BMarkey
01-28-2005, 02:09 PM
I can't believe Troy didn't get a mention in this story ...
Basketball team takes little time to score big
By Edgar Thompson
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Friday, January 28, 2005
No one leaves a University of Redlands basketball game without breaking a sweat.
Players. Coaches. Officials. Fans. Statisticians. Scoreboard operators.
No one.
There's really no avoiding being swept into the frenzy created by a team that averages 138 points, substitutes a new lineup every 45 seconds and shoots an average of 72 three-pointers — once attempting 106 in a game.
Coach Gary Smith can make Paul Westhead look like Dean Smith, the man most responsible for introduction of the 35-second shot clock.
The Southern California-based Redlands needs 12, 15 seconds tops on every possession. Otherwise, the Bulldogs have wasted an opportunity, or two.
"We try to create as hectic a pace as possible," Gary Smith said. "It's wild.
"A lot of fans say, 'Man, you guys wore me out.' "
Smith bases his no-shot-is-a-bad-shot philosophy on this: The team that ends up with the most shots, wins.
To that end, Redlands full-court presses, jumps the passing lane, dives on the floor and sends four players to the offensive boards looking to generate more possessions than the opponent.
Such risk-taking has a price, including plenty of uncontested layups on the other end. But Smith, 63, makes no apologies to basketball purists who consider such concessions blasphemous.
"That's one of the beauties to the game of basketball, there's so many ways to play it," Smith said. "Unlike other sports that tend to be cookie cutter, basketball has tremendous variety.
"This is one end of the spectrum."
Smith has been on the other extreme, too, coaching teams that averaged 50-60 points in the pre-shot clock days in the early 1980s.
Now in his 34th season at Redlands, a Division III liberal arts school in the foothills of the San Bernardino mountains, Smith changed his approach in the late '80s when he befriended Westhead. Coaching Loyola Marymount about 90 minutes away in Los Angeles, Westhead employed a groundbreaking, up-tempo style with players such as Hank Gathers and Bo Kimble that earned a national following for the Lions and validated a radical way to coach.
"That was a classic time," Smith recalled.
Smith abandoned the approach in the mid-'90s, but revived it three seasons ago, added a few wrinkles (like the five-man, 45-second shifts akin to hockey) and pumped life back into a program without a conference title in 15 seasons.
He plans to never go back, likely to the delight of the 1,000 or so fans who pack Currier Gymnasium for home games. Because when the Bulldogs are clicking, it's entertaining, exhilarating and effective.
Redlands has scored 93 points in a half, totaled 172 points in a game and had one player end up with 11 points in less than a minute.
"When we're hitting on all cylinders, we're getting up four or five or six threes in a minute," Smith said. "We do believe a 100-point half is within reach."
Not lately. After winning nine of 11 games to start the season, Redlands has dropped five straight, averaging a paltry 117 points, a total skewed by a 96-89 loss when Pomona-Pitzer apparently decided to "milk" the shot clock.
To play up to 21 players a game, including 13 who average 10 minutes or more, Smith and his staff script every minute beforehand, and then adjust based on who's playing well.
It's a complete change in thinking for his players.
"You have to get out here willing to forget everything they learned about basketball," junior guard Donald Brady told the Los Angeles Times this week.
Smith isn't going to stop him. Nothing could make the Redlands coach put on the brakes now.
He's having too much fun.
Basketball team takes little time to score big
By Edgar Thompson
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Friday, January 28, 2005
No one leaves a University of Redlands basketball game without breaking a sweat.
Players. Coaches. Officials. Fans. Statisticians. Scoreboard operators.
No one.
There's really no avoiding being swept into the frenzy created by a team that averages 138 points, substitutes a new lineup every 45 seconds and shoots an average of 72 three-pointers — once attempting 106 in a game.
Coach Gary Smith can make Paul Westhead look like Dean Smith, the man most responsible for introduction of the 35-second shot clock.
The Southern California-based Redlands needs 12, 15 seconds tops on every possession. Otherwise, the Bulldogs have wasted an opportunity, or two.
"We try to create as hectic a pace as possible," Gary Smith said. "It's wild.
"A lot of fans say, 'Man, you guys wore me out.' "
Smith bases his no-shot-is-a-bad-shot philosophy on this: The team that ends up with the most shots, wins.
To that end, Redlands full-court presses, jumps the passing lane, dives on the floor and sends four players to the offensive boards looking to generate more possessions than the opponent.
Such risk-taking has a price, including plenty of uncontested layups on the other end. But Smith, 63, makes no apologies to basketball purists who consider such concessions blasphemous.
"That's one of the beauties to the game of basketball, there's so many ways to play it," Smith said. "Unlike other sports that tend to be cookie cutter, basketball has tremendous variety.
"This is one end of the spectrum."
Smith has been on the other extreme, too, coaching teams that averaged 50-60 points in the pre-shot clock days in the early 1980s.
Now in his 34th season at Redlands, a Division III liberal arts school in the foothills of the San Bernardino mountains, Smith changed his approach in the late '80s when he befriended Westhead. Coaching Loyola Marymount about 90 minutes away in Los Angeles, Westhead employed a groundbreaking, up-tempo style with players such as Hank Gathers and Bo Kimble that earned a national following for the Lions and validated a radical way to coach.
"That was a classic time," Smith recalled.
Smith abandoned the approach in the mid-'90s, but revived it three seasons ago, added a few wrinkles (like the five-man, 45-second shifts akin to hockey) and pumped life back into a program without a conference title in 15 seasons.
He plans to never go back, likely to the delight of the 1,000 or so fans who pack Currier Gymnasium for home games. Because when the Bulldogs are clicking, it's entertaining, exhilarating and effective.
Redlands has scored 93 points in a half, totaled 172 points in a game and had one player end up with 11 points in less than a minute.
"When we're hitting on all cylinders, we're getting up four or five or six threes in a minute," Smith said. "We do believe a 100-point half is within reach."
Not lately. After winning nine of 11 games to start the season, Redlands has dropped five straight, averaging a paltry 117 points, a total skewed by a 96-89 loss when Pomona-Pitzer apparently decided to "milk" the shot clock.
To play up to 21 players a game, including 13 who average 10 minutes or more, Smith and his staff script every minute beforehand, and then adjust based on who's playing well.
It's a complete change in thinking for his players.
"You have to get out here willing to forget everything they learned about basketball," junior guard Donald Brady told the Los Angeles Times this week.
Smith isn't going to stop him. Nothing could make the Redlands coach put on the brakes now.
He's having too much fun.