> From: "Blessman, Phil" <Phil.Blessman_at_...>
> Don't feel bad about playing by the rules. What I believe is
> unsportsmanlike is the tournament organizers changing the rules after
> the fact. Let me expound on why your strategy was not unsportsmanlike:
> If it were unsportsmanlike, then several commonly accepted sports
> strategies would also be unsportsmanlike:
>
> Basketball:
>
> If Team A is up by three with very little time on the clock, A will
> often foul Team B before they can shoot a three-pointer, as B only gets
> two free throws then and it is highly unlikely they will be able to tie.
Dick Vitale always yells at teams to do this, but I seldom see it put
into practice, at least in college. (I don't watch the NBA.)
In football, I once saw a team up by one with not much time left and no
timeouts let the other team score a touchdown, so they'd be down by 8
and have a chance to tie with their own touchdown + 2-point conversion.
As I recall, it worked.
I agree with the idea that a clock- or game-killing neg is perfectly OK.
Doug