Bumblin' B's

[Ralph Turner]

After seeing the shortage of players and size on the opposing team, Yuille said he asked tournament officials whether the Lions could play the University of the District of Columbia - the fourth entrant in the event - instead but was denied. Ohio State-Marion, which was receiving a guarantee as a replacement, agreed to play.

Yuille has received a lot of negative feedback for running up the score in a game he said "seemed like a scrimmage. The score didn't mean anything. They were throwing the ball into our hands. I wish we had never played."

...
Ironically, the coach's emphasis entering the game was on defense, a facet of the Lions' game that had displeased him in a loss to Salem the previous night. And, only two of the regulars started. One starter, Thomas Hickson (Woodlawn), did not make the trip.

...
Afterward, Ohio State-Marion players went through the normal post-game handshakes.

"They just said, 'Nice game.' There wasn't no hard feelings," said Carter-Bey, a defensive specialist and one of the key components of Lincoln's "Chaos Crew," akin to Nolan Richardson's "40 Minutes of Hell" at Arkansas.
...

"They knew our style. There wasn't any disrespect," added Dean, who scored a career-high 33 points and grabbed 13 rebounds in 24 minutes, the most anyone from Lincoln played in the game. A transfer from South Carolina State, Dean is the team's second-leading scorer (23.2 ppg) and leading rebounder (7.8 rpg).

...

There have been very few comments, aside from Pat Cummings' post,  about more sophisticated aspects of sportsmanship.

What type of sportsmanship is it for Salem International to decline the request for Lincoln to play Univ of DC?

It is sportsmanship to perform at your best and not discredit the opponent.  Do your best.  Accept the appreciation of your teammates.  Acknowledge the correct execution by your teammates that permitted you to achieive/excel, e.g., the timely outlet pass on the fastbreak, the correctly set screen or the downfield block in football. Do not taunt your opponent.

As others have suggested, there is no way to slow down this style of play.  The chance to make accurate and correct passes to other teammates at the speed of the offense is just the nature of the offense.  Looking for and hitting the "hot" player is another part of the game.

As more details have come from this, IMHO, Coach Yuille was in a "perfect storm" of "you cannot win" conditions.

As for ratings, ratings are just ephemeral.  Why not just assume that you were "underrated".  Nothing needs to be said.  You have already proven it on the scoreboard.  I really don't like the chant "overrated".

As for Principia scheduling at Wheaton, they have won 13, 3, 11, and 2 games in the last 4 seasons.  It may not have been as preposterous for them to schedule that game.  As noted, they lost by a bigger margin to D2 Northwestern Missouri State.

I really hope that OSU-Marion is able to build their program from this.

[wilburt]

I agree with you Ralph.  The quotes from the Lincoln players certainly do not indicate that they were gangster ball players!

[Ralph Turner]

Oxy Bob, it appears that we will agree to disagree.  Coach Yuille appears to have exhausted all avenues not play the game and tried to maintain a dialogue with the other coaching staff.

I won't second-guess his strategic decisions, because I wasn't there.

Now...

let's address the issue that I mentioned earlier...

the attributes of sportsmanship that the "Safety School" chant by the fans demonstrates.

(For those who haven't heard the "Safety School" chant, it implies that the students of the Safety School were not admitted to the school that is doing the chanting, and had to settle for a school that is "inferior" in the opinion of the chanters and was farther down the list of choices.)

[Gregory Sager]

As for Principia scheduling at Wheaton, they have won 13, 3, 11, and 2 games in the last 4 seasons.  It may not have been as preposterous for them to schedule that game.

If Wheaton coach Bill Harris scheduled this game two years in advance, your theory might have some credence. If he scheduled it last year, he would've known going in that he was scheduling it against a team whose record and scores indicated an epic ineptitude that could only be described as Caltechesque.

I still prefer to believe that this game was a late fill-in for Wheaton.

[wilburt]

OSU-Marion strikes again:  loses 138-27 to Georgetown (Ky). 

http://www.georgetowncollegeathletics.com/teams/Mens_Basketball/Stats/06-07_stats/BoxScoreOSMvs.GC.htm

Where's the outrage!? Is that Kentucky gangster basketball!?  Inquiring minds want to know...

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

I guess I missed the post where somebody called Lincoln "gangster" basketball, because that's just ignorant.

This is a tough one to call.  Georgetown certainly could have done more to keep the score down.  However, out of their twelve man roster, eight guys play more than 20 minutes a game on average.  Their two best players played less than ten minutes in this game, but their two worst players played less than 15 each.

I think, like Lincoln, Georgetown could have done a little more to help out Marion.

This game won't get the same press because the winning total wasn't as high, but then again, why the heck is Marion even scheduling these games?  Georgetown is a very good NAIA school.

[wilburt]

Guys, but for Hoops Fan, the silence (or lack of objection) to the OSU-Marion vs Georgetown (Ky.) score is DEAFENING!   Or is this just tacit approval for Georgetown (Ky.) to put up such a lopsided score against OSU-Marion but not for Lincoln?

[Pat Coleman]

If you go post on an NAIA board it might be different, just a thought.

[Titan Q]

Guys, but for Hoops Fan, the silence (or lack of objection) to the OSU-Marion vs Georgetown (Ky.) score is DEAFENING!   Or is this just tacit approval for Georgetown (Ky.) to put up such a lopsided score against OSU-Marion but not for Lincoln?

Wilburt, if you can find me proof that Georgetown (KY) had its best player on the floor in the final minutes of the game throwing up 3's left and right, I will go find an NAIA message board, register, and make a post about Georgetown's lack of sportsmanship.  But seeing as their leading scorer, Brian Silverhorn, played just 7 minutes in the game - and was 0-1 from the field - I am guessing that did not happen.

[wilburt]

True Pat, but the principle, as previously discussed on this board, is still the same!  People have previously used high school scores and scores from a women's college game as possible analogies.  What better one (analogy that is) than this game?

[Pat Coleman]

Read Q's post. The margin is the issue because Wylie was in the game and chucking three-balls for the last nine minutes.

If that happened with Georgetown I will join Q and post against it.

[wilburt]

So the final score doesn't matter then?  1 guy can't chuck 3s (which is a lower % shot) at the end of a lopsided game but it's otherwise okay to run your regular offense (to get a higher % shot) at the end of a lopsided game?

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

It might have been more prudent not to schedule the game in the first place.

[Titan Q]

So the final score doesn't matter then?  I guy can't chuck 3s (which is a lower % shot) at the end of a lopsided game but it's otherwise okay to run your regular offense (to get a higher % shot) at the end of a lopsided game?

Wilburt, the reason Lincoln is getting so much grief is because of who was shooting all those 3's at the end of the blowout -- their All-American.  That is the one fact that looks the worst for your team.  We can all debate the pressing vs taking the press of thing and if they should have run the clock down more, shot less, etc...but the fact that Lincoln's best player was in the game up 100-whatever points just doesn't look good at all.  It is hard to defend that and I haven't heard anyone from Lincoln even try to defend it.

Hoops Fan, if you read this thread you will note that Lincoln had no control over playing OSU-Marion - they were a late substitution in a tournament run by another school.

Oh and Wilburt, you might want to just let this topic die.  Not sure why you want to keep it going.

[wilburt]

Oh and Wilburt, you might want to just let this topic die.  Not sure why you want to keep it going.

You are correct Titan Q...