Bumming around town with Bill Bumerton

Bumerton is a retired Navy fighter pilot who had been missing in action for several years while he traversed the globe looking for greener grass. He discovered the grass is only greener here (it’s blue in Kentucky), so he returned to again take charge of his 1954 green Hudson Hornet that had been in storage, refilled his pipe, and is continuing his smokin’ ways. Here is what he recently told us at the Sports Paper.

Klahowya boy’s and girls’ coaches – Jim Horan and Dave Sturgeon – are going to throw what is called “The System” at opponents this year in an effort to make the school program relevant. It’s a big gamble, Big Dawg, and I’m not sure I buy into the change in philosophy. Horan did some research and found in the 16 years of the program the boy’s won-lost record is something like 81-254, which is proof that the Olympic League’s smallest 2A school finds it extremely tough to compete against schools with larger enrollment, and thus more and most times better athletes. So he and Sturgeon went back to a clinic this past summer to learn about how Grinnell College’s men’s basketball program works. It’s called  “The System” and is used by the Grinnell, Iowa school. This is the same school that explodes points on the scoreboard and takes pride in its players scoring Bevo Francis type points. Jack Taylor put up a NCAA record 138 points last year in a single game and opened the season this year by scoring 71.  But, wait, in his second game he scored 109, putting his average per game to 90 points. He is currently back within some sort of normalcy with a 53.2 average through four games. The style of Grinnell coach David Arseneault is to play full-court zone press, forcing as many turnovers as possible while substituting a fresh five players every 35-45 seconds. The goal is to put up as many shots as possible, with the best option of attempting threes with the additional goal of trading threes for twos by the opponent. Under Arseneault’s system, his team double teams the ball at all times.  Big Dawg, your son Michael plays for Klahowya, and at a Tuesday night parent’s meeting Horan said it’s not always possible for the Eagles to match up talent-wise with teams in the OL, and that is not the goal with this system. The goal is to put the emphasis on effort and by rotating all his varsity players into the game every 35-45 seconds his team can do that, and hopefully bring down more talented OL teams. It’s at least worth a try, Horan reasons, knowing what past results have shown. Really, what he is trying is close to what Hall of Fame Bremerton coach Les Eathorne did with his East Bremerton Knights, and later, the Bremerton High Knights. Back then it was called “Run ‘n Gun” and have fun. Eathorne wanted his players to shoot the ball quickly, and then go get it again and shoot it again. He employed a series of full-court zones presses to ensure his team would get turnovers and get off more shots. The goal of Horan is for his team to get off at least 25 more shots then opponents, and even if their shooting accuracy isn’t high, the sheer volume of shot could still produce victory. I know, Big Dawg, you don’t agree with this strategy. You think that in today’s world of high school basketball most teams also run ‘n gun and are used to full-court pressure. Teams that have good point guards and good press-breaking ability will be able to score at will against the Eagles, and on those nights the Eagles are not shooting the ball well, the scores will still be lopsided. The effort to wear down more talented teams and win the fourth quarter may work once in a while, but you guess, Big Dawg, that by that time the Eagles will have a lot of catching up to do. You understand, Big Dawg, why Horan would want to resort to this gimmick, but you don’t think it will prevail in practice. And being the extreme competitor you are – and I agree with you on this – you would rather mold your best players into a good team chemistry situation through positive reinforcement, find players who have specific roles, play tenacious defense – in fact, build the team around that – and coach your butt off to give your kids the best chance to succeed. If you do all of that and you lose, you tip your cap to the opponent and vow  to do better the next time you meet. I think, and you do too, Big Dawg, that to resort to trickery is a concession you are not good enough as a coach and as a program to succeed in the usual ways, and I, and you, will not concede that. We will fight to the end, and never give up making the program the best it can be. Even Eathorne’s run ‘n gun philosophy took a hit in his later coaching years when Bremerton was not the big dawg around in terms of student enrollment and other teams had long ago developed the same type of game – run ‘n gun. Today’s high school game is much more developed than it was back in the 1970s when Eathorne’s East High team finished second in state in 1972 and then won back-to-back state championships. Kids are stronger, quicker, faster, have more and better ball skills, shoot the ball better, rebound it better, and have a better concept of the game thanks to the growing select basketball programs that dot the landscape. If you want to play with the big dawgs you have to develop your program year around. Relying on gimmicks may work once in a while, but in the long run only hard work and effort and good coaching strategy leads to prolonged success. You do agree, through, Big Dawg, that this gimmick basketball may work for the Klahowya girl’s basketball program. It forces their players to play aggressive while running and running and running. I don’t think you see that a lot among local programs and Sturgeon’s team may be able to slow down more talented teams enough to produce victory when it shouldn’t. But we’ll see, won’t we Big Dawg. In the meantime, go fetch me a latte Big Dawg.