Grinnell kid scores 138 points in a game

I was reading that Wiki link about everyone who had 100-point games and discovered that Frank Selvy reached 100 when he threw in a 40-footer at the buzzer to make the final score 149-95.

I wonder what the outrage level was in 1954, because everybody was playing The Right Way back then.

 

I once asked Westhead if teams didn't like playing against LMU.
He said teams LIKED playing them because every game one or two guys would get a career high and it looked good in their stats.

 

I don't think Deadspin would have any problem with this whatsoever if it hadn't been done by a short white kid.

 

Wonder if Klosterman read the Deadspin piece before his tweet. The details in that piece were somewhat enlightening.

I'm by no means "unhappy" about it, but I am thoroughly unimpressed. So, basically, Grinnell's in the practice of scheduling the absolute weakest opposition it can possibly find, to the point of searching out obscure bible schools that qualify as neither NAIA nor NCAA, for the sole purpose of trying to gather publicity seeking scoring records? And every single thing it does during its bible school games is geared purely toward trying to get one player as many shot as imaginably possible?

Wowee, that's cool.

 

The opposing players who hate playing against run-and-gun teams are slug-footed sloths who are used to playing 80 percent of every game at a 2/3 speed jog (and 15 seconds of every possession standing hands-on-hips watching the point guard milk the clock).

They hate the idea they're going to have to bust ass up and down court on every possession.

Yet somehow this has become identified as the solid, fundamental, admirable, morally-sound, Right Way To Play.

 

Yes, a division of labor always exists among the players on a basketball team, but rarely to the degree involved here. And there is a vast middle ground - where the vast preponderance of all basketball games ever played are located - between having the same guy shoot every 15 seconds, and 12 passes before a shot. I'm just guessing most players, especially at a DIII braniac college where no one has a professional future, would enjoy the game more if they weren't expected to pass up open layups in order to feed a designated shooter to allow him to jack up yet another three. And maybe everybody is just conditioned to play basketball that way because we've always done so, but I'd also guess they'd find it more enjoyable to play several minutes in a row before sitting, rather than the Dr. Tom Davis on steroids hockey-style line shifts that Grinnell uses.

 

Did you read the deadspin piece? About 90 percent of those 70 came on wide open layups that Grinnell was basically intentionally giving him to speed up the pace and get the ball back down the court . That 70 means nothing against a complete absence of interior defense.

 

I would guess anybody playing for Grinnell probably has a pretty good idea how they play, and if they don't like it, they don't come out for the team.

 

And you know this . . how exactly?

Are slug-footed sloths common in competitive basketball? News to me. People who have invested their time in a sport that involves running and shooting . . . don't like running and shooting simply because it's not the normal way they have been coached?

I would think they would regard it the way children regard recess at school. Freedom at last.

But I wouldn't state such as fact. As Starman has done.

 

It's the System.
Grinnell doesn't care about giving up the open layups. They try to trap off of everything from made baskets, to inbounds plays to missed shots. A kid from our local high school was recruited to play there and the coach told him if he couldn't force the turnover by half court, to slide back down and be ready to shoot a three. Look at the box score and see how many offensive rebounds Grinnell had. It will make you shake your head.

To combat the frenzied style of play, opposition often tries to run a four-corner type of offense to slow the tempo. As it's been stated before, often times teams have players go for career nights against Grinnell.

As for Taylor, his team was trying to feed him the ball to break him out of a shooting slump from an interview I heard earlier. The Lentsch kid had 89 in a game last season.

 

I cover a high school girls basketball team that just employed the Grinnell style this season. They also set records. The other night they combined to set a state record for most fouls in a game (68) and most free-throws attempted (102). Crazy thing is, no one fouled out until magical foul No. 55. Not sure where the 85 turnovers ranked, but I'm sure they are up there as well.

 

That's definitely true about the players knowing what they're in for, and if you know anything about Grinnell (my wife and a coworker of mine are both alums), you know that this sort of iconoclastic style of play fits in perfectly with the campus culture and probably draws some people to the team. It's a very good school, but also a bit full of itself, and the idea that they found a new way to succeed that nobody else was smart enough to think of very likely resonates with the typical Grinnell student.