The Washington County girls only lost by five points on Tuesday in a home basketball game versus Linn. This could be considered quite an accomplishment after losing to the Bulldogs by 42 points earlier this season. But when you see the final score was just 17-12 with Linn winning, most folks would double-check and make sure this was, in fact, the final score rather than a half time score.
Turns out the WCHS Tigers pulled out a stall offense in the first quarter to slow the game down... way down. Then Linn, for some reason, decided to do it in the third quarter.
For WCHS to lose by just five points to this once state-ranked team might make you think this style of game was a good decision since Linn only led by one at half. However, I've never personally seen this offense work and all it has ever accomplished, in my opinion, is to make the opposing team's fans really, really angry. The only thing I think this stall offense is good for is to stoke the fires of an already heated sports rivalry.
What do you think? Was this a good choice of an offense for either team?
Please post your comments on both sides of the issue.
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4 comments:
I feel sorry for the Washington girls in this case. It was senior night, or parents night, but either way it was the seniors last chance to put all they had into their final game at home. For those senior girls to have to remember their last home game of their career as one they had to stall because evidently their coach didn't believe that his girls are good enough to beat a very talented Linn team. If I remember right, Washington gave the Linn girls all they could handle in the first match up of the two teams in the league tourny. To me it is always a slap in a teams face when a coach won't attack and play the game they have worked so hard on. I will bet that the Washington girls didn't practice the sit in the corner offense all year in practice. They worked their tails off in practice everyday to do their best and compete.
In the same sense though, you have to wonder what in the world Linn's coach was thinking. Why in the world would number one, sit back in a zone and let them stand there with the ball when the score is 0-0. Secondly, why in the heck would you come out in the second half and stall back. The point of stalling is to either pull a team out of their zone that you have a tough time beating, or you are trying to keep yourself with in striking distance at the end of the game (either way, if that's the case why even play the game).
This move makes no sence, why would you ever want to try and keep them in the game, brilliant (o-wait, I think the definition would be showing of intelligence, not sure this word should be used here)!
Either way the stall is not good for anyone involved including the parents and fans who came to watch. "Watch what?"
I absolutely applaud Washington for the tactic they chose. Although the outcome was still a loss, it wasn't a 50 point loss like it was at Linn a few weeks back. I'm guessing that a huge blow-out, such as what occurred at Linn, would not be a pleasant memory for "those senior girls to have to remember for their last home game of their career". And, like it or not, Washington accomplished 2 things, they held Hiltgen to 2 free throws for the entire game, and they put themselves in a position to win, yes, win! If they had executed at the free throw line, they went 2 for 10, they may have actually won. So, the coach installed the perfect game plan, the girls carried it out, but did not execute at the line, simple as that. One other thing that I would like to mention, I was absolutely appalled at the way some of the Linn crowd reacted when Washington went into the stall. I even heard a parent of one of the Linn senior girls say that Washington players were "childish" and "chickens". My question is, one, as a grown adult, why would you act in such a manner, why don't you yell at your coach to come out of their 2-1-2 zone and Washington would have immediately went into their offense, and two, I find it quite ironic that when Linn went into a stall, you thought it was the funniest thing you had ever seen. Washingto may have lost, but only by 5, not 50.
5 or 50.... a loss is a loss!!! You are exactly right on one point, Linn should have come out of the zone and got after it, but our coach, well, we have learned just to expect not what you would normally expect.;-) The Washington girls are not that bad where they had to stall. Linn simply couldn't miss when they played each other in Linn. I mean everything fell through the hop. What about the league tourny game. I thought it was fairly close, if fact I was thinking that Washington was a head at some point.
Play the game or don't play it at all. I don't agree with a stall on either side of the fence (Linn stalling is one of the dumbest coaching moves I have ever heard of). I have to admit though if this was the perfect plan, how comes Washington still lost. Keeping themselves in the game isn't good enough when it comes to game planning, winning is the only perfect game plan.:-)You know the whole horse shoe and hand grenade saying. :-)
At the same token, it wasn't right of the people to yell things at the players but standing there holding the ball, there is no game planning in that.
I am not disagreeing with you for the most part in your remarks about the game or the crowd comments, I just don't like playing against a stall or watching one, having had to go through both numorus times. In fact, of the 6 times that I can think of, the stall team never has won. NC 2 times, Wetmore 2 times, Washington 2 times. I played against the NC and Wetmore teams, coach against the Washington JH and now this one. All stall's came out in a loss.
Kudos to Tigers coach Jay Kearn for a different gameplan.
The Linn coach was quoted as saying that he knew the gimmick strategy wouldn't work, but apparently it did. Free throws are not a gimmick, and unfortunately the Tigers couldn't convert more from the line.
It didn't hurt Linn either, as it had to deal with adversity.
Regardless, the Tigers have put together a pretty good season. Good luck to them at substate.
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