Fred Bowen's "The Score" column,
Friday, December 3, 2004, Washington Post

What a Way to Play

The college basketball season is underway and kids are rooting for their favorite teams. Some like the Maryland Terps. Others are Georgetown Hoyas fans. Some are Cameron-crazy for Duke.

My favorite team is Grinnell College. If you've never heard of the Grinnell Pioneers, that's okay. I've never seen them play, but they are still my favorites.

Why? Grinnell is a terrific academic school in Iowa with about 1,400 students. The school likes its hoops played a little differently. Instead of slow-it-down, coach-controlled college basketball, Grinnell plays a running, gunning, high-scoring game. Last season, the Pioneers averaged a record 126 points per game!

Best of all, Grinnell Coach David Arseneault plays 15 to 17 kids every game. In fact, no one who tries out for the Pioneers gets cut. The coach substitutes five players at nearly every whistle, and the team fast-breaks, presses and shoots three-pointers for a full 40 minutes every game. Last season, 12 Grinnell players averaged more than 10 minutes per game; just one averaged more than 20. Nine players scored eight or more points a game.

Years ago, Arseneault coached like everybody else. He usually played only his best seven or eight guys. The other players sat on the bench and grumbled about lack of playing time. Some quit the team.

Now, everybody plays and everybody seems happy. Last season the Pioneers' record was 18 wins, six losses. And after years of losing (Grinnell had 27 straight losing seasons before 1991-92), the Pioneers have won the Division III (small college) Midwest Conference three of the last nine seasons.

I'd like to see more high school and middle school teams play the Grinnell College way. I don't mean the run-and-gun stuff -- Grinnell attempts more than 65 three-pointers a game! -- I mean the idea of more players playing more minutes.

Think about it. Most kids on middle school, AAU or high school teams are not going to turn pro. They just want a chance to play. Still, on too many teams about half the players are stuck on the bench hoping for some garbage time in the final minutes of games that already have been decided.

Why not give more kids a chance to play, like Grinnell does? Most teams' starters are not that much better than the bench-warmers. Plus, it's hard to get better if you never, or hardly ever, get to play. Given a chance, some of the bench-warmers might blossom into ballplayers.

So let's encourage coaches, especially in grade school through high school, to divide the minutes on the court more evenly. Let's have more kids play instead of having just the stars or starters grab all the glory and all the playing time.

Let's have more teams like my favorite, Grinnell College. Go, Pioneers!