Damon Gros Ventre

[BStinsMSU]

I get it, soft generation vs if you don’t like it stop it. I coached basketball, the thing that didn’t sit well with me is that it’s one thing that you leave your guy out there to try and set the record, but if you watch the game highlights, the coach is running an extended 2-3 zone to trap when he’s up 40 already. You’re not making your team any better at that point. Get your younger guys in to get some varsity minutes. Your Varsity guys have already won you the game and executed your game plan. All in all it doesn’t sit well with me at all. From what I read they were playing against 8th graders, no ****** your team is going to be able to trap them every time down the floor. Congrats to the kid, hope the coach at least feels good about himself.

[Cataholic]

What is the maximum number of points that should be allowed before a coach should be reprimanded for letting his player go out and compete for a state record? Was the previous record of 71 ok and only 82 crossed the line?

I cannot believe that you need this explained to you but here we are. In the Gros Ventre game the score was 108-70. A blow out yes but nothing we don't see every week in small school BBall. Huntley Project showed they have the ability to score and compete in the game. In the Lame Deer game however it was 111-27. Forsyth is last in that division and is winless on the year. In fact I think I read that they didn't win last year either which means they have not won A GAME since Covid started. They were never in the game. They were never going to compete. Lame Deer who is in that division knew this before the game started. If you take away Gros Ventre's 71 in that game, Lodge Grass loses by 40+. If you take away Emerson's 82 Lame Deer still wins. Just gross. I imagine most neutral fans will be rooting against LD once the tourneys start.

Edit to add this: My post is to say it isn't about the points scored. It's 'Is the game competitive'?

OK, my point remains the same. Who gets to decide where the line is between a competitive game and a non-competitive game, one in which it's appropriate to leave your star player in to score 70 or 80 points and one in which it isn't? I'm fine with people having the opinion that it was out of line (an opinion I tend to agree with) but not ok with people calling for coaches to be reprimanded over what is purely a subjective definition of when a line is crossed between just trying to win and running up the score.

It's decided in football all the time. MHSA has a running clock when the score difference gets greater than 35. So your point isn't valid.

My bad, I must have missed the part of the Mercy Rule that reprimands coaches if their team keeps scoring or playing starters after it goes into effect.

Have you ever heard of a forgotten term called “sportsmanship”? Shouldn’t the coaches of young athletes be expected to teach those principles? I certainly think they need to be held to high standard. This was definitely an act of poor sportsmanship.

And if you have any respect for the history of the game, you would find his 83 points appalling. Maybe they can schedule a junior high team next year to try and break the record again.

[Cataholic]

I get it, soft generation vs if you don’t like it stop it. I coached basketball, the thing that didn’t sit well with me is that it’s one thing that you leave your guy out there to try and set the record, but if you watch the game highlights, the coach is running an extended 2-3 zone to trap when he’s up 40 already. You’re not making your team any better at that point. Get your younger guys in to get some varsity minutes. Your Varsity guys have already won you the game and executed your game plan. All in all it doesn’t sit well with me at all. From what I read they were playing against 8th graders, no ****** your team is going to be able to trap them every time down the floor. Congrats to the kid, hope the coach at least feels good about himself.

Wow. I didn’t even realize that. Makes me have even less respect for that coach. Awful.

[wbtfg]

What is the maximum number of points that should be allowed before a coach should be reprimanded for letting his player go out and compete for a state record? Was the previous record of 71 ok and only 82 crossed the line?

I cannot believe that you need this explained to you but here we are. In the Gros Ventre game the score was 108-70. A blow out yes but nothing we don't see every week in small school BBall. Huntley Project showed they have the ability to score and compete in the game. In the Lame Deer game however it was 111-27. Forsyth is last in that division and is winless on the year. In fact I think I read that they didn't win last year either which means they have not won A GAME since Covid started. They were never in the game. They were never going to compete. Lame Deer who is in that division knew this before the game started. If you take away Gros Ventre's 71 in that game, Lodge Grass loses by 40+. If you take away Emerson's 82 Lame Deer still wins. Just gross. I imagine most neutral fans will be rooting against LD once the tourneys start.

Edit to add this: My post is to say it isn't about the points scored. It's 'Is the game competitive'?

OK, my point remains the same. Who gets to decide where the line is between a competitive game and a non-competitive game, one in which it's appropriate to leave your star player in to score 70 or 80 points and one in which it isn't? I'm fine with people having the opinion that it was out of line (an opinion I tend to agree with) but not ok with people calling for coaches to be reprimanded over what is purely a subjective definition of when a line is crossed between just trying to win and running up the score.

I guess whoever decided the mercy rule number is 40. That seems to be working out okay.

[MSU01]

Ok ok, I concede and have said multiple times in the thread that I too question the sportsmanship shown here. I am still a bit uncomfortable with how quickly this thread turned from multiple posters saying Sprinkle should sign Gros Ventre to MSU's basketball team after he scored 71 points in a blowout win into Helen Lovejoy screaming "won't anybody think of the children?" when Emerson scored 82 in his own blowout. Moving on to Portland State...

[BStinsMSU]

Ok ok, I concede and have said multiple times in the thread that I too question the sportsmanship shown here. I am still a bit uncomfortable with how quickly this thread turned from multiple posters saying Sprinkle should sign Gros Ventre to MSU's basketball team after he scored 71 points in a blowout win into Helen Lovejoy screaming "won't anybody think of the children?" when Emerson scored 82 in his own blowout. Moving on to Portland State...

The point is the two “blowouts” were not the same. 30 some vs 100some

[ilovethecats]

Ok ok, I concede and have said multiple times in the thread that I too question the sportsmanship shown here. I am still a bit uncomfortable with how quickly this thread turned from multiple posters saying Sprinkle should sign Gros Ventre to MSU's basketball team after he scored 71 points in a blowout win into Helen Lovejoy screaming "won't anybody think of the children?" when Emerson scored 82 in his own blowout. Moving on to Portland State...

Ya it's just how it went down is all, which others have pointed out.

I was one who said I think a kid like Gros Ventre would be worth a walk-on look if he was interested. And it wasn't just after the 71 points. He's been putting up amazing numbers for years now. From the little I have seen I'm not sure he's a D1 player. Hell, his game may not translate to NAIA. I'm not sure. I do know that often that style of ball where one kid has the green light to shoot 60 times a game often doesn't translate to college success.

But all games are not equal. Athletes and coaches know the makeup of their opposition before they even play. I for one don't think it's a coincidence that the 71 point record was broken less than a week later. This team and the coach knew what they were doing, and that game in my eyes was played for no other reason than to break that record. When you are up by 70, to a far out-classed team playing underclassmen, and you are still full-court pressing and trapping, that's an issue. Any coach worth his salt wouldn't pull that crap even up 20.

You still gotta make the baskets and 82 points is fun. But it came across as embarrassing to me rather than something to be celebrated.

[kennethnoisewater]

Ok ok, I concede and have said multiple times in the thread that I too question the sportsmanship shown here. I am still a bit uncomfortable with how quickly this thread turned from multiple posters saying Sprinkle should sign Gros Ventre to MSU's basketball team after he scored 71 points in a blowout win into Helen Lovejoy screaming "won't anybody think of the children?" when Emerson scored 82 in his own blowout. Moving on to Portland State...

Ya it's just how it went down is all, which others have pointed out.

I was one who said I think a kid like Gros Ventre would be worth a walk-on look if he was interested. And it wasn't just after the 71 points. He's been putting up amazing numbers for years now. From the little I have seen I'm not sure he's a D1 player. Hell, his game may not translate to NAIA. I'm not sure. I do know that often that style of ball where one kid has the green light to shoot 60 times a game often doesn't translate to college success.

But all games are not equal. Athletes and coaches know the makeup of their opposition before they even play. I for one don't think it's a coincidence that the 71 point record was broken less than a week later. This team and the coach knew what they were doing, and that game in my eyes was played for no other reason than to break that record. When you are up by 70, to a far out-classed team playing underclassmen, and you are still full-court pressing and trapping, that's an issue. Any coach worth his salt wouldn't pull that crap even up 20.

You still gotta make the baskets and 82 points is fun. But it came across as embarrassing to me rather than something to be celebrated.

Completely agree. I'm with you that it just kind of feels dirty that the two records happened within a week of each other.

This will be celebrated by some as this great accomplishment because we tend to look at stats in sports without any nuance. If most sports fans see a kid scored that many points, they're immediately impressed. I couldn't score that many points in layup lines. But you look closer and see it was a blowout, and you need to see it differently. Most of the highest individual scoring games in MT are like that. Kirk Walker, though, scored 61 in a loss. To me that's a far more impressive number. He was playing against a better team, theoretically, who should have been able to stop him somewhat, and they couldn't.

It's like walking into a guy's house and seeing a world record elk on the wall, only to find out he shot it on a game preserve while he was wearing flip flops.

I'm disgusted at the coach. He said the kids wanted it, but kids want a lot of things. Every coach has had this situation. I've had kids want to try and score 100 points when we're up by 40. They wanted to keep the starters in so we could do it. It would've been a thrill for them and they would've been really happy with me, but it's not the right thing to do. Every sports fan in the world knows it's not the right thing to do. Don't justify it by saying "the kids wanted it". Maybe the kids want to go to the strip club after the game, but I'd hope you're not taking the bus to Teasers.

I feel bad for Forsyth. One of the obligations we have as coaches is to do whatever we can to encourage all kids to have a positive experience in sports. Sure, everybody's going to lose some games and that's going to hurt, but this is just kids getting beat up and then kicked while they're down. Forsyth needs its kids to have some positive experiences in basketball so the team doesn't just give up and the younger kids don't just decide there's no point in playing basketball.

I'm not generally a fan of legislating away bad behavior. I don't think there's a rule that should be put in place to prevent this from happening, but we have to put a higher value on dignity, honor and respect. We have to celebrate legitimate records and recognize records like these almost like a wind-aided time in the 100.

There are some coaches kicking around the idea of some sort of petition about this record. I'm not sure the goal of it, but there are a lot of prominent high school basketball coaches in Montana who are livid about this.

[Cataholic]

Ok ok, I concede and have said multiple times in the thread that I too question the sportsmanship shown here. I am still a bit uncomfortable with how quickly this thread turned from multiple posters saying Sprinkle should sign Gros Ventre to MSU's basketball team after he scored 71 points in a blowout win into Helen Lovejoy screaming "won't anybody think of the children?" when Emerson scored 82 in his own blowout. Moving on to Portland State...

Ya it's just how it went down is all, which others have pointed out.

I was one who said I think a kid like Gros Ventre would be worth a walk-on look if he was interested. And it wasn't just after the 71 points. He's been putting up amazing numbers for years now. From the little I have seen I'm not sure he's a D1 player. Hell, his game may not translate to NAIA. I'm not sure. I do know that often that style of ball where one kid has the green light to shoot 60 times a game often doesn't translate to college success.

But all games are not equal. Athletes and coaches know the makeup of their opposition before they even play. I for one don't think it's a coincidence that the 71 point record was broken less than a week later. This team and the coach knew what they were doing, and that game in my eyes was played for no other reason than to break that record. When you are up by 70, to a far out-classed team playing underclassmen, and you are still full-court pressing and trapping, that's an issue. Any coach worth his salt wouldn't pull that crap even up 20.

You still gotta make the baskets and 82 points is fun. But it came across as embarrassing to me rather than something to be celebrated.

Completely agree. I'm with you that it just kind of feels dirty that the two records happened within a week of each other.

This will be celebrated by some as this great accomplishment because we tend to look at stats in sports without any nuance. If most sports fans see a kid scored that many points, they're immediately impressed. I couldn't score that many points in layup lines. But you look closer and see it was a blowout, and you need to see it differently. Most of the highest individual scoring games in MT are like that. Kirk Walker, though, scored 61 in a loss. To me that's a far more impressive number. He was playing against a better team, theoretically, who should have been able to stop him somewhat, and they couldn't.

It's like walking into a guy's house and seeing a world record elk on the wall, only to find out he shot it on a game preserve while he was wearing flip flops.

I'm disgusted at the coach. He said the kids wanted it, but kids want a lot of things. Every coach has had this situation. I've had kids want to try and score 100 points when we're up by 40. They wanted to keep the starters in so we could do it. It would've been a thrill for them and they would've been really happy with me, but it's not the right thing to do. Every sports fan in the world knows it's not the right thing to do. Don't justify it by saying "the kids wanted it". Maybe the kids want to go to the strip club after the game, but I'd hope you're not taking the bus to Teasers.

I feel bad for Forsyth. One of the obligations we have as coaches is to do whatever we can to encourage all kids to have a positive experience in sports. Sure, everybody's going to lose some games and that's going to hurt, but this is just kids getting beat up and then kicked while they're down. Forsyth needs its kids to have some positive experiences in basketball so the team doesn't just give up and the younger kids don't just decide there's no point in playing basketball.

I'm not generally a fan of legislating away bad behavior. I don't think there's a rule that should be put in place to prevent this from happening, but we have to put a higher value on dignity, honor and respect. We have to celebrate legitimate records and recognize records like these almost like a wind-aided time in the 100.

There are some coaches kicking around the idea of some sort of petition about this record. I'm not sure the goal of it, but there are a lot of prominent high school basketball coaches in Montana who are livid about this.

I will be surprised to see if the coach is reprimanded or if the record has an asterisk. However, I am guessing the coach has hurt his future career advancement opportunities with the stunt. Looks really bad and should be considered by anyone looking to hire him. At a minimum, he should be quizzed about it by prospective employers - especially full court pressing when your team is up by 60 points. Coaches need to be leaders of young men and set examples.

Did anyone see the Iowa State kid who purposely missed his free throw in a tight game so he would not break the school record for consecutive free throws. That speaks to character.

https://vm.tiktok.com/TTPdk3N6up/

[coloradocat]

Ok ok, I concede and have said multiple times in the thread that I too question the sportsmanship shown here. I am still a bit uncomfortable with how quickly this thread turned from multiple posters saying Sprinkle should sign Gros Ventre to MSU's basketball team after he scored 71 points in a blowout win into Helen Lovejoy screaming "won't anybody think of the children?" when Emerson scored 82 in his own blowout. Moving on to Portland State...

Ya it's just how it went down is all, which others have pointed out.

I was one who said I think a kid like Gros Ventre would be worth a walk-on look if he was interested. And it wasn't just after the 71 points. He's been putting up amazing numbers for years now. From the little I have seen I'm not sure he's a D1 player. Hell, his game may not translate to NAIA. I'm not sure. I do know that often that style of ball where one kid has the green light to shoot 60 times a game often doesn't translate to college success.

But all games are not equal. Athletes and coaches know the makeup of their opposition before they even play. I for one don't think it's a coincidence that the 71 point record was broken less than a week later. This team and the coach knew what they were doing, and that game in my eyes was played for no other reason than to break that record. When you are up by 70, to a far out-classed team playing underclassmen, and you are still full-court pressing and trapping, that's an issue. Any coach worth his salt wouldn't pull that crap even up 20.

You still gotta make the baskets and 82 points is fun. But it came across as embarrassing to me rather than something to be celebrated.

Completely agree. I'm with you that it just kind of feels dirty that the two records happened within a week of each other.

This will be celebrated by some as this great accomplishment because we tend to look at stats in sports without any nuance. If most sports fans see a kid scored that many points, they're immediately impressed. I couldn't score that many points in layup lines. But you look closer and see it was a blowout, and you need to see it differently. Most of the highest individual scoring games in MT are like that. Kirk Walker, though, scored 61 in a loss. To me that's a far more impressive number. He was playing against a better team, theoretically, who should have been able to stop him somewhat, and they couldn't.

It's like walking into a guy's house and seeing a world record elk on the wall, only to find out he shot it on a game preserve while he was wearing flip flops.

I'm disgusted at the coach. He said the kids wanted it, but kids want a lot of things. Every coach has had this situation. I've had kids want to try and score 100 points when we're up by 40. They wanted to keep the starters in so we could do it. It would've been a thrill for them and they would've been really happy with me, but it's not the right thing to do. Every sports fan in the world knows it's not the right thing to do. Don't justify it by saying "the kids wanted it". Maybe the kids want to go to the strip club after the game, but I'd hope you're not taking the bus to Teasers.

I feel bad for Forsyth. One of the obligations we have as coaches is to do whatever we can to encourage all kids to have a positive experience in sports. Sure, everybody's going to lose some games and that's going to hurt, but this is just kids getting beat up and then kicked while they're down. Forsyth needs its kids to have some positive experiences in basketball so the team doesn't just give up and the younger kids don't just decide there's no point in playing basketball.

I'm not generally a fan of legislating away bad behavior. I don't think there's a rule that should be put in place to prevent this from happening, but we have to put a higher value on dignity, honor and respect. We have to celebrate legitimate records and recognize records like these almost like a wind-aided time in the 100.

There are some coaches kicking around the idea of some sort of petition about this record. I'm not sure the goal of it, but there are a lot of prominent high school basketball coaches in Montana who are livid about this.

I will be surprised to see if the coach is reprimanded or if the record has an asterisk. However, I am guessing the coach has hurt his future career advancement opportunities with the stunt. Looks really bad and should be considered by anyone looking to hire him. At a minimum, he should be quizzed about it by prospective employers - especially full court pressing when your team is up by 60 points. Coaches need to be leaders of young men and set examples.

Did anyone see the Iowa State kid who purposely missed his free throw in a tight game so he would not break the school record for consecutive free throws. That speaks to character.

https://vm.tiktok.com/TTPdk3N6up/

If the Columbus coach did this there might be future repercussions but this is a whole different dynamic.

This didn't hurt his future career at all. If another rez team wants to hire him this won't have any impact on their decision. If anything it will be a plus that he coached the recordholder. He might have some trouble getting a job in Billings but the chances of that happening are slim (on both sides) regardless of these kinds of things.

As I said earlier, this was just as much about taking the scoring title away from Lodge Grass and claiming it for Lame Deer, and maybe to some extent Northern Cheyenne over Crow, as it was giving his player the opportunity to break the record. Journey Emerson will be a legend and the fact that they won by 84 points be probably be celebrated as well.

Basketball on the reservations is as close as anything in Montana gets to Texas high school football. These are two Class B teams that regularly play games in the Metra. They don't care what you think about how they play or how they win.

[TomCat88]

Gros Ventre isn’t a ball hog and his team doesn’t make sure he gets an inordinate number of shots per game. I’m fairly certain he shoots a high percentage from everywhere, but I don’t know for sure. I saw him play once and his team had excellent ball movement and took high percentage shots. I hope he plays college ball. Smooth player. Not sure about his defense, but he could be a 3andD guy.

[CARDIAC_CATS]

I see journey emerson from Lame Deer broke Gros Ventre’s single game record by dropping 82 tonight.

Are you serious? Wow....that didn't last long. That's more points in a 32 minute game than Kobe scored in a 48 minute game.

They beat Forsyth 111-27. Not what you could call excellent competition. Quite frankly, I think it disgusting that a coach would pile the points on in such a game. Keeping your starter in to score 82 points is ridiculous.

https://406mtsports.com/high-school/bas ... 9.amp.html

If I was the Forsyth coach I would have waited until he was 4 points short of the record and then told the REFS .. "We are done" and had his team walk off the court. Totally Ridiculous.

[aucat]

Back to the potential for this kid. One thing that is true about hoops. You don't score points unless you can shoot the ball through the hoop. So my question is, how is Damon scoring his points? Are they long range? What is his shooting % from 3 point? If he is making all of his points with layups and putbacks, that means nothing to me. However, if this guy is a "pure shooter" and can drill jump shots, then I would love to see MSU give him a chance. In my honest opinion, a coach can really teach you how to play strong defense, assuming the kid wants to be an all around good player. I have not seen this guy in person, only highlights on the news, so maybe someone else could shed some light on these points.

[Cataholic]

Ok ok, I concede and have said multiple times in the thread that I too question the sportsmanship shown here. I am still a bit uncomfortable with how quickly this thread turned from multiple posters saying Sprinkle should sign Gros Ventre to MSU's basketball team after he scored 71 points in a blowout win into Helen Lovejoy screaming "won't anybody think of the children?" when Emerson scored 82 in his own blowout. Moving on to Portland State...

Ya it's just how it went down is all, which others have pointed out.

I was one who said I think a kid like Gros Ventre would be worth a walk-on look if he was interested. And it wasn't just after the 71 points. He's been putting up amazing numbers for years now. From the little I have seen I'm not sure he's a D1 player. Hell, his game may not translate to NAIA. I'm not sure. I do know that often that style of ball where one kid has the green light to shoot 60 times a game often doesn't translate to college success.

But all games are not equal. Athletes and coaches know the makeup of their opposition before they even play. I for one don't think it's a coincidence that the 71 point record was broken less than a week later. This team and the coach knew what they were doing, and that game in my eyes was played for no other reason than to break that record. When you are up by 70, to a far out-classed team playing underclassmen, and you are still full-court pressing and trapping, that's an issue. Any coach worth his salt wouldn't pull that crap even up 20.

You still gotta make the baskets and 82 points is fun. But it came across as embarrassing to me rather than something to be celebrated.

Completely agree. I'm with you that it just kind of feels dirty that the two records happened within a week of each other.

This will be celebrated by some as this great accomplishment because we tend to look at stats in sports without any nuance. If most sports fans see a kid scored that many points, they're immediately impressed. I couldn't score that many points in layup lines. But you look closer and see it was a blowout, and you need to see it differently. Most of the highest individual scoring games in MT are like that. Kirk Walker, though, scored 61 in a loss. To me that's a far more impressive number. He was playing against a better team, theoretically, who should have been able to stop him somewhat, and they couldn't.

It's like walking into a guy's house and seeing a world record elk on the wall, only to find out he shot it on a game preserve while he was wearing flip flops.

I'm disgusted at the coach. He said the kids wanted it, but kids want a lot of things. Every coach has had this situation. I've had kids want to try and score 100 points when we're up by 40. They wanted to keep the starters in so we could do it. It would've been a thrill for them and they would've been really happy with me, but it's not the right thing to do. Every sports fan in the world knows it's not the right thing to do. Don't justify it by saying "the kids wanted it". Maybe the kids want to go to the strip club after the game, but I'd hope you're not taking the bus to Teasers.

I feel bad for Forsyth. One of the obligations we have as coaches is to do whatever we can to encourage all kids to have a positive experience in sports. Sure, everybody's going to lose some games and that's going to hurt, but this is just kids getting beat up and then kicked while they're down. Forsyth needs its kids to have some positive experiences in basketball so the team doesn't just give up and the younger kids don't just decide there's no point in playing basketball.

I'm not generally a fan of legislating away bad behavior. I don't think there's a rule that should be put in place to prevent this from happening, but we have to put a higher value on dignity, honor and respect. We have to celebrate legitimate records and recognize records like these almost like a wind-aided time in the 100.

There are some coaches kicking around the idea of some sort of petition about this record. I'm not sure the goal of it, but there are a lot of prominent high school basketball coaches in Montana who are livid about this.

I will be surprised to see if the coach is reprimanded or if the record has an asterisk. However, I am guessing the coach has hurt his future career advancement opportunities with the stunt. Looks really bad and should be considered by anyone looking to hire him. At a minimum, he should be quizzed about it by prospective employers - especially full court pressing when your team is up by 60 points. Coaches need to be leaders of young men and set examples.

Did anyone see the Iowa State kid who purposely missed his free throw in a tight game so he would not break the school record for consecutive free throws. That speaks to character.

https://vm.tiktok.com/TTPdk3N6up/

If the Columbus coach did this there might be future repercussions but this is a whole different dynamic.

This didn't hurt his future career at all. If another rez team wants to hire him this won't have any impact on their decision. If anything it will be a plus that he coached the recordholder. He might have some trouble getting a job in Billings but the chances of that happening are slim (on both sides) regardless of these kinds of things.

As I said earlier, this was just as much about taking the scoring title away from Lodge Grass and claiming it for Lame Deer, and maybe to some extent Northern Cheyenne over Crow, as it was giving his player the opportunity to break the record. Journey Emerson will be a legend and the fact that they won by 84 points be probably be celebrated as well.

Basketball on the reservations is as close as anything in Montana gets to Texas high school football. These are two Class B teams that regularly play games in the Metra. They don't care what you think about how they play or how they win.

So basically you are saying that coaches from the reservation can only get jobs from other reservation teams. Not exactly what I would call progressive thinking on your part.

[coloradocat]

Ok ok, I concede and have said multiple times in the thread that I too question the sportsmanship shown here. I am still a bit uncomfortable with how quickly this thread turned from multiple posters saying Sprinkle should sign Gros Ventre to MSU's basketball team after he scored 71 points in a blowout win into Helen Lovejoy screaming "won't anybody think of the children?" when Emerson scored 82 in his own blowout. Moving on to Portland State...

Ya it's just how it went down is all, which others have pointed out.

I was one who said I think a kid like Gros Ventre would be worth a walk-on look if he was interested. And it wasn't just after the 71 points. He's been putting up amazing numbers for years now. From the little I have seen I'm not sure he's a D1 player. Hell, his game may not translate to NAIA. I'm not sure. I do know that often that style of ball where one kid has the green light to shoot 60 times a game often doesn't translate to college success.

But all games are not equal. Athletes and coaches know the makeup of their opposition before they even play. I for one don't think it's a coincidence that the 71 point record was broken less than a week later. This team and the coach knew what they were doing, and that game in my eyes was played for no other reason than to break that record. When you are up by 70, to a far out-classed team playing underclassmen, and you are still full-court pressing and trapping, that's an issue. Any coach worth his salt wouldn't pull that crap even up 20.

You still gotta make the baskets and 82 points is fun. But it came across as embarrassing to me rather than something to be celebrated.

Completely agree. I'm with you that it just kind of feels dirty that the two records happened within a week of each other.

This will be celebrated by some as this great accomplishment because we tend to look at stats in sports without any nuance. If most sports fans see a kid scored that many points, they're immediately impressed. I couldn't score that many points in layup lines. But you look closer and see it was a blowout, and you need to see it differently. Most of the highest individual scoring games in MT are like that. Kirk Walker, though, scored 61 in a loss. To me that's a far more impressive number. He was playing against a better team, theoretically, who should have been able to stop him somewhat, and they couldn't.

It's like walking into a guy's house and seeing a world record elk on the wall, only to find out he shot it on a game preserve while he was wearing flip flops.

I'm disgusted at the coach. He said the kids wanted it, but kids want a lot of things. Every coach has had this situation. I've had kids want to try and score 100 points when we're up by 40. They wanted to keep the starters in so we could do it. It would've been a thrill for them and they would've been really happy with me, but it's not the right thing to do. Every sports fan in the world knows it's not the right thing to do. Don't justify it by saying "the kids wanted it". Maybe the kids want to go to the strip club after the game, but I'd hope you're not taking the bus to Teasers.

I feel bad for Forsyth. One of the obligations we have as coaches is to do whatever we can to encourage all kids to have a positive experience in sports. Sure, everybody's going to lose some games and that's going to hurt, but this is just kids getting beat up and then kicked while they're down. Forsyth needs its kids to have some positive experiences in basketball so the team doesn't just give up and the younger kids don't just decide there's no point in playing basketball.

I'm not generally a fan of legislating away bad behavior. I don't think there's a rule that should be put in place to prevent this from happening, but we have to put a higher value on dignity, honor and respect. We have to celebrate legitimate records and recognize records like these almost like a wind-aided time in the 100.

There are some coaches kicking around the idea of some sort of petition about this record. I'm not sure the goal of it, but there are a lot of prominent high school basketball coaches in Montana who are livid about this.

I will be surprised to see if the coach is reprimanded or if the record has an asterisk. However, I am guessing the coach has hurt his future career advancement opportunities with the stunt. Looks really bad and should be considered by anyone looking to hire him. At a minimum, he should be quizzed about it by prospective employers - especially full court pressing when your team is up by 60 points. Coaches need to be leaders of young men and set examples.

Did anyone see the Iowa State kid who purposely missed his free throw in a tight game so he would not break the school record for consecutive free throws. That speaks to character.

https://vm.tiktok.com/TTPdk3N6up/

If the Columbus coach did this there might be future repercussions but this is a whole different dynamic.

This didn't hurt his future career at all. If another rez team wants to hire him this won't have any impact on their decision. If anything it will be a plus that he coached the recordholder. He might have some trouble getting a job in Billings but the chances of that happening are slim (on both sides) regardless of these kinds of things.

As I said earlier, this was just as much about taking the scoring title away from Lodge Grass and claiming it for Lame Deer, and maybe to some extent Northern Cheyenne over Crow, as it was giving his player the opportunity to break the record. Journey Emerson will be a legend and the fact that they won by 84 points be probably be celebrated as well.

Basketball on the reservations is as close as anything in Montana gets to Texas high school football. These are two Class B teams that regularly play games in the Metra. They don't care what you think about how they play or how they win.

So basically you are saying that coaches from the reservation can only get jobs from other reservation teams. Not exactly what I would call progressive thinking on your part.

It takes two to fill a coaching job: the applicant and the school. If someone doesn't want to coach outside the reservation (or reservation adjacent) then it doesn't matter whether or not they can get the job. Based on his team's success I think he's doing a pretty good job where he is and is probably happy.

If it's progressive to place your own worldview on someone and disregard their culture and personal feelings and priorities then I'm just fine not being labeled progressive.

I don't know either of the coaches or the current politics at their schools but I grew up there so I know a thing or two about the culture, including sports. My take on the situation could be incorrect but I imagine both communities have a ton of pride in the individual and team success that their basketball teams are experiencing and don't need outsiders telling them how to do things.

[coloradocat]

If Sprinkle things Damon can make a strong contribution to the team I think he'll get a chance. In the old days a lot of Indians got passed over for a variety of reasons. I think that's over at MSU at this point. The growth of Indian community on campus has resulted in a much more welcoming and comfortable environment compared to the early 2000s and further back. Kola Bad Bear has been a nice success story.

[Phat Daddy]

What is the maximum number of points that should be allowed before a coach should be reprimanded for letting his player go out and compete for a state record? Was the previous record of 71 ok and only 82 crossed the line?

That’s a legit question. I don’t know the answer, but I’m of the opinion that going all out with your starters on the floor and continuing to run up the score while the mercy rule is in affect is over the line. Disagree?

When you allow a player to bury the last shot for his 71st point in a blowout victory, you’ve crossed a line as a coach. When you score 82 and it’s because “your teammates wanted it” then the adult in the room (coach) has crossed a line in his behavior. Those two records should have an asterisk and both coaches actions are inexcusable.

[luckyirishguy25]

Well this thread got derailed. I just want to say I really like Damon, he's a stand up kid. He gave his Jersey to the team manager, who tried out but didn't make the team, so he could play against Forsyth. I realize Forsyth is bad, but what an awesome gesture. I really hope he comes to MSU, great character kid.

[ilovethecats]

Well this thread got derailed. I just want to say I really like Damon, he's a stand up kid. He gave his Jersey to the team manager, who tried out but didn't make the team, so he could play against Forsyth. I realize Forsyth is bad, but what an awesome gesture. I really hope he comes to MSU, great character kid.

And that’s the difference between these two kids and their coaches. One of them gets 80+ playing a terrible team by pressing when they are up 70. The other, while playing that same terrible team, gives his Jersey to the manager to let him play instead of worrying about personal records.

[BStinsMSU]

Well this thread got derailed. I just want to say I really like Damon, he's a stand up kid. He gave his Jersey to the team manager, who tried out but didn't make the team, so he could play against Forsyth. I realize Forsyth is bad, but what an awesome gesture. I really hope he comes to MSU, great character kid.

And that’s the difference between these two kids and their coaches. One of them gets 80+ playing a terrible team by pressing when they are up 70. The other, while playing that same terrible team, gives his Jersey to the manager to let him play instead of worrying about personal records.

I’m not putting it on the kids. It’s a coach/program deal. I’ll never blame any athlete at any level for giving 100% when they’re on the floor.