New Jersey High School Coach Suspended For .... Stop Me If You Heard This Before , Winning By Too Much
NJ.com- Montclair Immaculate coach Jimmy Kreie has been suspended for four games after Montclair Immaculate opened the season with a 104-30 win over Caldwell on Opening Night, Montclair Immaculate athletic director Jim Risoli said on Monday, citing a lack of sportsmanship.
“We want to reiterate that what occurred on Thursday evening does not represent our school’s values and beliefs,” Risoli said in a statement. “We try to make it our mission to uphold such virtues as respect, honor, and dignity in all things we do. When it comes to athletic competition, sportsmanship is something that we take pride in and unfortunately what occurred last Thursday evening was not something we condone.
Seems like this happens once a year and everyone comes over the top to slam the coach and shame the team, and want to bury the guy , the school the players etc. What usually doesn't happen is people reviewing the facts or factors that come into play instead just reading the headline and score and immediately making a decision.
Let's first examine detail number one ... the AD and school did make an error in not abiding by the running clock rule set up by the conference.
NJ.com - Steve Tober of Sideline Chatter was the first to report on Kreie’s suspension. According to the report, there were memos circulating around athletic directors within the Super Essex Conference about the final score and there were pleas among them to utilize the SEC’s running clock rule moving forward.
The running clock starts in the second half when a team leads by 30 points in the second half, according to Risoli.
According to Tober’s report, Risoli was not aware of the rule beforehand.
The report added host schools are responsible putting the rule into effect and once the running clock starts, the time won’t return back to normal timing. The rule is also supposed to be at the scorer’s table and all SEC boys and girls basketball coaches have to have the regulations at each game, and any coach or school violating the rule is subject to penalties by the conference, according to the report.
That's a very clear mistake. If the conference has a running clock 30 point rule, you need to know that. No matter if you were running it up or not, when you screw up the rule it can be perceived that you wanted to stick it to the other team. So Montclair Immaculate is wrong for that.
The questions people aren't asking , likely people who have never taken a jumper in their life, should be these :
- Did Montclair Immaculate pull their starters ?
- Did Montclair Immaculate press when Caldwell wasn't ?
- Did Montclair Immaculate fast break ?
If these answers are all no , you kind of have to shut up. The brutal reality of sports is sometimes teams just hang it on others. Bryant's Jared Grasso put it best a few weeks ago when he won by 70, he reminded people he lost by 70 to Houston the season prior. Sports can have big talent gaps which result in big score gaps. That's how it goes.
The other thing no one ever asks in these situations is what good does it do Immaculate's backups to just sit and hold the ball, also why should they not be able to improve in a game like situation ? Especially when those game like situations are few and far in between. Why should Kreie have to apologize for allowing his players to get better so he can use them in meaningful games down the road ? No one ever asks this question and it drives me nuts. When kids can play why should they have to play on someone else's terms ? Why should they only play four corners ? Especially when the opposition gets to play full tilt the entire time ?
Maybe next time instead of killing a coach for a lopsided score, instead ask if even after the coach took all the precautions to not run up the score, what if there was nothing he could do ? Or ask yourself what was he supposed to do differently if his team is 70-80 points better. Maybe the outcome was what it was supposed to be.