Now comes word the entire game was an utter and complete sham, and the NCAA needs to pull the plug on the basketball programs of the coach and school involved as a result.
This is point-shaving to the point that it was, according to Deadspin's Barry Petchesky, a completely scripted enterprise by Jack Taylor and the Grinnell College Pioneers, with the participation of their opponents, Faith Baptist Bible College.
Real Godly for that school to take part in such a scam, too, while we're at it.
And, according to Petchesky, this is not the first time that Grinnell College has concocted a sham sporting event to get media attention onto itself!
"It is just the latest incarnation of Grinnell's decades-old strategy of seeking media attention for records achieved through a complete bastardization of basketball."
And it all starts with the current coach and his modus operandi for the Grinnell program:
"David Arseneault is the man behind the plan. Since becoming Grinnell coach in 1989, Arseneault has focused less on putting together a successful team and more on getting his players' names in the record books. And, not incidentally, selling books and videos touting his innovative "system." At least three separate times a Grinnell player has set the D-III single-game scoring record, and each one has gotten national attention. In 1998, Jeff Clement went for 77 points, and received a story in Sports Illustrated. Last season Griffin Lentsch scored 89 points, and got a feature on ESPN.com. Today, Taylor's 138-point game is everywhere."
(Links in the quote are the same links from the Deadspin article.)
Now, someone has to explain to me something: This guy effectively has a PRODUCTION COMPANY?
A production company... So he basically up and admits that NCAA contests under his purview are nothing but produced events for the consumption of the Worldwide Leader, should and when he elect to do so!
And this guy has been coach for 23 years now?? And no one has brought this idiot to task for what he has done to his college and the integrity of the sport of DIII college basketball?
This is the guy's philosophy of coaching, in one equation:
94S + 47 3's + 33%OR + 25SD + 32 TO's = W
First off, he wants his team to take at least 94 shots in a game. A 40-minute game no less.
Half those from the 3-point line (47).
Of the ones that are missed, Arseneault expects the team to offensive rebound a third of them.
His team is expected, in each game, to take at least 25 more shots than their opponents (SD = Shot Differential).
And his team is expected to force 32 turnovers.
This is Loyola Marymount from the Bo Kimble/Hank Gathers days on steroids!!
Now the philosophy isn't exactly a problem if the games are kept legitimate.
The problem with Jack Taylor's "performance" comes as follows:
According to a former Grinnell player who took part in one of those record-setting games, the gameplan is designed from the outset to get a specific player the scoring mark, even at the expense of making a mockery of the game. The player told Deadspin:
"The strategy was to use a full court press after a made basket, with the caveat that [the player seeking the record] would not cross into the defensive side of the court. So, after our opponents broke our press, we were essentially playing four-on-five, which enabled the other team to take quicker shots and fall into our game plan.
"The rationale is to essentially trade off a quick two or more attempts at lower probability 3-point shots. Given the high pace required for the system, Grinnell shifts in five players every 30 to 45 seconds. Within each shift there is a primary shooter who will take the bulk of threes (or shots) during the shift."
And this is where I openly accuse of game-rigging and point-shaving -- although I guess "shaving" might not be the right term here.
The entire game plan is to take the game into such an insane tempo that no team could ever hope to keep up with it. Basically, the team almost substitutes players like it were a hockey shift! Essentially, the entire system is designed so that one player just breaks the records and the game gets national and ESPN attention and that's where Arseneault truly wins.
Taylor took 108 shots alone. He took 71 shots from the three-point line.
So what happened, really... Tyler Burns watched the entire sham again on tape. The thought process is obvious!
"There were a LOT of possessions where Taylor would chuck up a shot, miss, and his teammate would get the rebound wide open under the basket. Instead of putting it back up, he would look for Taylor again and pass it out so he could chuck another three. There were many possessions where this happened three times each. Six three-point attempts in two trips down the court.
Literally 75% of [Faith Baptist's] points were full court heaves to get it over Grinnell's press, then a wide open layup on the other end. Oh, and David Larsen's "impressive" 70-point effort? Hardly. They were 90% wide open layups. He maybe took a handful of jump shots."Basically, no effort was made to play defense, once the ball crossed through the press. They literally were rigging the game to go to such a ridiculous extreme that no team could hope to keep up.
And Taylor? ZERO assists.
This wasn't basketball. This was, at best, Ballhog-ball, if not a straight-up rigged enterprise by a production company (not really a "basketball team") to get ESPN attention.
(David Larsen was the main beneficiary for Faith Baptist, nearly matching the pre-1998 record.)
And here's a real fun act of sportsmanship for you:
"The announcer actually said that Grinnell will look on their schedule for their weaker opponents and do everything they can to run up the score and break records. This is all within the game plan. One tactic the announcer mentioned was called "The Bomb Squad". If Grinnell's opponent gets into the double bonus, Grinnell will sub in five freshmen players, foul their opponent immediately once the ball is in play, send them to the line, then sub the freshmen players out to put their scorers back in on offense. This takes almost no time off the clock, giving their starters as many offensive possessions as possible."
This Arse-hole's "basketball program" is a sham and needs to be forcibly terminated.
