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[GreggGeth]

Tempo I think is something overrated in the NBA and underrated in NCAA.

In the NBA, teams average between 75 and 85 attempts a game. If the average team makes roughly 45 percent of those shots, then the amount of shots taken per game is roughly equivalent to an 8 point difference.

There is only one team which, on face value, plays an up-tempo game. That's Phoenix, of course. I don't know if any Fast Break points are available. Phoenix leads the league in shots per game but, more importantly, is second behind Miami in FG&, leads and leads in 3 Points attempted and 3 Point FG%.

So my hypothesis on Phoenix's success is that while they are trying to push the ball, they aren't pushing the ball too much more than their opponents. But what they are doing is making more shots and making a ton of 3-pointers.

I don't think they win games because they control tempo. But I do think they havecome up with a playing style and a tempo that best matches their available talent which enables them to have one of the better NBA offenses of the past 20 years.

In college basketball, with over 300 teams and a 35 second shot-clock, you have a lot more variety in creating an extreme situation which best matches your talent. Princeton, for years, played one extreme -- a slow-down game which saw little one-on-one play and revolved around backdoor cuts, backscreen picks and efficient three-point shooting. They limited the shots per game and were a highly successful team for their level for a very long time. They didn't shoot the ball before 25-30 seconds (even longer when the shot clock was 45 seconds) unless it was an esay look. And when they were forced to shoot, it often times was a 3 point attempt which requires less efficiency for better success. And I think this is solely because of how they controlled tempo and limited the amount of shots in a game. A team with superior offensive talent, like a Big East team, was limited in how many shots they could take in a game and thus was limited in their strengths.

(Ironically, Pete Carill, the architect of this system, now is an assistant coach at the generally "up-tempo" Sacramento Kings. And a lot of the running teams have incorporated this style into the NBA gameplan. Which is fine for me because it's a lot more aesthetically pleasing than constant one-on-one play.)

Another legendary case-in-point in playing to an extreme is Loyola-Marymount. Loyola-Marymount forced teams to run by constant pressure, constantly pushed up shots, etc. They controlled tempo and when they were successful they won a lot of games. Everyone remembers the Hank Gathers death story, nobody realizes that they made it to the Final 8 that year until they lost to UNLV, another up-tempo team who was offensively better.

Grinell also pushes the extremes to another advantage. Unfortunately, they don't have enough talent to use the extreme to their advantage consistently. But it would be exciting to see a team with good jump shooters and rebounders play in a system like that.