Massey Basketball: Circus Comes to Town

In 2004, the headline of the sports page of the Register-Mail was, “Circus Comes to Town.” Writer, Jay Redfern then started his article with the following, “Fasten your seat belts. College basketball’s biggest thrill ride is coming to town.”

Jay was writing a preview of the upcoming Grinnell men’s basketball team coming to Galesburg to play Knox College. Grinnell was coming in as the leading scoring team in the nation, scoring 134.8 points per game. In talking to Redfern, Coach Tim Heinman described it this way, “As a coach, you hate to play them. But as a fan, they’re so fun to watch. We get calls from all over the state, wanting to know when we’re going to play Grinnell.”

Grinnell at Knox- Wednesday, January 21 at 5:30pm

Grinnell will be back in Galesburg. This year they are averaging “only” 111.8 points per game. They feature a rotation of three groups of five players going in and out of the game. They will sub during the first deadball after 35 seconds of play. The fifteen players average between 8.6 and 16.6 minutes per game.

Fourteen of the fifteen have scored in double figures at least once this season, and seven players have scored over 15 points in a game. The Pioneers have four players averaging around 15 points per game.

This year’s version of the Pioneers tends to be more locked into the defensive side of the ball. When I had a chance to talk to Coach David Arseneault (son of the originator of the “System”), he said, “The last handful of years there has been more emphasis on the defense. We’re longer, more athletic, and have better depth- so we are spreading minutes out more. We are better defensively as a result and it produces better offense.”

Don’t be fooled, Grinnell still has the ability to be explosive offensively. Junior, Kai Te Huli led the nation in scoring two years ago, and last year he had a game where he made 15 threes.

This year the Pioneers have been held under 100 points in three games, and have been over 100 points in 8 games. Their high game was 160 points vs Greenville and their low game was 92 points vs Illinois College.

Why The “System?”

Before David Arseneault (father of the present coach) took over at Grinnell College in the early 1990’s, Grinnell had 25 straight losing season. After playing two seasons of conventional basketball, Arseneault realized something had to change to build enthusiasm for basketball at Grinnell and attract more players to play basketball. His solution was what he called the “system.” He wanted something that would be fun!!

He came up with the concept centered around the following ideas:

1- Play uptempo and try to score lots of points by looking to shoot in the first 12 seconds of each possession.

2- Shoot as many threes as possible- “our threes will trump your twos.” If we can make 1/3 of our threes, that is as good as making 50% of two’s.

3- Send 4 people to the offensive boards. We will get more second shots and more points. And if we don’t get an offensive rebound, the other team will get more fastbreaks. The other team will shoot sooner and we will get the ball back- more possessions.

4- We will press and trap in the full court and in the half-court to try to make the other team play faster and shoot faster.

5- We will send five new players to substitute ever 35 seconds, so when a deadballs happens, our players will only play 45-60 seconds. We will have 15-18 players playing regularly.

System Results

For basketball fans in Galesburg, if they have gone to a Grinnell game, they realize indeed Grinnell is fun to watch. It is obvious playing 15-18 has attracted players to play at Grinnell.

Using the “System,” Grinnell has gained national attention. Here are just a few of their achievements:

Steve Diekmann 37.2ppg (1995), Jack Taylor 36.3ppg (2013)

Jack Taylor 138 points in a game (27-71 threes) (National Record- all levels)

Patrick Maher 37 assists in game (2014) (National Record-all levels)

John Grotberg 12 steals in a game (2009)

Team Record- 179 points in game

Team Record- 111 threes attempted in game

Team Record for Season- 126.2 points average

Obviously the “Grinnell System” has created an offense that is off the charts. It has been copied by numerous high school and college programs throughout the nation. Galesburg girls basketball ran the “System” for 4 years, including the 2011 team that set national records on their way to an Elite 8 appearance.

One should not be fooled by the stats and feel like it is just a gimmick. Grinnell wins, and they win a lot. Before the System, Grinnell had 25 straight losing seasons. Since putting the System in, Grinnell has had winning seasons 25 and only 8 losing seasons. That is a pretty dramatic turnaround.

Arseneault and System Ahead of Their Time

When we ran the System at Galesburg, another coach said that we were… “bastardizing the game of basketball.” Through the years there have been fans and coaches who almost seemed angry or offended by the this style of basketball. Probably for the first 20 years that Arseneault ran the System, there were many who didn’t respect it.

The irony is that in the last fifteen years, much of Arseneault's System has been adapted by the NBA and major colleges. Mainstream basketball has recognized the logic of many of Coach Arseneault’s strategies.

Threes or Layups- Even though there was a three point arc, most teams in high school, colleges, and the pros up thru the early 2000’s were only shooting about 10 threes per game.

The Grinnell concept of shooting only layups or threes is the direction college and pro teams have gone in the last ten years. Analytics experts have proven that the mid-range two is a bad shot.

Present Grinnell coach, David Arseneault described it this way, “Dad was well ahead of his time, recognizing the value of the three point shot. In fact, it used to be so much different when others played us, they didn’t take many threes. Now we have had to adjust to other teams being more comfortable shooting threes.

First 10 Seconds- Analytics people can show you that the scoring success of team is related to when they take a shot. Teams score at a higher rate in the first ten seconds of the shot clock vs the last ten seconds of the shot clock.

For years, Grinnell has been trying to shoot in the first ten seconds, now other people are doing the same thing. You see college and pro teams launching an open three in the first ten seconds all the time.

Hit the Offensive Boards- The past two years the biggest change in college and pro basketball is the resurgence of getting offensive rebounds. Stats show that the number of offensive rebounds by teams has almost doubled. In the recent “Commissioners Cup” between San Antonio and New York, the two teams had 42 offensive rebounds between them.

Many college teams now are sending 4 players to the offensive boards. It may be that 2 of them are sent just to the elbow area, but there is a commitment to the offensive boards.

Hit Offensive Boards and Pass Out- Grinnell was the first team that would get offensive rebounds, and instead of taking the ball up to the basket, they would pivot and pass out to open shooters for threes. Now analytics shows the highest percentage three point shot is off a pass out from the basket. More and more teams are passing the ball out for open threes.

National Respect

To show the level of respect for the Grinnell System, David Arseneault, Jr was the coach of the Sacramento Kings’ G-League team. During his year coaching these pro players, using his version of the System, the Reno Bighorns won the Western Conference title, set record for most points per game, and assists/turnover ratio.

When I asked him what he learned about the System coaching in the G-League, he said, “There are a lot of ways to play the game. And a lot of variations to the System. With the System, every year there is a different iteration.”

And it has been successful for the younger Arsenault, going into this season his teams had won 134 and lost 81 games. And realize that he is doing this at a school that has an average ACT of 32.

I had texted Coach Arseneault to see if he had time to talk for “10 minutes.” As we finished our conversation, I felt guilty because we had been on the phone for over 30 minutes. So I asked if he had to deal with these kind of calls from writers and coaches very often.

Coach Arseneault reply, “I get calls at least once or twice a week about the System. My main point is that is a great way to inject enthusiasm into a program, and to increase player interest.”

Wednesday Night

Men’s Basketball- 5:30pm- Grinnell at Knox

Women’s Basketball- 7:30pm- Grinnell at Knox

GHS grad Juniper Schwartzman will be playing for the Grinnell women, and Carly Smith will be playing for Knox women.

GHS grads, Chad Thompson (men’s) and Kelsi Legge (women’s) are coaches at Knox College.

GHS grad, Carl Dortch is a senior on the Knox men’s team.

Knox women’s team features Bria Medina, a 5’6” junior from Tucson, Arizona. Bria is in the top ten in scoring in the NCAA Division III. At the time of my story, she was averaging 24.8ppg.