138 Points In A Game? Big Deal

Jack Taylor of Grinnell College in Iowa scored 138 points Tuesday night in a “college” basketball game, if you can call a matchup with Faith Baptist Bible College a college basketball game. That’s an eye-popping number, but the people at Deadspin aren’t impressed. I’m not, either.

According to the Deadspin article, Grinnell has a system which is designed solely to get as many points as possible for its designated scorer against a designated opponent. This includes subbing in four bench players to foul as quickly as possible so Grinnell can get the ball back, in addition to passing up wide-open layups to pass back out to the shooter.

This results in astronomical point totals for one player and, naturally, some national attention for a tiny college. I’m sure it’s a coincidence that the coach markets books and videos on how to coach his “system.”

Of course, artificially pumping up one player’s scoring numbers is nothing new. The Philadelphia Warriors did it during Wilt Chamberlain’s 100-point game. By the end of that contest, the Warriors were intentionally fouling to get the ball back, and the Knicks were fouling other Warriors to keep Wilt from scoring. A total of 93 free throws were attempted in the game.

So, yeah, Jack Taylor is all over ESPN today. Hopefully he’ll soon return to anonymity.