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How A Rule Made Basketball Unrecognizable In Sin City
This rule is just problematic. How are teams supposed to play and coaches supposed to coach?
Discuss.
Don't blame the players. They're merely following a Nevada rule: Whatever you do, don't win a basketball game by 50 points.
In 2011, after years of lopsided results and accusations of dominant programs running up scores, the Nevada Interscholastic Activities Association created a rule hoping to encourage sportsmanship and prevent embarrassing scores.
"There were a number of complaints and concerns about several coaches and several schools running up the score and, of course, no one thought this was very sportsmanlike," says Ray Mathis, who oversees Las Vegas athletics and is one of nine members on the NIAA's Board of Control. "We didn't want kids to be embarrassed, so we felt like we needed to come up with a process so at least we could get coaches to start thinking about not humiliating kids or getting them in a situation where they felt they had to defend themselves or not try out or be on a team because they were too embarrassed."
The board developed the now-controversial rule in which teams can't win by a margin of more than 49 points, and if they do, coaches are required to submit documentation explaining how it happened and how they tried to prevent it. If it happens three times in a season, the winning coach is suspended. The rule also institutes a running clock in the second half after a lead gets to 40 points.
Over the years, one-sided scores across the country -- among them a 108-1 win in Ohio on Wednesday night, a 161-2 victory in California in 2015 and a 100-0 blowout in Texas in 2009 -- have earned national attention and sparked debate about sportsmanship and fairness. Nevada's rule has succeeded in sparing teams from that mortification, but what has happened instead might be even more problematic.
This rule is just problematic. How are teams supposed to play and coaches supposed to coach?
Discuss.