it.  Obviously, OSU-M stinks, but at least for some of the first half they had SOME energy.  (I saw a similar situation in women's soccer this year.  Starters for a nationally-ranked team played the entire first half and scored seven goals against a team with about 14 regular players.  Second half it was all substitutes and they scored twice.)

You can defend Lincoln's "right" to play whoever they want in the game whenever they want in the game, but to say with certainty that WHEN the starters play against a team with SIX players makes no difference in terms of impact on the game, is just inaccurate.

Not to mention the point I brought up before - what if Wylie had twisted an ankle in the those last nine minutes?  What if an OSU-M kid just got angry about the whole thing and fouled him hard? Even beyond the sportsmanship thing, if I'm Yuille, I am not trotting my Most Valuable Player out there for the final nine minutes in what couldn't even be described as a game any more just to try to break some records. 

[patcummings]

I wholeheartedly agree with you about the potential for injury...

Did OSU-M have the gas to play Lincoln-style basketball for the first 20 minutes anyway?  No.

Does it make it right?  I suppose not.

I think one thing we will all agree on is this...Yuille and Wylie and others have told so many different stories about this game, and I'd love to get more of their take, unadulterated, on why they did what they did so all this conjecture could go away.

Then again, what version would we get? 

I think, at this point, the AD is putting the muzzle on them from continuing to talk about it.

[wilburt]

Maybe I can reclaim some of my karma.  I lost 14 points over this whole thing.  Rediculous!

I echo your sentiments. I lost 20+ points over this thing as well.  But I know who smited me!

BTW, well stated Pat Cummings! 

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

By the way Gregg Easterbrook lit into Lincoln and Yuille today in his ESPN.com column and he's a fellow at the Brookings Institute.

[sunny]

From The NY Times article linked in Easterbrook's column:

An unexpected benefit of the game has been publicity for the Ohio State-Marion program. Sisler said he had received about 15 e-mail messages from high school players wanting to know more.

"The national publicity we're getting is tremendous," he said. "Kids say, 'Hey, there's a team that needs some players.' "

Good to see OSU-Marion might get something positive from this whole thing

[sunny]

From The NY Times article linked in Easterbrook's column:

An unexpected benefit of the game has been publicity for the Ohio State-Marion program. Sisler said he had received about 15 e-mail messages from high school players wanting to know more.

"The national publicity we're getting is tremendous," he said. "Kids say, 'Hey, there's a team that needs some players.' "

Good to see OSU-Marion might get something positive from this whole thing

 

I don't know anything his coaching abilities, but it seems Mark Sisler is one easy-going, glass half-full type of guy!

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

He does actually play for the team.  It's nice to see 44 year old Juniors out there coaching and serving as Atheltic Directors while playing college ball. It sort of sets the bar higher for everyone else.

[sunny]

He does actually play for the team.  It's nice to see 44 year old Juniors out there coaching and serving as Atheltic Directors while playing college ball. It sort of sets the bar higher for everyone else.

Yes, he does, in fact, take classes - I saw that in the NYT article, which was the most-informed non-D3Hoops.com, national-level media report I've seen about the game.

It pained me every time I heard the game referred to as a "Division III game."  You think for one second if an ACC team beat up on a Division III team the news reports wouldn't ALL include a disclaimer stating that they were playing a Division III squad?  I'd hate for people to think that this was a game between two Division III schools ...

[patcummings]

Easterbrook, while occasionally entertaining, also has frequently stated that Mount Union is unsportsmanlike when piling on to highly overmatched opponents.  Little does he know about HOW sportsmanlike the Purple Raiders are.

Easterbrook lost his ESPN column several years ago for racist remarks.  I filter everything he says with more than a grain of salt.

[smedindy]

Pat -

Those remarks were taken out of context, and he's back on ESPN. Actually, his whipping boy NOW is Pittsburg State, who does seem to pile on with no remorse.

He's quite erudite and a refreshing change from some of the mediots out htere.

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

He does actually play for the team.  It's nice to see 44 year old Juniors out there coaching and serving as Atheltic Directors while playing college ball. It sort of sets the bar higher for everyone else.

Yes, he does, in fact, take classes - I saw that in the NYT article, which was the most-informed non-D3Hoops.com, national-level media report I've seen about the game.

It pained me every time I heard the game referred to as a "Division III game."  You think for one second if an ACC team beat up on a Division III team the news reports wouldn't ALL include a disclaimer stating that they were playing a Division III squad?  I'd hate for people to think that this was a game between two Division III schools ...

That's a very good point.  Time to mobilize our minions and start a barrage of letters to the editor at every major news outlet... now where did I leave those minions?