Grinnell's System begins to take hold
By Mark Simon
It is basketball. Maybe not the way you and I know it, but it is the same game, with the same rules and the same objective.
If you had a 3-point attempt for every sign, you might get through the first half of the game.
But the way we are about to describe is even more different than other systems. These teams play it at 78 rpm, racing up and down the floor. On offense they look for the best shot, usually a 3-pointer as quickly as they can get it. On defense they press fullcourt and in halfcourt, and they don’t give an inch of the 94 feet, but willingly surrender a layup attempt if they can’t get a steal.
They play it hockey-style, shifting players in and out every minute in waves of five. Chaos is good and desired. They play it to wear you down. Since they’re playing twice as many players as their opponent, they only get half as tired.
It looks wacky, but those who play this way swear by it. You may feel like you’ve been in The Twilight Zone if you’ve seen it in action. It is basketball in another dimension. Perhaps it’s basketball for the 21st century
Grinnell men’s coach Dave Arseneault has seen this system work long enough to know that it is legitimate. Flukes die out after a season, or two, don’t they?
“A lot of coaches don’t think what I’m doing is basketball. They have their own idea of what basketball is.”
The Pioneers have been playing this way since 1993. Arseneault, who began coaching in this small Iowa town of 8,000 in 1989, realized that the program, which once strung together 25 consecutive non-winning seasons, needed to play at extremes to win.
He tried a speed-up-the-pace style in 1991-92, but the players got tired quickly and voted to slow things down. So Arseneault changed things up completely, trying to win by holding the ball and eating up the shot clock.
That didn’t work either, so at the end of the season, the players had two votes. One was to crank things back up to an even greater extreme than before. The other was not to vote again.
The goals of Grinnell’s system are as follows:
100 shots per game
50 3-point attempts per game
32 turnovers forced
A shot differential of plus-30
An offensive rebounding percentage of 33%
Those are lofty numbers, accomplished by a strategy that requests a shot from either side within 12 seconds The easiest way to achieve them is for every player to go full speed, maximum effort on every possession, on both offense and defense. To do that, Grinnell plays a platoon system that Arseneault learned while coaching a couple of decades ago in Canada. Players substitute in pre-arranged shifts, lasting 35 to 55 seconds (a new group comes in at just about every whistle).
The numbers tell the story
Leading scorer Steve Wood is averaging 29 points per game. Point guard Ken Heiser is averaging 10 assists per game and just broke the team record for assists in a game with 16. Neither is averaging more than 20 minutes a game.
Opponents are shooting 62% from the field to Grinnell’s 44%, but Grinnell is outscoring them by an average of 18 points per game.
Steve Nordlund is tops on a squad making 21 3-pointers per game, having drained 28 in 70 attempts.
Arseneault used to have three groups of five players to rotate, but adjusted slightly to have some players partake in every other shift. As a result, 11 players are averaging double figures in minutes, with no one playing more than 20 per game. The difference is that a player will be on the floor for more offensive possessions in 20 minutes then he would if he played 40 minutes in a normal system. If someone goes a couple of shifts without a shot, Arseneault makes sure the team tries to get him a look.
The real secret to scoring as much as Grinnell does (it has led the nation in scoring every season since 1993-94 and is tallying 133 per game this season in its 5-0 start) is not so much in the offense, as it is in the defense. The numbers in the box score get goofy. Arseneault pointed to one game last season where Grinnell’s opponent shot 22-for-26 in the first half, yet the Pioneers led by 19 points.
“I get these calls all the time from coaches who say ‘How come you score so many points?’ " said Arseneault, whose team has won three MWC championships using this system. “I always tell them that it’s because we allow so many. If we give up a layup on a spread-out floor, we can get a five-on-four going the other way, which makes a difficult shot much easier for our guy. It is unsettling for some coaches to give up that many layups, but it quickens the pace of play. It’s high risk, but high reward.”
Arseneault put out a videotape and a book explaining the system. He knows most of the strategies and positioning, since a lot of it was his own tinkering. He has invited coaches out to Grinnell for more detailed discussions and has visited high school coaches in other parts of the country. He may not be popular among coaches in the MWC or in conservative, rural Iowa, but the team has a nice following around the country. Recently, Arseneault and Bob Belf, a high school coach in Michigan, started an e-mail group devoted to coaching the style that is growing rapidly. There are 28 members, with coaches represented from New York to Hawaii. It even pops up in places you wouldn’t expect, where some consider the traditional style of basketball sacred
“You could argue this is the way you should play, because everyone plays as hard as they can when they’re in the game.” said Chris Davis, who implemented the style this season with the Lawrence High team he coaches, located across the street from the University of Kansas. “Our team has jumped in with both feet. The reaction has been very positive..”
Coming home
Arseneault had promised Colby head coach Dick Whitmore that he would bring his team to his alma mater. The time has come. Whitmore, in his 33rd season, will give his team a look at something the likes of which they have never seen.
“I’ve been around long enough to know that great basketball comes in all packages,” Whitmore said. “This is very much its own package. I think it’s wonderful.”
Grinnell will be making a trip to Maine to play St. Joseph’s and Arseneault’s alma mater, Colby on Jan. 2 and 3, so there will be a chance for curiosity seekers in New England to get a look.
What they’ll see is a style that makes “40 Minutes of Hell” look like a cakewalk to play through. It’s anything but that for the players and for the fans.
“My kids have fun,” said Arseneault. “The fan support is fantastic. We not only pack our gym at home (Darby Gym is closing at season’s end), we are a big draw on the road. My feeling is, why shouldn’t you do this? What do you have to lose?
"The kids have a good time. Isn’t that what it’s about?”