Run and Gun

When David Arsenault took over the men’s basketball program at Grinnell in 1989, the school had closed with its 25th-straight losing season. A 1,400-student liberal arts college near Des Moines, IA, Grinnell is a Division III school meaning that they don’t offer athletic scholarships of any kind. The average SAT score is 1,350. Recruiting top-flight basketball players isn’t easy.

“Our players needed a change,” admits Arsenault. “They were not happy, I wasn’t happy and no one came to see us play. I decided to experiment and have some fun.”

Arsenault created an offense never seen before in college basketball, a frantic run-and-gun assault that Terry Glasgow, the head coach of Monmouth College, described as “watching five mice let out of a shoebox.”

Arsenault sends five new players onto the court every 35 seconds (like a hockey line-change), or as close as a dead ball will allow, so that his squad is fresh to wreak Grinnell’s blend of mayhem. A bad shot? Nonsense. A full-court press? Count on it. ‘We try to attempt 94 shots, 47 three-pointers, offensive rebound 33 percent of our misses, take 25 more shots than our opponent does and force the other team to commit 32 turnovers,’ says Arsenault. ‘When we accomplish all five, we have a 95 percent success rate.’

Grinnell has lead all NCAA divisions in scoring for 11 straight seasons, including a gaudy 126.2 point-per-game average in the 2003-4 season, the highest in college history. The streak ended last year when they only averaged 108.9 per contest – still impressive when 75 points is considered good.

The Pioneers also own the record for most consecutive 100-point games, 28, in 2002-03, and Division III records for FG attempts in a game (135) three-point attempts (86) and three-pointers made (32).

Sometimes a good offense can’t overcome a shaky defense. Grinnell scored 149 points in one game in 1994 … and still lost (also a DIII record). But usually the run-and-gun is too good. The Pioneers have won three Midwest Conference titles in the last eight years, and other coaches are contacting Arsenault. “Interest has grown so much that I created a Web site for requests,” he says.

Arsenault is ready for the season: “It’s among the better teams I’ve coached.” Get the record books and erasers ready.