OT: Grinnell College attempts 111 3s in a game
For those of you not familiar, Grinnell is in the middle of Iowa and middle of nowhere (can say this from firsthand knowledge of the town), but they keep it interesting in terms of their MBB team. They were 40 of 111, heating up to shoot over 50% in the second half to come away with a 124-67 win. Honestly not as impressive as when they scored 258 points in the early 90s which is bonkers.
December 9th, 2022 at 2:01 PM ^
Apparently, they are not acquainted with Iowan, Brian Ferentz.
December 9th, 2022 at 2:48 PM ^
I think both Ferentz's are quite familiar with an offense that goes for 3's only.
December 9th, 2022 at 2:52 PM ^
Congrats, you have won the internet for the day!
December 9th, 2022 at 2:01 PM ^
If you can shoot 36% from 3, then keep shooting.
December 9th, 2022 at 2:02 PM ^
I feel like to count as an NCAA record it should be against an NCAA team, not some random bible college that is a member of the Midwest Christian College Conference
I don't think many of their records are terribly impressive given the relative competition level
We played Grinnell in football and it's one thing to play mediocre D3 competition. But these bible colleges are just horrible teams. We were terrible at football and beat the crap out of them
December 9th, 2022 at 2:07 PM ^
Seriously. The real story here is you gave up 67 points to Emmaus Bible College?!?
December 9th, 2022 at 3:35 PM ^
I would imagine to jack up over 100 3PAs you need to stop playing perimeter defense so you can get the ball back quickly. It kind of stops mattering once you're up 50 anyway.
December 9th, 2022 at 6:41 PM ^
I believe their strategy is to defend the three point line, but give up other shots. At least that's what I remember from attending a game back in the 90s.
December 9th, 2022 at 2:11 PM ^
We also played Grinnell when i was at St. Norbert. where did you play at?
December 9th, 2022 at 2:17 PM ^
a once and future MIAC school, who briefly was in the Midwest Conference, although that was after my time
December 9th, 2022 at 2:17 PM ^
As someone who attended bible college, I can confirm there's a talent discrepancy.
December 9th, 2022 at 2:47 PM ^
Grinnell is most definitely not a stereotypical bible college (religion plays almost no role on campus). It's a super-selective liberal arts college with a $3 billion endowment.
December 9th, 2022 at 2:58 PM ^
Grinnell isn't the one in question. I'm very familiar with them.
Their opponent, Emmaus Bible College, is the one I was referencing.
December 10th, 2022 at 1:41 PM ^
"You are going straight to Hell."
-- Random Bible College
December 9th, 2022 at 2:04 PM ^
*Remembers 1990 tourney game against Loyola Marymount*
*shudders*
December 9th, 2022 at 2:19 PM ^
Same here. It seemed that the team had convinced Fisher that they could play LMU's game better than LMU.
I can't see Michigan beating UNLV in the Elite Eight that year, but on paper they should've won a couple more games. They had way more talent than LMU for sure.
December 9th, 2022 at 2:35 PM ^
and there's Per Stumer with another baseline three
December 9th, 2022 at 2:51 PM ^
Hahaha.
And Jeff Fryer's response: "Hold my beer."
Fryer hit, I think, 57 threes that game. (Actually 11, but close enough.) Clark Kellogg couldn't stop laughing.
December 9th, 2022 at 4:00 PM ^
Yep remember that team well. Can’t remember that coaches name but he also coached the Nuggets. Was just run and gun and don’t even worry about defense. Usually best teams by scores of like 130-125
December 9th, 2022 at 4:41 PM ^
Paul Westhead. He coached the Lakers to the title Magic's rookie year. Later got pushed out.
After coaching LMU, he coached the Phoenix Mercury (and Diana Taurasi) to the WNBA title in 2007.
December 10th, 2022 at 12:36 PM ^
I loved Steve Fisher's coaching style at UM but felt this was his absolute worst coaching job in any game. We had Rumeal and Higgins who could have been paired together to break the press, then slow it down and post up Mills and Vaught, like he did later with double posts for Webber and Juwan. LMU had no strong big guy inside to stop us. Almost how like we've learned that ground and pound (instead of trying speed in space) vs. Ohio is a better strategy in football.
We would have advanced to the Elite 8 but probably lost to UNLV, though close. They had a couple of tight games vs. Ohio and Ball State before crushing LMU.
That UNLV was one of the best I've ever seen.
December 9th, 2022 at 2:19 PM ^
In the 90s I was a pretty solid high school player (All City with all kinds of D2 & D3 opportunities) that was sometimes known to attempt 15 3's in a single game, which was often more than the entire team.
How the hell did I not know about Grinnell? Missed my time.
December 9th, 2022 at 2:24 PM ^
Flying, the exact phrase is “Where in the hell is Grinnell?” (It’s actually on t-shirts.)
December 9th, 2022 at 2:21 PM ^
I think I took 111 3-pointers during a pickup game once. I still lost. That 12 year old was good!!!
December 9th, 2022 at 2:25 PM ^
https://pioneers.grinnell.edu/sports/mens-basketball/stats/2022-23/emma…
They attempted no 2 point baskets!
December 9th, 2022 at 2:27 PM ^
ia, I’ve been to Grinnell. It’s a great school - one of the strongest Liberal Arts colleges in the Midwest and country. Great facilities for a school of that size.
And, 3’s is their strategy in hoops.
December 9th, 2022 at 2:28 PM ^
HEY - Grinnell is the "Jewel of the Prairie"! Great little small town, roughly 40 mins to Des Moines, about the same to Iowa City/Cedar Rapids. There are many more places in Iowa that are more "middle of nowhere" than Grinnell. It's right on I-80! Excellent school, too!
December 9th, 2022 at 2:31 PM ^
It was Troy that scored 258
December 9th, 2022 at 2:38 PM ^
Apparently they tried every single open shot in the entire game from 3.
December 9th, 2022 at 2:41 PM ^
I remember when Southern beat Champion Baptist about 10 years ago by more than 100, that a vast amount of Champion players didn’t even play on a HS team.
I have seen more talented public middle schools than some of these Bible colleges
December 9th, 2022 at 5:28 PM ^
too busy Jesus learnin to sportsball
December 9th, 2022 at 2:44 PM ^
Not to get too political, but.. if you think attempting 111 three pointers is interesting. Visit Iowa the week before the Presidential Caucuses take place.
December 9th, 2022 at 2:46 PM ^
In the middle of Iowa and middle of nowhere
Redundant
December 9th, 2022 at 2:46 PM ^
Can't take 112? What a bunch of slackers.
December 9th, 2022 at 2:48 PM ^
Grinnell has a fascinating connection to the history of silicon valley thanks to Robert Noyce (among others): https://web.stanford.edu/class/e145/2007_fall/materials/noyce.html
December 9th, 2022 at 4:16 PM ^
I’m kicking someone on Grinnell in the nuts on a 3 attempt if I was on the other team.
December 9th, 2022 at 4:51 PM ^
Must be lots of fun to watch.
December 9th, 2022 at 5:25 PM ^
imagine if they made them all
December 9th, 2022 at 7:06 PM ^
Little known fun fact:
Glen Rice had a fling with Sarah Palin while at the Great Alaska Shootout.
Further solidifying his reputation of someone known to bang 3s.
Ill be here all week.
December 9th, 2022 at 7:30 PM ^
you could fill bursley like 5 times with the total number of students at the college they beat.
December 10th, 2022 at 11:49 PM ^
The way I remember this originating...
Grinnell did not have a winning season in the 70s or 80s. The head coach decided they needed to do something different from everyone else, and tried a fairly extreme (well, that's what he thought at the time) uptempo offense. Fatigue was a problem, the players didn't like it, they voted to slow things down. So the next year they tried t use the whole clock every possession (it was 45 seconds back then). That didn't work either.
The next year he put it to a vote. (1) crank things up to an even more extreme tempo, or (2) never vote again. They went with (1); the coach came up with a plan:
- To avoid fatigue he split the team into three groups of five who would substitute like hockey lines. One group's on the court, another is waiting at the scorer's table, the third has just come off and is sitting on the bench.
- At least half of their shots (usually more) would be from three. The ideal possession is two passes and a shot, with people crashing the boards and often passing back to the three point line if they get an offensive rebound. If they give up a fast break the other way they don't care, as long as they don't give up any threes. Whoever's back defends the three point line.
- The weirdest thing to me--I certainly never played for anyone that thought about this, but who knows, maybe it's caught on now?--is that they practice taking the ball out of the basket after a made shot. Catch it as quickly as you can coming out of the net, step out of bounds and immediately pivot to throw a long chest pass to players waiting at predesignated spots. Second pass is to the three point line, shot goes up, crash the boards. Over and over, 60-70 times a half. Defense is a maniacal press, turnover or layup, just no threes. You're coming out at the next dead ball so there's no reason to ever lift the pedal from the floor.
Ultimately, to the extent it works it relies on exhausting the opponent, who probably doesn't have 15 players ready to run hockey shifts. I've seen them play a few times (Chicago was in the MWC when I was there) and everyone's already holding their shorts five minutes in. By halftime it looks like the end of a cross country race. I didn't realize how important that was to their system until ESPN put one of their games on TV...and it didn't work at all. The media time outs were enough time for the other team to recover, and they were never really able to get on a run.
December 11th, 2022 at 10:18 AM ^
The weirdest thing to me--I certainly never played for anyone that thought about this, but who knows, maybe it's caught on now?--is that they practice taking the ball out of the basket after a made shot
Never played competitive basketball but been to a couple random practices and one of the coaches did this. Not necessarily the whole designated spots across the court, but emphasizing getting the ball from under the basket turning around and restarting play as quickly as possible, the point guard got yelled at if he wasn't sprinting to the inbounder.