Hoopsville Rant: 138 points – What was the point?

Forgive me if this seems a bit late in coming, but I wanted to give myself time to think before just putting my thoughts immediately to a keyboard. I was worried that if I wrote immediately afterward, emotions may get the best of me. I also worried that in light of allowing my emotions to carry me, I might actually hold back my thoughts. Now I am here… and ready to rant.

I was not even all that sure that writing about Grinnell’s Jack Taylor’s record 138-point night is a great idea. Why would I want to give even more attention to something I have so many problems with? Why should Grinnell get any more attention than they have by being featured on ESPN, Today Show, Nightly News, and elsewhere? But with those questions in mind, why shouldn’t we in the Division III community take the time to give our two cents? Why should only the major media outlets, which only seem to cover Division III when something like this happens, be the ones that dictate the content? I have already read some very good opinions from many including some in the D3 family like coach Bob Walsh of Rhode Island College, so I am writing about the game … and I hope to keep my emotions in check.

Simply put, the game makes me sick to my stomach. Not because Taylor scored 138 points. I am sick to my stomach because this isn’t how records are made to be broken. This isn’t the way you represent your school. This isn’t the way you garner respect for a school, program or division. And this isn’t the way Division III athletes and programs should be recognized. Not for a gimmick. Not for embarrassing an opponent. Not for something that seems to fly right in the face of the NCAA’s sportsmanship initiative.

You know, something that “demonstrates one or more of the ideals of sportsmanship, including fairness, civility, honesty, unselfishness, respect and responsibility.” We’ll get back to that.

I should say now that I was impressed with Taylor’s effort. He did score 138 points in a 40 minute game, after all. He did shoot the ball 108 times without his arms collapsing at his sides. He did accomplish an incredible feat. However, that is where my congratulations and being impressed stops.

This isn’t Taylor’s fault. This wasn’t necessarily his doing. This was clearly the brain-child of Grinnell head coach David Arseneault and this isn’t the first time we have seen this gimmick from him and his program. Remember, his son “broke” the assist record for a game a few years ago. And remember current senior Griffin Lentsch “broke” the Division III scoring record with 89 points almost exactly a year before Taylor’s 138-point night.

Arseneault runs and touts the infamous “System” which allows teams to score plenty of points in games while playing upwards of 15 players, subbing them in and out of a game every 30 to 90 seconds. Many other schools have implemented the system in the past for all kinds of reasons (Redlands, Muhlenberg, North Central). Some want their players to enjoy the game when they aren’t competitive, some because their coaches believe in the system, and others for other reasons. It has resulted in records for points in a game and it has garnered national attention. That’s fine. It works for the coaches and teams that implement it. I have no problem with it. But those other programs didn’t target games or opponents just to break records.

This wasn’t the prototypical “system.” Grinnell rigged the system, as they have in the past, simply to rig a record. Sure, people will claim that coaches can change their game plans per the game and the opponent. I understand that. But this is specifically changing the game plan not because of the opponent, not because of the game, and not because it might help you win… this is to break a record and in the process embarrass the opponent.

But there are other fish to fry here and questions to be raised like why in the world would an institution like Grinnell keep letting this happen? If you don’t know, Grinnell is one of the top liberal arts colleges in the country. U.S. News and World Report’s annual Best Colleges issue has Grinnell ranked 22nd in the list of National Liberal Arts Colleges. The college prides itself on the quality of their academics and their institution. In fact their mission statement reads “to educate its students ‘for the different professions and for the honorable discharge of their duties of life.’” It goes on to state, “the College aims to graduate women and men … who are prepared in life and work to use their knowledge and their abilities to serve the common good.”

So how does telling your team the goal is to take advantage of the fact the coaches scheduled a weak out-of-conference opponent that won’t be able to stop a record-breaking attempt educate students so they can honorably discharge their duties in life or help them serve the common good?

It started out, according to several reports, as emails from the coaching staff the weekend before the game, according to several interviews and reports. Then at Monday’s practice, under the guidance of the coaches who put in a scheme to achieve this goal, the team decided to elect Jack Taylor as the man to set the record. Mind you, they did NOT select last year’s honoree, senior Griffin Lentsch.

Here is some food for thought:
– Jack Taylor has claimed in several interviews that the team and the coaches wanted to get him out of his shooting slump. Going into the game against Faith Baptist he was shooting 11-for-41 from the floor, just under 29 percent, and 6-for-34 from beyond the arc, 17.6 percent. In the record-setting game, he shot over 48-percent from the floor and 38-percent from beyond the arc. Then in the last two games, where he has only scored an average of 19.5 points, he has shot over 36-percent from the floor and over 29-percent from downtown.

Two thoughts here: maybe Taylor needs to figure something out with his shooting overall; or Grinnell should have Taylor shoot 100-plus times a game all the time if they want any hope of him actually shooting well.
– Taylor played 36 minutes in the game; about the same amount his teammate Lentsch did last year when he broke the D3 record. The rest of Taylor’s 19 teammates played no more than 15 minutes each and combined for 28 shots and 41 points. As for Lentsch? He had seven points on three shots.
– Taylor played 36 minutes in a game that ended up being a 75-point blowout. He was still shooting the ball with less than two minutes remaining and the score 169 to 101! He had already shattered the record by 23 points!
– Faith Baptist did indeed have a player score 70 points in the loss, but I could do that in a pick-up game if the defense is going to let me have a layup every time down the court.
– Oh, and by the way, Taylor has only started two of the team’s five games so far this season. Though his best shooting performances have come when he has started. So, maybe just starting Taylor will help with his shooting slump, not having him try and score more than 113 points.

Last January, when Grinnell was having a good season, we had assistant coach and former player David Arseneault Jr. on Hoopsville. Arseneault Jr. was the interim head coach while his dad was on sabbatical working a book about the “system.” But Arseneault Sr. was the head coach during the Lentsch’s record breaking night two months prior. When asked about the game, the younger Arseneault stated that they had no intent to break any record that night against Principia in the season opener. Arseneault Jr. said on the show that they looked at the box score at halftime and saw that Lentsch had 40 points so they decided to go for the record. Of course, Lentsch had played 17 of the 20 minutes so far in the game (no teammate had more than nine minutes) and he had taken 27 shots, 21 of them from beyond the arc.

Sure, there was no intent to break the record at the start of the game? Why would we think that? He had only played nearly the entire half and fired off 23 more shots than any of his teammates!

Let’s also consider the opponents: Principia played just seven guys in that game and finished the season 0-25. Faith Baptist? They played their entire 10-man roster and are currently 0-5.

Combined, Principia and Faith Baptist played 17 men in those two games – Grinnell played 20 just in this year’s game alone. And the two teams have a record of 0-29 against Grinnell – in fact Principia has lost 27 games in a row overall and Faith Baptist has won just one in the last two seasons.

Which gets me back to the NCAA sportsmanship point; do you remember the quote? “Demonstrates one or more of the ideals of sportsmanship, including fairness, civility, honesty, unselfishness, respect and responsibility.”

How does picking Faith Baptist to set a scoring record against demonstrate ANY of those sportsmanship ideals? Furthermore, how does continuing to pour it on when a) you have already broken the record and b) you are leading by 70-plus points demonstrate ANY of those sportsmanship ideals?

You aren’t being fair by picking teams that can’t do anything about it and making a mockery of them and the game. You risk civility if any of the opposing players decide enough is enough (and I wouldn’t blame them!). You are not being honest when you can’t break a record in the spirit or normal flow of a game; you have to rig your own system to get what you want. Unselfishness? Sure, for the other 19 guys who turned down wide-open layups and just kept passing to Taylor for more three-point shots.

This might explain why Grinnell was posting several times over the offseason looking to fill open dates for men’s basketball. Who wants to be a party to this kind of display?

This gets me to the last two ideals of sportsmanship: respect and responsibility. You haven’t earned anyone’s respect for the shenanigans being pulled in any of the record attempts. Many people would argue that the assist “rules” were actually circumvented or stretched just so Arseneault Jr. could break the record. And in the two record scoring games, you didn’t earn anyone’s respect … you in fact may have lost respect.

And responsibility … that lies in the following.

I hear from coaches all the time about “teachable moments” for their athletes. Grinnell is not only a nationally recognized liberal arts college, U.S. News and World Report ranks it as the third best undergraduate teaching college. So, how is rigging a game against an inferior opponent a teachable moment? What in the world do gimmicks like these actually teach the young minds of this team and the rest of the college? If you want to go out there and get national attention by embarrassing your opponent and scoring as many points as you can despite the fact almost every other coach in the country would have called off the dogs in a blowout … you can do it here and this will prepare you for your future in life?

What makes it worse? The college is still touting the achievement on its main website. I’m not talking about the athletic website; I am talking about the college’s main site.

There are plenty of responsibilities for coaches and programs, especially as the competition levels go higher. In Division III, I feel the most responsible thing is to consider that while many schools are putting their best foot forward and bringing in students to help win conference and maybe national championships, it isn’t the only thing that is important to these student-athletes. There are also institutions that may not compete for titles, but feel it is in their best interest for a variety of reasons, including making their students better people, to field teams and teach student-athletes the values of being part of a team and a bigger purpose than individual aspirations.

You don’t see the Amherst’s, Williams’, St. Thomas’, Wash U.’s, Johns Hopkins’, MIT’s, etc. of Division III or any division decide that, against what could be called an inferior opponent, destroying that team and those players just to break a record is acceptable. You also don’t see those teams putting just one player ahead of the entire rest of the team and applauding them for a ridiculous individual achievement in something that is considered a team sport.

So I congratulate Jack Taylor for an impressive 138-point night, but I ask one simple question: What was the point? To quote a very good sports information director at Washington College on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, Phil Ticknor, Cory Weissman (whose incredible story from last season is being made into a movie) scored one point in his career. Jack Taylor scored 138 in a game. Weissman’s was more impressive.”

This is Division III. If we get on ESPN or the Today Show or any national media, we should be happy because it was a story like Cory Weissman’s and not Jack Taylor’s. This was clearly a moment that was NOT “why D3.”

Hoopsville Classic: Dave’s take on the teams

Not that often in Division III do we get a chance to see a number of different teams in the same gymnasium in the course of one weekend – outside of the NCAA Tournament. This past weekend the Hoopsville National Invitational Classic gave many of us the chance to not only see eight very different programs each play two games, we got to see three ranked teams and a fourth who should be play against one another.

So with that in mind, I thought I would give you my take on the weekend. Not how the weekend went, but the teams that took part and I have ranked them from bottom to top.

Franciscan – I hate to say anyone was the worst team over the weekend, so I won’t. However, Franciscan was one of two teams that came out of the Hoopsville Classic 0-2. But to be fair, the Barons shouldn’t hang their heads… this was a good test for what is practically a brand new program. Don’t forget that Franciscan only returned three players from last year’s 0-25 squad – that means there isn’t much memory of it. They are made up of mainly freshmen and sophomores who have plenty of talent and will only improve with more playing time and experience especially when they test themselves to tough competition like they saw at Stevenson University and beforehand with Bethany (W.Va.). And while the Barons lost their games to Stevenson and Gallaudet by an average of 14-plus points, they were playing with at least four players not eligible until Dec. 15 including two players that could jump-start their offense. Coach John Lamanna has a good squad and as soon as he and the team get more of a base to their program, they will succeed.

Gallaudet – It is tough for any program to expect to succeed after a major coaching change in the offseason and losing plenty of talent that had provided the best seasons in program history, but Gallaudet has been here before. They seem to always be in this place. After all, the deaf institution already has the disadvantage of a narrower recruiting field then most schools. However, the Bison often seem to find talent who turn coaches’ heads when they seem them play (anyone remember Ronda Jo Miller?). This year Gallaudet has a couple of players we could be talking about down the road: Danny Kelly (listed as a center but can play guard), Layton Seeber, Jocus Houston, and Orion Palmer just to name a few. They along with two of their teammates scored in double-figures in their game against Franciscan – but that is the offense. On defense, I have always been impressed with the discipline especially in a zone look. This weekend the Bison once again showed they will hold high-scoring squads below their average with smart defense which causes turnovers and forces bad shots. The challenge for the Bison will be the fact that Seeber, Kelly, and Houston are seniors and the squad does have a new coach Brendan Stern who certainly is familiar with the program, but still has to get used to coaching this squad. Gallaudet may have never been to the NCAA tournament, but they have a squad that could contend for a conference title and maybe get that automatic bid this season.

Mass-Boston – Talk about a sleeper in the Little East Conference. I am not saying they are going to win the conference with the likes of Western Connecticut, Eastern Connecticut, Rhode Island College and Keene State leading the way, but they are going to spoil many a team’s day and be in the mix. Last season’s LEC Rookie of the Year Vinny DeLucia is averaging 11 points a game, but Coach Titus thinks the team’s best player won’t play until the second half of the season. And this Beacons team already has a wealth of talent besides DeLucia. Rahshjeem Benson, Carl Joseph, Jahleel Moise, and Brian Clarke have all started the season strong along with Mike Mitchell and Josh Mojica, but the team needs to mature a bit more. They had a chance to win the game against Stevenson if one player whose basket at the end cut the deficit to one with 1.4 on the clock decided to find his man defensively first and not pound his chest after a half-dunk. His man got the in-bounded ball and had to be fouled before the clock ran out.

This squad has just two seniors. Don’t be surprised if they are playing spoiler this year and maybe battling for a conference title next season.

Stevenson – The host school certainly represented themselves well winning their two games against Gallaudet and Mass-Boston and starting 2-0 for the first time since 2005.

This Mustangs squad certainly has talent. Their center is a 6-6 senior named Andrew Bishop who helped spark comebacks several times over the weekend. You aren’t overly impressed with his presence inside, but certainly appreciate his drive and abilities when he comes up with big shots and solid defense. You then have Brett Burrier who is a 6-6 senior forward who is the perfect three-man who can not only hit shots inside, but can step back and hit big three point shots when needed. And that still leaves guys like Kelly Davis and Stefon McCray who are both juniors and are contributing on both ends of the court.

Now, while the Mustangs started the season 2-0, they are playing in the MAC Commonwealth for the first time and that will mean tough competition from the likes of Messiah, Widener, Lebanon Valley, Elizabethtown, Albright, Alvernia and others. While I don’t see Stevenson fighting for a conference title this year, Stewart at least has his squad moving in the right direction as he starts his second season.

Randolph-Macon – this is where things will be odd to say the least… I have the Yellow Jackets as the fourth best squad of the weekend and despite starting the season 0-3… they are arguably a Top 25 team. I can already imagine some of you saying “WHAT?!” The answer is yes because they have tons of talent which will once again put them right into the mix in the always tough ODAC which I could see on paper getting four teams into the NCAA tournament this season.

It isn’t like RMC got all that easy a start to the season with a loss on the road to Christopher Newport (getting votes in the Top 25) on Thursday and then having to play No. 16 Transylvania on Saturday and No. 19 St. Mary’s on Sunday. In none of those games was RMC beaten by a more talented team… they were beaten mainly by themselves. In the first three games they have averaged 18 turnovers – nearly four more than their opponents; the Yellow Jackets are shooting .558 from the free throw line; are a paltry 19-70 from the three-point line; are being out rebounded by nearly two boards a game; and are being outscored by 17 in the second half of their games. But ask many of the coaches at the Hoopsville National Invitational Classic and they will say Randolph-Macon probably had the most talent of any of the teams there.

So they may fall out of the Top 25 after this start, but they will be back in the poll later this season.

St. Mary’s (Md.) – The Seahawks are always ready for the start of the season and Coach Harney always has them playing tough opponents, but St. Mary’s didn’t look completely ready to start the season. Their first game featured a big lead to start, only to then have Catholic go on a 43-13 run and nearly run the Seahawks out of the building.

St. Mary’s has a lot of talent, but they are still finding themselves. This is probably a different squad if Chris McAuley didn’t have aspirations to play in Division I and left over the summer to pursue them. Instead the Seahawks have to, well, MacGyver what they can in the post with MacGyver Biniak. Biniak is a good player, but the usual double-teams down low on Seahawks post players the last few seasons won’t happen and that means less guys open on the perimeter including senior forward Jeff Haus who has made a killing on the weak side when his player sags in to help in the post.

Team leader Devin Spencer doesn’t seem to be the same player as in years past and James Davenport may be back after he was lost for an entire season due to injury, but he looks like he has lost a season. The bright spot for the Seahawks will be Nick LaGuerre who as a sophomore is already leading the team in scoring. He will take some pressure off of Spencer in both ball handling and shooting and steps up the defense.

St. Mary’s will once again battle for a CAC title and another NCAA tournament berth, but how good they will be this year will depend on whether they don’t rest on their laurels and find a way to adjust what has worked in the past and find what will instead work this season.

Transylvania – The Pioneers did not start the season they way they had hoped. In fact, before Saturday’s game against Randolph-Macon, Transylvania had lost three in a row dating to last season. Catholic simply made the Pioneers look pedestrian on Friday night, but they fought back to beat a scrambling RMC squad on Saturday. However, they are clearly missing their floor general, Tate Cox.

Last season, Cox averaged nine points a game and had a turnover to assist margin of 1.6 to 1 on a squad that lead the nation in the least number of turnovers. Flash forward to this season and the team’s 10.1 turnovers per game from 2011 has blossomed to 14.7 and only in the game against RMC did they have less turnovers than their opponent (RMC had 22). Cox brings a level of confidence and calm on the offensive end this Transylvania team needs, despite the best efforts of Nick Fudge. However, when Cox returns from injury is mainly up to him.

It isn’t to say that Transylvania’s problems are only because they miss Cox on the floor. Ethan Spurlin is banged up and Brandon Rash has struggled this season – despite a very good game against St. Mary’s. They have some young talent like Parker Stansberry who will contribute, but they need others to step up. Coach Brian Lane has already said this is the team’s team… especially the seniors. He is a good coach that can make good adjustments, but the onus is on the seniors to prove they deserve to be recognized in the Top 25.

Personally, they are a Top 25 team with plenty of talent that probably has to get used to missing the two players who graduated from last year’s squad. While Chris Owen and Ashley Hatfield may not have garnered the attention for their production on the court, their leadership off the court clearly is missed and now Spurlin, Rash, Cox and others have to step up into that role and when they do, the Pioneers could be tough to stop.

Catholic – Almost every coach, assistant coach, or fan who watched Catholic play this past weekend pretty much said one thing, “these guys are GOOD!” Tough to argue with that.

I will admit I had the Cardinals in my Top 40 as I worked on my preseason Top 25 ballot… but I had too many question marks to place them in what was my last version of my ballot (there were many versions some of which Catholic did appear in the 20-25 range). The biggest was the fact Catholic, which even coach Steve Howes has admitted, kept falling short of expectations. Whether it was a stretch in the middle of conference play or simply not winning games they should have, the Cardinals have been somewhat disappointing for several seasons in a row – they haven’t made the NCAA tournament since 2007! Would they finally get over the hump? The other question was whether losing sophomore guard Billy Donovan who was coming along nicely as a player with the likes of Shawn Holmes, Nate Koenig, and Chris Kearney would once again leave Catholic with a disappointing season. The answer to both: no.

Catholic is going to be a tough opponent in the Mid-Atlantic and Landmark Conference this season. Shawn Holmes could be an All-American candidate along with Kearney who both left the weekend averaging nearly 20 points a game – against Top 25 teams! Defensively the Cardinals held Transylvania and St. Mary’s to an average of 46.5 points and forced 35 total turnovers (Catholic had just 14 turnovers).

I actually reserved my judgment of the Cardinals after the Transylvania game to see how they did against St. Mary’s. It wasn’t as if the Seahawks weren’t paying attention; their assistant coaches were in the stands scouting on Friday night and early in their game Saturday it looked like St. Mary’s was going to leave Catholic 1-1 for the weekend. But just like in the game against Transylvania, the Cardinals all of sudden hit some kind of switch on offense and defense and before anyone knew it a ten point deficit was gone and then shortly afterward they were up 10 points.

Catholic deserves to be in the Top 25… and deserved to have been there in the preseason. They have too much talent that seems to have come together perfectly. Of course there are still questions remaining like if they can get through the Landmark without going through another spell of bad losses and fighting just to make the four-team playoff. However, if the Cardinals play the rest of the season the way they did at Stevenson … they are going to be a team many will look at to make a deep run in the NCAA Tournament come March.