SPOILER?
Okay, so the coach is trying to get rid of him because he's superfluous to the team, but they're so thin in manpower they've got no choice but to play him in the crucial game?
No, the coach went out on a limb for him - and then when it didn't pan out the coach was embarassed - don't piss on the coach!!
skd
No, the coach went out on a limb for him - and then when it didn't pan out the coach was embarassed - don't piss on the coach!!
skd
You miss the point, my friend. Whatever the coach's motivation, if he's viewed as a detriment to the team so that they're trying to get rid of him, why does he get inserted in a crucial game?
shareHe had no choice to put him in because every one else was either hurt or had fouled out. Henry was his only option. He even told him "don't shoot the ball Steele, just pass it and get rid of it".
You only have 12 players and some play very specific positions. Most centers couldn't play point guard. So if the team on carries 4 guards, and two are unavailable, then there is not choice but to play him.
shareYou only have 12 players? Since when? But anyway, assuming the coach could only suit up 12 guys, and assuming the team had the depth depicted in the movie, and assuming that the hero was perceived as no good by the coach, he wouldn't have been suited up in the first place.
shareMaybe he had to dress scholarship players?
shareActually, college teams are allowed just 13 scholarship players. Most have some walk-ons as well. However, I have seen years when our local team had to recruit players from the football team just so they would have enough athletes to hold practice. One year they had just SIX players who played regularly. So, yeah, I can perfectly understand why a player they wanted to get rid of could find his way into a game.
shareBack in those days, I think they were allowed fifteen players. They were allowed fifteen up until title nine kicked in when they dropped down to thirteen. Look, it's real simple. On a basketball team you got five different positions and back then you had fifteen guys to fill them. You really don't want post players handling the ball, so that takes at least six guys out of the mix. Unlikely you're not going to ask a guy that's playing SF to run the point, because he probably isn't going to be able to do it. Thus, if we're dividing our roster evenly (hey, it's Hollywood), that takes three more out the of the loop. Then you got the PGs and SGs. Some SGs can play both the 1 and 2, some can't. Some PGs can play both the 1 and the 2, some can't. You must assume that's the case at Western. You must also assume that not everyone is of equal talent. The guy playing ahead of Henry may be as good or better, but the guys behind Henry maybe complete disasters. Thus, with foul trouble and injuries and his winning streak going down the drain, Coach Smith swallows his pride and puts Henry in (even though he tells him not to touch the ball), because he figures that even though Henry's a hotdog, he won't be what gets him beat, whereas the next alternative might. By the way, let just add that no one in the history of cinema has ever played A-hole coaches better than G.D. Spradlin. That dude was brillant as both Smith and B.A. in North Dallas Forty. For anyone that played ball back in those days, his performances are so freaking true it's scary.
shareBut if he had guys worse than Henry, if he thought Henry was one of the 15 best guys, if Henry had any perceived utility whatsoever, why was he trying to run him off the team?
shareBecause Henry was bucking the coach's system.
It's the same in real-life - I've worked with guys who were smart and great at their jobs, but were such pains in the ass, always questioning the company methods, and wanting to do things a different or "better way" all the time.
Sometimes it's easier to have a less competent person who at least tries to do what you want.
"Okay, so the coach is trying to get rid of him because he's superfluous to the team, but they're so thin in manpower they've got no choice but to play him in the crucial game?"
Aside from the Hollywood movie aspect that has to have some kind of spectacular ending, let's break it down.
A 15 player roseter would probably have the following:
3 centers at most
3 power forwards
3 small forwards
3 point guards
3 shooting guards
Do the people 3rd on the depth chart ever play? Only during Garbage time. When the game is competitive they never play.
Would a coach move a power forward to play Center if the 3rd string Center can't get it done? The coach might or might not.
So how could this movie scenario happen in real life? That's easy.
Too many players leave the game with injuries. It's rare but it does happen. The refs call the game super tight and even a dirty look from one player to another garners a Foul call LOL. So players foul out left and right. That's how you can get to 3rd deep on the roster but I'd never wager any game coming to that.
What is more likely to occur is a player gets injured and can't play. Then down the road in a different game that player is out injured and the number 2 guy gets into foul trouble. Then the coach scrambles to cover that. Going to the 3rd guy on the depth chart might be an option.
To me, the bigger 'plot hole' was expecting some scrawny 5'11" guy from a country bumpkin school to come in freshman year and lead a major college team to victory. As others have said, there are usually 13 scholarship players on a team, which means an average of 3 or 4 new scholarship players each year (unless some leave early, etc.). To expect just 1 of these new kids to lead a team especially in the initial part of their first season is laughable. Coaches are usually thrilled if just one scholarship player makes an impact each year, and hopefully 2 or more by their 3rd or 4th year. If this coach was relying on Steele to be a leader at 120 lbs dripping wet and shorter than most major college point guards (not to mention his ethnicity), then this is a major plot hole in the reality of big time college athletics. But eventually being called to sub-in? A little far-fetched but not unimagineable. It's more far-fetched to believe he will really make a huge difference, because the rest of the team would (and apparently did) rally around him (which would have really p*ssd off the coach). Oh, and why did the coach want him off the team? Because Henry didn't look like he would fit into the coach's scheme and the coach wanted that scholarship back to give to somebody else. The coach tried to bully Henry off the team, it didn't work. If Henry's grades had been too low, he would have lost the scholarship which is why the tutor offered to do it for free, because the coach wouldn't pay any more for her, hoping Henry would flunk out.Didn't happen. Henry, I would guess, would probably wind up at some lower echelon Div1 team or more likely a Div2 team and be only moderately successful. (He told the coach to get lost when the coach came to him after the game with forgiveness, so the coach really got what he wanted, didn't he?)
shareBack then white guys were prevalant on the basketball court. Kyle Macy was point guard for NCAA champ Kentucky in '78. Which Benson reminded me of back then. Back then very few freshman had a huge impact as they were just a couple of years removed when freshman were ineligible. Freshman now a days due have a huge impact, UK 2012 champs. Liked the movie a little as a child, but had a problem with the coach trying to run him off, scholarships are renewed each year so he could've just not renewed him.
shareG.D Spradlin did play both of these parts well. It's interesting, b/c he's clearly portraying Tom Landry in North Dallas 40 and, I think, the whole Western UCLA college experience is intended to critique the UCLA program. Hence, Spradlin is "spoofing" John Wooden (I think they even have Wooden's "success peramid" upon on one of the chalkboards). It gives one some idea about what Hollywood thinks of these two old school, strict, "put the system ahead of the individual", coaches. Of course, Landry won 2 Super Bowls and coached in several others. Wooden won 10 national titles.
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The problem is that you could see it coming a mile away. Not even a grade school coach would let one of his starting guards go into the 2nd half with 4 fouls. One guard picks up his 5th foul and is out of the game and two plays later the other one sprains his ankle and is out of the game? Yikes.
Overall not a bad movie, but it had a movie of the week quality to it.
I don't think it's a plot hole. The other players fouled out or were injured so he was forced to play Henry.
He wasn't "superfluous" to the team. The coach felt he made a major mistake in recruiting him so he wanted Henry to renounce his scholarship so he wouldn't be stuck with Henry for 3 more years. When Henry didn't renounce his scholarship, the coach then decided to make his life a living hell so he would quit.
The plot seems like a bit of a stretch. If Henry was so good that he was recruited by this big time college basketball program then wouldn't other schools be interested in him? Why couldn't he transfer to another program?
Transfer, transfer! there are no transfers in the movies.
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