Manalapan High School girls basketball coach Scott Horton found the answer he was looking for in “the system.”
“It’s something I discovered in 2005 and it really interested me,” Horton said. “I could relate to it.”
The system is a style of basketball developed by DavidArsenault, the head coach at Grinnell College in Iowa.
It is a high-octane, all-out running brand of basketball in which a team applies fullcourt pressure for the entire game, plays a run-and-gun offense that rains three-point field goal attempts and attacks the backboards, and substitutes up to five players every half-minute or so.
Grinnell is an NCAA Division III college and as such the school does not get socalled “blue-chip” recruits. Arsenault determined that the best way for him to make the most of the talent he had was to play an up-tempo game that involves everyone on the team.
Horton could relate to Arsenault’s situation at Grinnell. With the exception of senior Jasmine McCall, who is headed to Seton Hall University on a scholarship, the Braves are traditionally a team of all-around athletes with little separating the players in terms of court skills.
“I have really athletic players who don’t [primarily] play basketball,” Horton said. “This was a way to maximize their talent — I hate to see talent on the bench. The kids love it.”
Using the Grinnell system, Horton plays everyone on the team. The players give their all for the 30 to 40 seconds they are on the floor.
“It’s constant motion and pressure,” Horton said. “You are sprinting all-out. We double the ball and play the passing lanes. It’s a constant scramble.”
For Manalapan’s opponents, the system is 32 minutes of fury.
The system is as exciting for the coach as it is for the players. “I have never been more excited about coaching,” Horton said.
Freehold Township High School’s John Sciarappa is in his 30th season as the Patriots’ coach and he has seen it all before — but not the system.
“I like it,” Sciarappa said. “It’s crazy. It’s entertaining and his kids are buying into it.”
From a coaching perspective, Sciarappa said the fear is that your team will “succumb to what they are doing” and get caught up in the fast-paced game without the Braves’ depth. Manalapan has been the stronger team in the fourth quarter.
Sciarappa said his team did not run one offensive set against the Braves. The Patriots do not turn the ball over much, but against Manalapan they committed 28 turnovers.
Freehold Township won a shootout, 66- 56, but Sciarappa noted that in the fourth quarter, his Patriots, who do not have as much team depth as the Braves, were holding on.
Horton said his goals for the Braves in each game are taking 80 shots (including 40 three-point field goal attempts), forcing the opponent to commit at least 30 turnovers, and taking 25 more shots than the opponent.
The coach has been pleased with the way his team is playing defense. The Braves are forcing turnovers and making a quick transition to offense.
What has not come as easily is the offense.
“We have to be smarter with the basketball,” said Horton, who noted that in a rush to take a shot the Braves do not always have the right person take the shot from the right spot. But they are coming along.
Despite the team’s 1-6 start, Horton is not deterred. He believes the Grinnell system is the best for Manalapan and that in time the Braves will win.
“Teams are not going to want to play us,” he said, and Sciarappa and all those who have played the Braves this year would agree.