Name of the game is scoring

As the state basketball tournament here in Texas gets underway in Austin, there are a few people upset about the undefeated Houston Yates (32-0) team scoring too many points. Seems Yates has beaten some opponents like 148-69, 139-51 and 127-26. Yates has set a national record by scoring over 100 points in 14 consecutive games en route to its current average of 117.2 per game, also a national record. It beat Lee, another Houston school, 170-35 in which it held a held a halftime lead of 100-12.

I say, so what! If a team has a chance to set a national record, let it. Isn’t that what basketball is all about? Score and then score some more. What’s the big deal, or as my friend Elaine would probably say, “Big whoop.”

Two teams I covered back in the day, Kilgore College and LeTourneau University, were both women’s teams, coached by women coaches, and they were fairly outstanding teams. They both won back-to-back national championships on their level, JC and NCCAA. When they would get a team down, I mean really down, they would let up on the throttle some. You know, they would worry about what it would do to the other’s team’s psyche or what the other coach might think. It might show bad sportsmanship, they (the coaches) worried. I’d encourage them to keep scoring. I’d tell them, so what? If it’s going to “come back and bite you again” someday, why worry about it now? Coaches tend to worry about that sort of thing.

As a sports writer, I guess it was something I didn’t have to fret over. It was easier to write about a winning team setting national records. If a team has a chance to break some sort of record, let it. Let the chips fall as they may. Worry about it later, or don’t worry about it at all. A player may never get another chance to be on a record-setting team, even if it’s as a substitute. I say go for the gusto!