Basketball Statistics Blog

Basketball Statistician's Digest: The Grinnell College System

Grinnell College is a small liberal arts college in Grinnell, Iowa, USA. It was founded in 1846, when a group of transplanted New England Congregationalists with a strong social-reformer orientation formed the 'Trustees of Iowa College'.

Grinnell basketball teams is one of the teams with more offensive records in the high school national level - NCAA - Midwest Conference - Division III - and in February 2005, Grinnell became the first Division III school to broadcast a non-championship basketball game on national television when it faced off against the Beloit Buccaneers on ESPN 2.

Grinnell College's basketball team attracted ESPN's due to the team's unique style of playing basketball, known simply as "The System."

In a fashion much like an ice hockey match, Coach David Arsseneault's "system" incorporates a continual full-court press, a fast-paced offense with a lot of fast-breaks, shooting in less than 12 seconds after a ball steal, an emphasis on offensive rebounding, a barrage of three-point shots, and substitutions of five players at a time every 35 to 40 seconds, playing between 15 to 17 players every game.

"The System" has been criticized for not teaching the principles of defense, in spite of the pressing defenses which are applied.

Photograph: from "College Fanz"

However, under "The System," Grinnell has won three conference championships over the past ten years and have regularly placed in the top half of the conference.

Coach Arseneault's teams have also set numerous NCAA scoring records and several individuals on the Grinnell team have led the nation in scoring, steals or assists. In the 2008 season the team was first with 117.3 points and 16 steals per game.

These are the principal 5 principles of "The System":

The team must shoot at least 94 times per game;

At least half of this shoots must be from three points;

Minimum we must throw to the basket 25 times more than the opponent;

Offensive rebounds must be at least a 33% of the total of our throws;

The team must force the opponent to 32 turnovers with a pressing defense.

There is no relation from this "system" with our eBA Basketball Statistics Creative Analysis System, out of it's application in the statistical data analysis.

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