Fight In Scrimmage

Saw a very ugly thing in the first scrimmage of the year this past weekend. One team was driving to the basket at will and getting a lot of easy layups on simple drives to the hole. Big surprise, the coach was bent with his team defense and eventually the kids got frustrated, too. Soon enough, big guy rotates over to throw a body block on someone going for a layin, adhering to the old adage "Don't let anyone have come down the lane and get to the hole uncontested."

Result was a broken nose, several stitches, and...a personal foul. Post-bomb scene was interesting. Victim on the floor on his back holding his bloody face. Tough guy maintaining he did nothing wrong, he just fouled him. Tough guy's coach defending his player and accusing the crew of letting a football game be played which led to the play (which was a normal foul). Victim's coach did not really see what happened, but reacted pretty aggressively when he saw the bloody player and the lack of remorse from his opponents. Bad deal all the way around.

Could it have been prevented? I'm not sure. Fouls were being called. None of the crew really got a good look at he play, and by calling a normal foul when you have a decked and bloody player on the ground, it did not help matters. Within the context, we should have been aware that the one team was dominating, and been expecting someone to get decked going for another wide open layin. And expecting it, we should have been more than ready to aggressive and forcefully deal with it--intentional or flagrant foul.

Great lesson! It takes one play for non-basketball stuff to ruin a game. In this case, it kind of ruined the scrimmage. Bad blood remained throughout, although no further non-basketball plays occurred. You always need to be vigilant of the context of the game. Prideful players don;t like getting their asses beat and embarrassed. When that happens, you really need to focus and make sure that non-basketball plays get addressed swiftly and authoritatively. That protects the integrity of the game, and your crew.

Be ready from the opening tip of your first scrimmage this year...