This Wichita team plays a four-star prospect less to get more ‘when it matters most’
With 2:08 to go, Gradey Dick proved that playing less might be a good thing.
Dick received a pass in the left corner. He looked down at his defender’s feet, saw how far away they were and fired a three-pointer that gave Collegiate an eight-point lead. About a minute later, he caught a pass in the opposite corner, pump-faked and got to the paint for an emphatic two-handed dunk.
The three-pointer was the dagger. The slam was the exclamation point. Collegiate beat Andale 66-54, sweeping its league rival for the first time since the 2010-11 season. Andale had lost one game since Jan. 7.
Dick is a four-star Class of 2022 prospect according to Rivals. And per 247 Sports, Dick is the second-best sophomore in Kansas and ranked No. 35 in the country.
And he played a little more than half the game Tuesday.
Collegiate coach Mitch Fiegel started tinkering with a five-in, five-out substitution concept in 1999, he said. He has about perfected it. Even with a player of Dick’s caliber on the roster, there are no exceptions to how the Spartans do things, and Fiegel has six rings to show why — four running five-in, five-out and two more with the traditional subbing method.
On the surface, Fiegel’s plan seems silly. Why not have Dick on the floor for all 40 minutes? Why not rotate four and leave one of the best players in the country on the court?
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“The most important thing for Gradey is to have fresh legs,” Fiegel said. “We’re going five and five until we beat you down. Then we’re gonna throw the hammer down. I’m not stupid. I know who the man is, and he’s gonna be on the floor when it matters most.”
The way Dick finished the game, rising up over an outstretch defender’s arm for a three-pointer and soaring above the rim for a dunk, his legs were clearly not tired. Still, Dick said running a five-in, five-out system took some getting used to each time he returned to school after the summer.
Dick is active on the AAU circuit. This past summer he played for KC Run GMC and picked up scholarship offers from the likes of Kansas, Wichita State, K-State and several others. He was arguably the best player in every tournament he played in and even got time in May at the U16 U.S. National Team training camp in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
“I feel like I was forcing it too much at the start of the season,” Dick said. “Coming off the summer, playing most of the game, it was hard to adjust to. But coach Fiegel has a purpose for it. ... Seeing what coach has done in the past is crazy.”
Along with Dick’s finish to the game, Collegiate’s start was equally as efficient.
The Spartans scored 21 points in the first quarter. They scored on all but three possessions. All three of those misses came from its first wave of five players. The next five off the bench scored every time they went down to the offensive end. The program would have no idea what kind of talent it has if it was sitting on the bench all game, Fiegel said.
“If you put all your eggs in one basket, you’ve got a greater chance of not getting where you want to go,” Fiegel said. “This is a team game. If Gradey gets 35, great. I want a team where if Gradey is great, we’re special. I want a team where if Gradey is not great, we still win.”
Dick said every time the second wave gets on the floor, those players are getting better, and that will help come postseason. Dick finished with a game-high 26 points, including four three-pointers. He said he is still trying to work through the desire to reach a certain amount of points per game, but he is getting there.
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As the season has gone on, the Spartans have bought in more and more, Fiegel said. As of Tuesday night, Collegiate (14-3) is a win away from the AVCTL IV championship. Last year, Collegiate finished the regular season 9-9 and reached its Class 3A sub-state championship. Facing many of those same teams again in 2020, the Spartans want more.
Fiegel said the Spartans held practice No. 60 a few days ago. To that point, they had 58 good practices and two stinkers, a refreshing change, he said. He said beating Andale was never part of this season’s goals, but it’s a step along the way.
“When you’re rolling along and you really think you’ve got that kind of team, you’re trying to go from significant to special,” Fiegel said. “But you have to do a number of significant things to make that jump. ... We’re starting to do some really significant things against some really good people.”
This story was originally published February 19, 2020 at 5:05 AM.