Basketball Beatdown=Cancelled Season?

photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/alvachien/2233337261/

While the NBA players and owners are just getting things figured out for a late start to the NBA season, it looks like one amazing middle school basketball team may have their ENTIRE season cancelled.

Was it drugs? Cheating? Illegal players? Academically ineligible players?

All good guesses, but no. The answer is that Pikeville Independent Middle School dropped a 100-2 beatdown on Kimper Elementary/Middle School. Both schools were playing in a preseason tournament in Kentucky. The district is considering canceling the remainder of the Pikeville's season for "poor sportsmanship."

Pikeville took a 25-0 lead less than two minutes into the game, and even though the coach pulled the starters, Kimper managed only one basket for the entire game. Kimper had players on its team as young as 11, and Pikeville eventually blasted another school 75-32 in the championship game.

Plenty of people are saying Pikeville should have done more to stop the scoring, and that they should be punished. But I'm wondering why these teams were even playing eachother in the first place. Isn't it a bit of a contradiction to coach kids to play to the best of their ability, and then to punish them for excelling on the court?

As a player, and especially as a young player, it sends a double message. They followed the rules, and they played according to their ability. If anyone on the team should be disciplined, it should be the coach. And even then, I say the majority of the blame goes to whoever set up this mismatch in the first place.

You don't set up a match between a team with some of the top players in the state and a team with 11 year-olds. The differences in physical maturity at that age can be astounding. I think the adults could have done a lot to avoid this situation in the first place.

What do you think? Should Pikeville have their season canceled? Who should get the blame for this middle school sports massacre?