The Continuing Wussifcation of American Kids

[NotDutra5]

The hinges came off the transfer doors 2 years ago, and it's the Wild West here now, as kids transfer to find the next hot program. Not so bono.

It may have created greater separation with programs such as STA in Miami, Lakeland and Armwood over here.

[lonewolf]

I don't know Oklahoma HS transfer rules but ranked team entering playoffs is facing forfeit of all games for playing a stud running back whose family moved to the district during the summer and he did not sit out a year.

[DrJay]

Valor Christian, the Denver school for which Cole Sprout runs, is one of those high schools that “doesn’t recruit” but seems to get all the great talent and have top-notch sports programs. St. Xavier in Louisville is another.

[jc203]

Per Atticus:

In T&F if you get lapped in a race or jump 4' lower in the PV, don't expect the winner to go easy on you; they are doing their best. Isn't that what we always say, 'Do your best!'? Losing is an honorable outcome too.

True enough, but I don't think what is true in T&F is analogous to a high school football team on the wrong end of a major beatdown. A track athlete can be completely outclassed by the competition yet still achieve a personal best or at least have a measurable mark to assess his/her performance. Moreover, there is no immediate threat of harm.
Players on a high school football team trailing by 4 or 5 TDs at the half are probably being physically overwhelmed by bigger, faster players and in real danger of serious injury and with fatigue would be more vulnerable in the second half.

Lopsided scores alway remind me of a hoops coach friend of mine whose team was playing a nationally ranked team loaded with D1 prospects. The coach primed his kids to run plays and pass and pass until the opponents got bored playing defense and only take very high percentage shots, even if that meant the time clock might run out. By half time the ranked team had doubled the score on the locals and their coach suggested to my pal that in the second half he should just "let the kids play."
The reply was, "Coach you might beat us 60 to 30 but I'll be damned if you beat us 120 to 60."

[TN1965]

Just found out aboutthis game between Stanford and Prairie View A&M. No mercy at all.
The question is, did they celebrate after the 15th goal?

https://gostanford.com/sports/womens...boxscore/33192

[Atticus]

My question is simple - why on earth was this game ever scheduled? Everyone knew this would happen, but all it did was make the Red Tree Farmers look like jerks. I sure hope there's more to that story.

[gm]

My question is simple - why on earth was this game ever scheduled? Everyone knew this would happen, but all it did was make the Red Tree Farmers look like jerks. I sure hope there's more to that story.

Ummmm, maybe because it was the NCAA tournament? Just a thought.

[18.99s]

True enough, but I don't think what is true in T&F is analogous to a high school football team on the wrong end of a major beatdown. A track athlete can be completely outclassed by the competition yet still achieve a personal best or at least have a measurable mark to assess his/her performance.

Perhaps more importantly, a high school T&F athlete who is dominating the race often has higher goals which depend on running their best, such as qualifying for a state championship, national team trials, or attracting attention from colleges. Their dominant time won't be devalued if everybody else in the race is vastly slower.

But there is usually nothing to gain by beating a low-ranked football or basketball team by 60 points instead of 20 or 30. Rankers and recruiters will devalue or ignore high scores against such opponents. Unlike T&F, performances in ball sports are only relative to the opponent; there is no opponent-independent measure of performance quality, except for a few isolated stats such as speed of a fastball or free throw percentage.

[18.99s]

Ummmm, maybe because it was the NCAA tournament? Just a thought.

So that raises the question, how did Prairie View make it into the NCAA tournament in the first place?

They qualified for the NCAA tournament by winning their conference tournament, which provides an automatic NCAA spot for the conference champion. It turns out that they were the hosts of the conference tournament; having home field advantage in those 3 games, combined with a little luck (particularly against Howard, who was undefeated in 9 conference games before losing 0-1 to PV in the conference final) boosted them to their first conference title ever, and a spot in the NCAA tournament.

I read the recap of the Stanford game on PV's web site to see if there was any mention of PV missing key players due to injury or suspension, but nothing like that was mentioned.
https://pvpanthers.com/news/2019/11/...-stanford.aspx

[NotDutra5]

So that raises the question, how did Prairie View make it into the NCAA tournament in the first place?

They qualified for the NCAA tournament by winning their conference tournament, which provides an automatic NCAA spot for the conference champion. It turns out that they were the hosts of the conference tournament; having home field advantage in those 3 games, combined with a little luck (particularly against Howard, who was undefeated in 9 conference games before losing 0-1 to PV in the conference final) boosted them to their first conference title ever, and a spot in the NCAA tournament.

I read the recap of the Stanford game on PV's web site to see if there was any mention of PV missing key players due to injury or suspension, but nothing like that was mentioned.
https://pvpanthers.com/news/2019/11/...-stanford.aspx

Stanford seeded #1 vs Prairie View as the lowest seeded team a blowout shouldn't be surprising I guess. PV in football is an FCS school and if we equate a football game between the level PV plays at in football vs. the possibilities at Div I...well maybe we don't want to think about the possibilities.

What's baffling to me is that in a sport which I've found confusing because of situations in which a team will move the ball forward to a point where they might actually take a shot on goal only to stop and kick the ball back to the middle of the field for reasons only described to me as the "beauty of the game" would have a score end up 15-0.