Jack Taylor of Grinnell College drives in for two of his NCAA record 138 points last Tuesday.
Early last week, a 5-foot-10, 170-pound college sophomore went from anonymity to national acclaim in an Andy Warhol minute. Jack Taylor erased the immortal Clarence "Bevo" Francis from the NCAA basketball record book by scoring a mind-numbing 138 points for Grinnell College in a 179-104 conquest of Faith Baptist Bible College.
Grinnell is a highly regarded academic school in Iowa that competes athletically at the Division III. It has been scoring points at a record-setting pace since the early 1990s. That’s when coach David Arseneault, after two losing seasons and desperate to eradicate a general malaise settling into his program, took Paul Westhead’s Loyola Marymount system — remember Bo Kimble and the late Hank Gathers? — and implemented it at Grinnell with a few wrinkles.
Arseneault became so well known for his “Grinnell System,” which puts a premium on a full-court press to create turnovers and shooting very early —preferably 3-pointers — in the shot clock, that within a decade other coaches were purchasing Arseneault’s instructional video and seeking him out for advice.
Muhlenberg College women's basketball coach Ron Rohn became intrigued by Grinnell's style one night after seeing the team appear on ESPN's SportsCenter. While Grinnell's scoring prowess impressed Rohn, it was Arseneault's hockey-like substituting of five-man shifts every 45 or so seconds that piqued Rohn's interest.
Rohn was preparing for the 2003-04 season with a roster that included no superstars but at times could go 18 players deep. The coach’s quandary was how to keep his players happy yet stay competitive.
The answer for Rohn was to spend a few dollars on Arseneault’s video, correspond with the coach a few times and convince his Mules to buy into this unique approach to basketball.
While Rohn’s team utilized the mass substituting every 40-to-45 seconds, sought to force backcourt turnovers and gave up layups to shoot a quick 3-pointer at the other end of the floor, the Mules’ approach differed from Grinnell in one very important aspect.
Which is why Rohn never created the women’s version of Jack Taylor in the two seasons Muhlenberg employed the Grinnell system.
“Part of their system is that each group will have a designated shooter,” Rohn said during an hour-long conversation Thanksgiving night. “We ran more of the Paul Westhead Loyola Marymount system in which you take the first open shot regardless of who is open.”
While on the surface Grinnell appears to be the ultimate chuck-and-duck offense, Rohn said it’s anything but that.
“They’ve been doing this since the early 90s and it has a very sophisticated screening system. The designated shooter will come off double, triple screens. It’s a little difficult to do that with girls because with guys they can get their shot off (in traffic) whereas with girls you have to work to get them an open look.”
Many looked at Taylor’s numbers — NCAA record 108 field goals attempted, 52 field goals made, 27 3-pointers made, 71 3-pointers attempted – and thought “ball hog.” Rohn, while not condoning or condemning Taylor’s magical night, offered another take.
Ron Rohn
“They look at it as a team goal,” Rohn said. “Everybody has a role in their system and Taylor was the designated shooter. Really, if you look at what is considered traditional basketball, players have the same roles but at a slower pace. Who’s shooting for the Lakers? It’s going to be Kobe (Bryant) most of the time.”
Still, how did Taylor, even as the designated shooter, score 138 points in a system that is designed for players to be on the court overall for no more than 18-to-20 minutes tops?
“It seems the past couple of years Grinnell has picked a game or two early during the non-conference part of their schedule in which it tries to go for some sort of record,” Rohn said. “This didn’t just crop up. They went into this with the understanding this person would take as many shots and score as many points as possible.
“But from following them as I have over the years, they do all this from a team standpoint.”
Indeed, Grinnell associate head coach David N. Arseneault, the coach’s son who now essentially runs the program, told the media after the game that a main focus of the Pioneers’ game plan against Faith Baptist Bible was to have Taylor regain his shooting touch.
Taylor, a transfer from Wisconsin-Lacrosse, scored 19 points on 5-for-18 shooting (3-for-15 from 3-point range) in 11 minutes of action in a 130-101 win over Rockford in the season-opening Wartburg Tournament. Taylor then shot just 6-for-23 from the floor — 3-for-19 from 3-point land — in an 111-100 victory over Crown in the title game. Taylor produced his 28 points in 16 minutes.
To ensure Taylor took enough shots to cure his shooting woes last Tuesday, Arseneault, the son, maintained his frantic substituting against Faith Baptist Bible (enrollment 275 students) but kept Taylor on the court.
By halftime, Taylor had scored 58 points, though he admitted in national media interviews he thought he only had around 30 points. With the Division III scoring record of 89 points in sight —set last year by current teammate, 6-4 senior forward Griffin Lentsch against Principia — the Pioneers were gung-ho to help Taylor break Lentsch’s record.
And so Taylor’s teammates set screens, rebounded, created a silly number of turnovers while allowing Faith Baptist Bible’s David Larson to score unabated (70 points on 34 of 44 shooting). The result was more shots for Taylor, who became unconscious at one point by scoring 28 consecutive points and swishing an incredible seven straight 3-point attempts, some from as far away as 25 feet.
By the time Taylor exited with 138 points, the Pioneers were leading 171-101 and he had played 36 minutes. Nine other Pioneers played at least 11 minutes but none more than 15 minutes. Arnseneaut, the son, admitted he considered taking out Taylor earlier in the second half but his point guard was in such a groove he didn’t want to halt his momentum.
Muhlenberg went 19-7 in its first season playing Grinnell ball. The following season (2004-05) the Mules started 7-1 and set Division III records for points in a half (78) and most 3-pointers made (21) in a 133-80 victory over Haverford.
But Rohn’s club struggled mightily over the second half of the season for a variety of reasons. The coach could barely instruct in practice or in games because of serious back issues and the Mules just didn’t have the depth to continue playing at the breakneck pace because of injuries. They finished 11-14, the only losing record in Rohn’s 11 seasons at Muhlenberg.
“It came down to a matter of taste and the next season we started from scratch,” Rohn said. “As it turned out, we went 26-3 that following year and won our first (Centennial) conference championship and since then we have won five of the last seven conference championships.”
Rohn said every year he gets 30-to-40 emails and phone calls from coaches or reporters inquiring about the Grinnell system. The 1978 Easton Area High School graduate and former Hofstra and Colgate head coach laughs at the situation.
“It’s been seven-to-eight years since we’ve run that,” Rohn said. “You’d think they’d call and ask what have we been doing right to win five championships in the last seven years? Even though we are 159-39 since then, not one person has called asking how we’ve done that.”
Rohn said the Grinnell experience was valuable and there still are Grinnell influences to what the Mules do.
“We’ve learned that in practice less is more,” Rohn said. “We’d rather go at 100 percent for 1½ hours than at 75 percent for 2½ hours. We still play 11 to 12 girls a game but not in a Grinnell substitution pattern.
“We also look at statistics in a different way. What percentage of missed shots that we take are we getting back? We’re finding out what wins games. If you have a rebounding advantage and turnover advantage you’re going to get more offensive opportunities. In the past five-to-six years, we’ve been ranked in the top 10 or 20 in fewest turnovers.”
Occasionally, Rohn will throw in a tape from the Grinnell years for his players to watch.
"They'll laugh and ask the coaches to play it at regular speed; they think it's being fast forwarded," Rohn said. "One of our current players, Katy Mitton, of Parkland, was a ball girl for us back then because her father worked at Muhlenberg. She just laughs and says 'you played crazy.'"
And that was even without someone scoring 138 points in a game.