From Sally Jenkins, in response to Rebecca's post yesterday on running up the score:

To me, any discussion about "embarassing" the other team is mostly fallacy. It's not the job of your opponent to spare you from embarassment -- it's the job of a team not to embarass ITSELF.

I didn't think any of the teams you mentioned got embarassed by the final scores. I thought that they played with fight and dignity to the end. Most particularly Army. I really admired that team, thought they were well coached and never showed a moment of quit or demoralization.

All of which is to say, I'm not sure a final score is always such a great indication of a team's quality or dignity. And I don't believe for a second that any of those first round opponents wanted teams like Duke, LSU or Tennessee to pull their punches. I wouldn't, if I was a player. I'd want to see their best shot. I'd want to know what to aspire to.

Also, I simply don't believe in instructing bench players, once they're in the game, not to play all out. What's a coach supposed to do, tell a shooter not to shoot? That's anti-competitive. How else are kids going to learn, and get worthwhile game experience?

In a similar vein, BCBG noted yesterday that in some other countries, it's actually considered insulting to pull out your best players when ahead.