The Response

Here is Coach Arseneaults response to yesterdays post about the Faith Baptist game. I truly believe David is ten years ahead in the game.

"Hi all, my first reaction to this post is that this coach has a set of brass you-know-what's. But since this site is a teaching tool for those who want to run this system, let me offer a few comments about that game, the decisions that were made and some situations you will all encounter if you run this system for any length of time.

Occasionally, we end up with an opponent who is not at our competitive level. My scheduling problem is that we travel so much during our conference play that I like to play locally or at home as much as I can during our non-conference games. Besides not wearing down due to extensive travel, we can avoid missed class time, which the profs around here really appreciate. Since so many local schools will not play us (citing mostly that they cannot prepare their teams for conference play because we never allow them tom run any sets), I have a tough time even filling our schedule. We were one game short last year, are one game short this year and, thus far, are one game short for next year.

Faith Baptist will play us every other year if we like and when we can't find other opponents we have scheduled them. So what to do when you have an opponent like that? Well, seeing that Faith Baptist had lost their prior two games to Grandview by fifty and William Penn by seventy, I emailed their coach to see how he wanted me to handle the game. I said that our team could use a good run and that I was thinking, while this might sound crazy to him, that the best way to keep the score from getting way out of hand was forms to be exceptionally aggressive from the interceptor and safety spots, basically allowing them to score if they did not turn it over in the back court. He wrote back that he wasn't concerned about the point spread and was more concerned that we got something out of the game.

On game night, we opened with the press and he had conceived a strategy where he had a player back screen our safety which allowed his inbounder to throw deep. Given how aggressive we were from the safety spot, the strategy actually worked. The problem was that it sped up the tempo of the game and game us many more offensive possessions than we would normally have had. Never once did they slow the pace down and show concern at our rising point total. While it was our hope to get Jack Taylor 15 shots iron the first ten minutes, we were not going to repeat that strategy unless he had scored 20 points on those 15 shots. At the ten minute mark he had attempted 20 shots and amassed 27 points, so we rolled the game plan over. My son and I did not notice he did anything special in those second ten minutes and were amazed when we looked at the halftime stats and saw that he had scored 58 points. There was a buzz in the locker room and we decided to roll over the game plan form another ten minutes.

When Jack really started making shots, David and I talked at the ten minute mark at what we should do. The game was clearly in hand, and we were concerned about the sportsmanship aspect of leaving him out there. During a timeout we decided in favor of letting Jack see the moment out. I can honestly see how this would be objectionable to some people but in retrospect, I am really glad we made this decision. This was not a ploy to embarrass an opponent as much as it was a chance to create one of my players a special moment. Placed in this position, I will side with my players every time. Along the way, we allowed a Faith Baptist player a chance to set a school scoring record- this player, by the way, was cheered for every time he scored by our student section.

In subsequent conversations with their coach, there has been no ill will. In fact, I would have to think that the positives for his team that arose from this game were considerably more than what he was able to take away from the prior beatings at the hands of Grandview or William Penn. While we do like to occasionally boost our visibility on the recruiting front and/or set a national record with the occasional game plan, we always try to take into account sportsmanship considerations. Sometimes it's a fine line. As I look back on it now, would I have done the same thing? Yes. So to the coach who wrote this email, to offer your opinion after simply seeing a point spread, I'd say do your homework first. Were we to have played our full system against this opponent we could have won by one hundred and fifty points. Instead, we concocted a scheme that allowed both teams to benefit from the moment. Had you seen our players and theirs walking off the floor together, laughing and smiling about what just took place, I think you might be feeling differently right now."

David Arseneault