Marist Overloads Eisenhower's System

Maybe Eisenhower should get Jimmy John's to sponsor its basketball team.

The Cardinals play a freaky fast style of basketball, but unlike Jimmy John's, they don't always deliver.

That was good news for Marist as it entertained Eisenhower on Wednesday night in the finale of the inaugural Marist RedHawk Holiday Invitational.

The RedHawks immediately got caught in the chaos caused by Eisenhower's frantic pace, frequent five-man substitutions and non-stop defensive pressure. Marist committed 12 turnovers in the first quarter, but when it didn't turn the ball over, it was able to take advantage of many high-percentage layups in a 76-67 victory.

"It's such a different style of play that they do for an entire year and we only have one day to prepare for and get used to," Marist coach Gene Nolan said. "We turned it over a lot in the first quarter because of their length and athleticism and that's why their system is so effective."

Eisenhower coach Matt Curta is in his second year of implementing the Grinnell System, a strategy named after Grinnell College in Iowa. It's a poor man's version of the system instituted by Paul Westhead at Loyola Marymount University in the late 1980s that saw the Lions break all sorts of scoring records and go on a heartbreaking run to the Elite Eight in the 1990 NCAA tournament after the tragic death of superstar Hank Gathers.

Eisenhower's system calls for the Cardinals to shoot early and often, to work hard for offensive rebounds, to apply defensive pressure from all spots on the floor and to substitute five players at a time in short intervals, generally every minute or two.

"We certainly weren't used to it," Marist junior L.J. McIntosh said. "Most teams don't sub five for five. In practice we did the same thing, working guys in and running and stuff and training and that helped keep our stamina."

Marist (9-3) appeared far from worn out, despite heading into the second half trailing, 40-39. The RedHawks went on a 6-0 run to open the third quarter and take the lead for good.

Meanwhile, the high-scoring Cardinals, who put a big 111 on the scoreboard against St. Laurence earlier in the tournament, were held to just 27 second-half points.

"To hold a team that plays like that to 67 points shows that we had a pretty good defensive performance," Nolan said. "Generally, the kids did a real nice job of recognizing the pace of the game, which was so different than what they were used to."

While the Eisenhower pressure did get to the RedHawks at times, there were other times where Lexus Williams (15 points), McIntosh (19 points) and others were able to push the ball up court to 6-foot-5 sophomore Nic Weishar, who led the Redhawks with 20 points, including 16 that came via layup.

"I think the hard part is to not get caught up in it but to be patient, but also to choose the high-percentage shot when it's there," Nolan said. "We just tried to keep it simple, to spread the floor, make their traps longer and get high percentage shots, and I thought in the fourth quarter we were able to spread them out a bit more."

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