The sports world is buzzing with talk of Grinell’s 22-year-old sophomore guard, Jack Taylor. On Tuesday Nov 20, Taylor broke the NCAA scoring record when he put up 138 points during a 179-104 victory over Faith Baptist Bible in a division three matchup. Hearing that one player scored so many points in one game sounds amazing at first, but was this particular instance really that great of an accomplishment?
When head coach David Arseneault took over the team in 1989, he was taking the reins of a team that had not had a winning season in 25 years. Since his arrival, Grinell has made it to the postseason 11 times, and led the nation in scoring during 17 of the last 19 seasons. So how does a division three school in a small town in Iowa make such a huge turn around and end up in the national sports spotlight?
The answer is a fast pace offensive scheme that should be called “Selfish-O.” The Grinell style of play highlights the skills of one player, and one player only. During the 138 point performance, Taylor was on the court for 36 out of the 40 minutes of play. You may ask: what’s wrong with that, there are plenty of basketball players who play nearly the entire game right? Yes, but the difference is the fact that not one player on the team, besides Taylor, played more than 15 minutes that night.
The Grinell bench players are rotated into the game every minute to keep them fresh and able to execute the high speed game plan. They are responsible for feeding the ball to Taylor allowing him to throw up as many shots as possible. When he misses, his teammates get the rebound and give the ball right back to him without even considering taking a shot of their own.
The kid took 108 shots and only made 52, a 48% success rate. 71 of those shots were from three point range, but he only made 27 of them, a 38% success rate.
The old saying “Even a blind squirrel finds a nut once in a while,” comes to mind here. 108 shots in a 40 minute game works out to be about one shot every 20 seconds. Taylor was responsible for 77% of the shots taken by Grinell and did not record a single assist.
So let me put this into perspective. Wilt Chamberlain set the NBA scoring record in 1962 when he put up 100 points against the New York Knicks. This accomplishment was far more impressive than that of Jack Taylor’s, aside from the obvious that it was the NBA and not a small division three game. During the game Chamberlain only took 59% of the shots and actually had a couple assists. He made 64 of his 95 shots, making 12 more shots than Taylor in 13 fewer attempts. Chamberlain’s teammates were involved in the action and they were not counting on the skills of one player to win the game.
The point I am trying to make here is that, yes one player scored 138 points in one game and no one can argue that is a great personal accomplishment, but when you look at the selfishness of the coach’s offensive game plan, it makes you realize that this particular case is really not that awesome at all. Grinell runs their offense in such a way that they should be home of the nation’s leading scorer year in and year out. Why any basketball player would want to play at Grinell College and forfeit years of training to be a part of this scheme, is unclear to me.
Let’s let Taylor have his 15 minutes of fame, but keep in mind that the only thing that got him that 15 minutes was the selfishness of his head coach, David Arseneault.