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There is a lot of talk about this season of college basketball being one of the worst ever from a scoring perspective.
I read this piece at Grantland (http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/...im-crutchfield) today and it's a very good read and worth the time for any college basketball fan. The writer uses an extremely high scoring DII team (Wes Liberty University in West Virginia) to talk about the state of scoring in college basketball.
I put this in the Summit League sub-forum because Jim Molinari is quoted heavily in one section. (If mods feel like this is a better fit in the College Sports section, go ahead an move it.)
Here's the section involving Molinari and WIU:
I thought it was interesting that he thinks fans just want to see dunks. I think he is seriously underestimating college basketball fans. Yes, WIU throws it down more than a team like SDSU does (NDSU dunks way more as well), but the style of play that SDSU plays is far more entertaining, in my opinion. I'd rather see hard defense and fast paced offense than the WIU (and NDSU) style of play.
Bonus Summit League content in the article about some former members:
It's a really interesting read; I highly recommend it.
I read this piece at Grantland (http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/...im-crutchfield) today and it's a very good read and worth the time for any college basketball fan. The writer uses an extremely high scoring DII team (Wes Liberty University in West Virginia) to talk about the state of scoring in college basketball.
I put this in the Summit League sub-forum because Jim Molinari is quoted heavily in one section. (If mods feel like this is a better fit in the College Sports section, go ahead an move it.)
Here's the section involving Molinari and WIU:
"Some offensive-minded coaches would say it's a big issue," says Jim Molinari. "I just don't get caught up in it. Defense might teach greater life lessons, anyway."
Of the 347 teams in Division I, Molinari's Western Illinois Leathernecks are the slowest; they average fewer than 60 possessions per game, nearly two fewer than any other team. He's always been defensive-minded, as the coach at Northern Illinois and then at Bradley (he also spent a couple of seasons as an NBA scout), and he's come to believe this is the best way to win at a program like Western Illinois, which has little tradition and is set in a rural pocket of the Midwest. Over the course of a season, players get worn down, and they get tired, and they get hurt; it is easier, he tells me, for the Leathernecks to play the kind of pack defense that coaches like Tom Thibodeau have successfully implemented in the NBA. You may not get steals, and you may not get transition baskets, but for a vast number of hardscrabble mid-major Division I basketball teams, Molinari says, slowing the game down is the best formula for victory. Even if it is objectively duller.
"I don't think you can really worry about it," he tells me. "To the fans, it doesn't matter how many you score, as long as each team gets a few dunks."
And so the Leathernecks have won games by scores of 50-42 and 43-40 and 39-35, and their leading scorer is averaging fewer than 13 points per game, and after a 49-36 win over North Dakota State last Thursday night, they stood at 19-5 and atop the Summit League standings, which I suppose is the only thing that matters to a coach who would (quite understandably) prefer to retain his job rather than challenge the status quo.
Of the 347 teams in Division I, Molinari's Western Illinois Leathernecks are the slowest; they average fewer than 60 possessions per game, nearly two fewer than any other team. He's always been defensive-minded, as the coach at Northern Illinois and then at Bradley (he also spent a couple of seasons as an NBA scout), and he's come to believe this is the best way to win at a program like Western Illinois, which has little tradition and is set in a rural pocket of the Midwest. Over the course of a season, players get worn down, and they get tired, and they get hurt; it is easier, he tells me, for the Leathernecks to play the kind of pack defense that coaches like Tom Thibodeau have successfully implemented in the NBA. You may not get steals, and you may not get transition baskets, but for a vast number of hardscrabble mid-major Division I basketball teams, Molinari says, slowing the game down is the best formula for victory. Even if it is objectively duller.
"I don't think you can really worry about it," he tells me. "To the fans, it doesn't matter how many you score, as long as each team gets a few dunks."
And so the Leathernecks have won games by scores of 50-42 and 43-40 and 39-35, and their leading scorer is averaging fewer than 13 points per game, and after a 49-36 win over North Dakota State last Thursday night, they stood at 19-5 and atop the Summit League standings, which I suppose is the only thing that matters to a coach who would (quite understandably) prefer to retain his job rather than challenge the status quo.
Bonus Summit League content in the article about some former members:
Close games made Tubbs uncomfortable, and so he avoided them the best way he knew how: That '87-'88 Oklahoma team averaged 104.8 points per game, and they did not spare the weak: They put up 152 on Centenary and 151 on Dayton and 144 on Oral Roberts.
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