Three years ago, someone in the Greenville Athletics office came to men’s basketball head coach, George Barber, with a plan to restructure the program. Administration wanted a JV team to give those who practiced each day, but saw no game time, an opportunity to play competitively.

Barber was not ready to give up such a large chunk of his players. He told the higher-ups he would find a way to give playing time to every player on the roster each game. Not knowing a system that allowed for such a play style, Barber began to research.

He stumbled across a book, entitled “Coaching the System: A complete guide to basketball’s most explosive style of play” by Gary Smith and Doug Porter, which preached a high-energy, free form brand of basketball, suited for 15 players or more.

Since the start of the 2015-16 season, Barber has coached “The System” at Greenville, a method designed around quick possessions on both sides of the ball, lots of shooting, tenacious on-ball defending and offensive rebounding. Running the scheme has helped the Panthers (13-8, 10-4 SLIAC) lead Division III in points (127.1), assists (24.4) and steals (18) per game this season. Centered around reaching specific statistical goals every game, Greenville has showed how such an extreme, high-paced version of the game, while unorthodox, can work.

“You have to throw out a lot of the things that you know about normal basketball,” assistant coach Stephen Groves said. “They don’t apply when you play our style.”

For the Panthers, the most important step in running “The System” is pace. Everything they do — running plays, crashing the boards, defending — is done relentlessly. To ensure a fast pace of play, Barber orders his team to try and keep its possessions, both offensive and defensive, to 12 seconds or less, as well as keeping fresh legs on the court by constantly substituting players in his 16-man rotation.

Each game, Greenville aims to shoot 100 shots, including 50 threes. More importantly, Barber wants his team to put up at least 25 more shots than the opponent, he said. By taking shots early in the shot clock each possession, the Panthers easily reach the goal every game, averaging 105.8 field goal attempts per game and 56.6 three-point attempts. As soon as the ball crosses half court, Greenville runs a pick-and-roll to try and get an open look from 3-point range. Any player that gets an open look is expected to shoot the ball, and if they don’t, they are scolded.

“You have an obligation if you catch the ball and you’re open to shoot the ball,” Groves said. “If you don’t, that’s when you get in trouble.”

As expected with such a high number of shot attempts, Greenville owns an undesirable 42.1 field goal percentage, ranking 329th in Division III. To account for its misses, the Panthers send four players to crash the boards after every shot. The second statistic GU tries for each game is to grab 35 percent of all available offensive rebounds.

While its average of 22 offensive rebounds per game provides plenty of opportunities for second chance points, Greenville makes up for its low field goal percentage with points in transition. The Panthers lead Division III with 18 steals per game, largely due to a tireless full-court press and constant lineup rotation.

“Teams get tired,” said Johari Dix, the team’s leading scorer. “You look at the teams, they’re all hands on knees, and us, we’re ready to go back in.”

Despite its unorthodox nature, Greenville’s players have bought into “The System.” Players on other teams usually get frustrated when they are taken out after a couple of minutes, Dix said. But it is accepted by the Panthers as they know constant rotation is a key to their success.

Substitutions occur so often that no player averages more than 20 minutes per game, yet 12 players average more than 10. At the end of a close game, Barber abandons his substitution system and leaves his five best players on the court.

Although no other team in the SLIAC averages more than 90 points per game, the Panthers rarely win in blow-out fashion. This season, teams playing Greenville average 122.6 points per game. Its opponents drastically change their game plan by shortening possessions, taking more threes, and increasing their pace. GU’s opponents must play more like the Panthers to be able to match their scoring, Groves said.

When Barber first adopted the unusual style of play, it took time for his team to execute it effectively, and his team went 13-13 in its first season under the new method. Three years later, the Panthers have learned exactly how to run it, making them the highest-scoring, and one of the most unique teams in the country.

“You hit the formula, you go for the formula. That’s the standard,” Barber said. “I told (Smith and Porter) they were crazy. But they were right.”

Published on February 6, 2018 at 10:45 pm

Contact David: ddschnei@syr.edu