Oh, and that nickname? “We’re always shortening names,” Garino says of his countrymen. “So, Patricio has always been ‘Pato.’ In Spanish, actually, it also means ‘duck.'”

Through the first month of this college basketball season, opposing defenses may not have quacked, but they’ve certainly quailed at the sight of Garino, who has been hitting 56 percent of his threes through 11 games. He has been instrumental in George Washington’s 10-1 start, which includes an emphatic home win over No. 6 Virginia. This week, the Colonials cracked the top-25 (they’re ranked in both polls) for the first time in nine years.

It’s been quite the calendar year for Garino, who featured for Argentina during the summer, first at the Pan American Games and then the FIBA Americas, where the Albiceleste roared to a second-place finish and qualified for next summer’s Olympic Games, in Rio de Janeiro. Garino was no bit-part player at the FIBAs, either. On a team that included the likes of Luis Scola and Andrés Nocioni, he became a starter and averaged 25.6 minutes, 7.7 points, 2.5 rebounds and 1.5 assists—the latest evidence of his all-encompassing impact.

Dreams, realized alongside his heroes. Garino vividly remembers being perched upon his bed in the summer of ’04, watching along on TV as Scola and Nocioni paired with the likes of Ginobli and Delfino to help lead Argentina to the Gold Medal at the Olympic Games in Athens. Garino wears No. 13 in homage to Nocioni, whom he calls his idol.

When Garino is asked now what it’s like, getting his own chance to play at the senior level for the country of his birth, he pauses for a moment over the phone. Difficult to put into words, this feeling that encompasses not just passion, but all those years of commitment. So, ‘unbelievable’ might be a good place to begin.

“No matter the tournament, to put that jersey on, and represent so many people, I take a great amount of pride in that,” says Garino. “My dream my whole life has been to play for my country.”

Growing up in Mar del Plata, four hours outside Buenos Aires, on the banks of the Atlantic Ocean, Garino followed his friends into football (soccer), the country’s national sport. “I was always the tallest guy on the team, and not very coordinated, so I was usually the goalkeeper,” Garino says. “But I always asked to play on the field, so they let me do that. But after two games, I broke another guy’s leg. So, I realized that soccer wasn’t for me.”

Garino began hooping with a local neighborhood club, and he quickly showed an aptitude that made him a constant feature on youth national teams. At the U17 FIBA World Championships, in 2010, he led Argentina in points, rebounds and assists. He began receiving offers from professional clubs at home and in Europe, but his parents were adamant that he put his education first, and obtain a collegiate degree.

That narrative began to take shape when Garino participated in a training camp for Basketball Without Borders. There, he met Kevin Sutton, an instructor at the camp who was then the head coach at Montverde Academy in Florida. The following year, Sutton was one of the coaches for Team USA at the U17 World Championships, where he helped devise a game plan for an Argentina team that included Garino. Facing the likes of future pros in Andre Drummond, Bradley Beal and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, Garino finished with 14 points, 6 boards, 3 assists, 3 blocks and 2 steals.

Garino decided to spend his junior and senior years at Montverde. When it came time to pick a college, he had a healthy number of schools looking his way, including George Washington. The Colonials had enjoyed success in the mid-aughts (Pops Mensah-Bonsu!), but had fallen upon hard times. Their new coach, Mike Lonergan, was having trouble recruiting top players in and around the nation’s capital, so he followed the blueprint of Karl Hobbs and Mike Jarvis, his predecessors at GW, who’d crafted winners by recruiting internationally.

He soon learned of this Garino kid, and came away impressed after watching him in workouts. Kevin Boyle, who became Montverde’s head coach for Garino’s senior season, after Sutton took an assistant coaching position at Georgetown, told Lonergan that Garino played great defense, he was a great student, and he possessed an insatiable work ethic. Perfect fit for GW.

Garino felt the same way when he visited the nation’s capital. Many colleges are located within a city; George Washington was just a few blocks away from the White House. And when the hustle and bustle and noise in Foggy Bottom threatened to overwhelm him, Garino could head over to the National Mall, where he was calmed by the expanse, gravel paths and green.

As a freshman at GW, Garino started all 30 games and averaged 2.3 steals, quickly asserting his status as what Lonergan calls “the best defender I’ve coached since DJ Strawberry at Maryland.” (Lonergan was a Terps assistant for the ’04-05 season.) “We played so many great wings that season,” says Lonergan, “and Garino shut them down.”

It all seemed to build toward this past summer, which has informed his sterling play to start ’15-16.

“That international experience was unforgettable,” says Garino. “You learn so many things from playing against professional players every day. It was more aggressive, faster, and more technical. I could feel my mind expanding, and my game, too. Not only was I playing with guys like Scola and Nocioni, they took the responsibility of teaching the younger players like myself. These guys are national heroes for many of us! So, it was unbelievable to play on a day by day basis with teammates who play professionally.”

Garino remembers coming back to GW practice and being told, Slow Down! He was still attacking each possession like he was fighting for that roster spot, or charing toward a championship. The game was just too slow for him. “I’m a perfectionist,” Garino says. “So, I’m always conscious that I can improve every single aspect of my game. Like this summer: I saw I’d have to improve my three-point shot to play professionally.”

He’s been part of a cultural upheaval at GW, one that has rounded into a perennial player on the post-season stage. As a sophomore, Garino tasted the NCAA Tournament, and he wants to get back. There’s still work to be done—Lonergan hails the impact of his starting lineup, but notes that the lack of a post presence off the bench is a tad worrisome—but the coach can see the experience gained by Garino this past summer carrying over.

“Oh, definitely,” Lonergan says. “He’s always been our lead defender, and starting for Argentina at the FIBA Americas, he saw the work ethic of those guys, getting after it with them. There’s still growth to do—and he’ll put in that work. He’s a terrific kid.”

It’s been a case of finding his niche. When Garino first arrived at GW, people saw the first letter of the last name, the size and the skill set and the nationality, and unblinkingly took to hailing him as the next Ginobli. No pressure. Now, Garino finds himself at the forefront of the next generation of ballers produced by his country, the ones that will take the mantle from the likes of Ginobli. They have the utmost respect for that golden generation. They realize that now, it’s time to make a mark of their own.

Photos courtesy of George Washington Athletics

The post Raise High appeared first on SLAM.

The eyelids flutter once, then twice. A wry smile is displayed. Been down this road before. But then she responds in the same way she plays: unfailingly polite. “There’s a solid, like, three-question rotation,” Katherine says, patiently, of the sibling-related queries.

Here comes Caroline, the fraternal twin in question, older by three minutes, shorter (5-10) by one inch. When the pair spoke to SLAM last weekend, they were standing just outside the visitor’s locker room at Haas Pavilion, after helping the Wildcats to a win over Sacramento State in the first game of the Cal Classic.

Caroline rattled off the standard succession of queries in vintage rapid-fire vocal delivery: What’s it like being on a team with your sister? What’s it like being a twin? To which Katherine then added, Why’d you choose to go to school together?

So let’s focus instead upon what sets these sisters apart, because there are few tandems more dynamic currently playing this game. Caroline, Nova’s all-purpose star point guard, the team leader in statistical categories that must be counted on both hands.

The Kat effect? Rather more muted; just as essential to the team’s success. The bass line taking this song from good to great. Steady as she goes. She’d probably lead the Big East in the number of plays she impacts positively, were it a category. Seriously. This is plus-minus/efficiency on a quadruple-shot of espresso.

It is seen in the deflection that results in a steal for Cats teammate. Tipping a missed shot back out to the perimeter. Providing the pass before the pass that gets recorded as an assist. And scoring? “I get kind of sneaky about it,” Katherine says. “Most of my baskets come off a backdoor cut. I’m not gonna beat someone 1 on 1, so I have to use my head.”

It’s the latest manifestation of what Villanova head coach Harry Perretta has often said: “Katherine doesn’t get the accolades, but it doesn’t bother her. She’s the kind of kid every coach would love to have on a team.”

It’s why she was named to the Cal Classic’s all-tournament team. Not so much the stats she produced as the effect she had on the two games. Profound. She was sitting on the bench when the news was announced, Caroline to her left. Both were upset. Villanova had fallen in the championship to Saint Mary’s, the Cats’ third loss of the season. Katherine was applying adhesive tape to her right thumb. The day before, she’d earned a scratch from a Sac State player (“That chick had long nails!”), just under her right arm that required a bandage.

There’s what’s often said of Caroline: She could average 20 points if she wanted to, but she’d rather get an assist. Caroline, tasked with keeping Villanova’s motion offense humming, getting all those wrinkles going, who through eight games this season has tallied 41 assists to just 9 turnovers (a 4.6 assist-to-turnover ratio), which Villanova associate head coach Joe Mullaney rightly refers to as “insanely good.”

“I’d match her with any point guard in the country,” says Mullaney. “Caroline is that good.”

She is also refreshingly humble. When Caroline was invited this past summer to try out for the team that would represent the US at the Pan-American Games, she arrived with muted expectations. She didn’t think she’d make the cut. (She did.) Even now, Mullaney says he has to pull her aside during games to tell her, Hey, you need to take over.

“She’s one of the most unselfish kids you’ll meet,” says Mullaney.

This is what quickly becomes evident: the tangible effect the twins have on this team. It stems from the unflinching attention to detail they share, knowing full-well how integral it is to winning. Should Katherine jump to receive a pass just shy of midcourt, she’ll have checked how much room she has to operate—is she in danger of committing a backcourt violation—before she’s touched back down. It’s no coincidence that as seniors in high school, they were at the helm an undefeated season.

When it came to college recruiting, they knew they wanted to play together. Many schools wanted Caroline; Perretta wanted both. He could see why their high school coach would often say of Katherine: Come to our practice for a week and watch her. You’ll be looking for a way to get her onto the court.

In Villanova, Katherine saw top-class academics, just the right distance—not too close, not too far—from home, in Virginia. A basketball program suited perfectly to her strengths. She was never going to produce step-back threes, all that show-me-something highlight-reel fare. But Perretta could care less about that side of the game.

He’d rather see one of Katherine’s vintage backdoor cuts in his motion offense; the way she reads a defender and curls accordingly to get free. How she sets a pick perfectly to spring a teammate. On defense, Perretta need not have worried two years ago, when the emphasis on eliminating hand-checking entered the rulebook. Katherine’s lateral movement is so sound, she often frustrates her opponent into mistakes.

Says Mullaney, “Katherine’s approach has always been, ‘Give me the best kid, and I’ll guard her.’ She plays through pain. She’s had shin splints, all kinds of issues (she missed five games last season to a knee injury). Other kids wouldn’t play, but here she is, asking for the toughest defensive assignment.”

Caroline thinks back to when they were growing up. Katherine was always practicing with purpose. There was such a rigor to her approach: working on left-hand layups (she’s still remarkably adept at finishing with her weaker hand to this day), or hammering home that footwork.

“And I was always like, Whatever,” says Caroline. “The game came naturally to me.”

But as she moved up the ranks, Caroline noted that while Katherine could hit a lefty layup with ease, she had trouble trying to do the same.

“It was because I hadn’t worked as hard at it,” Caroline says. “Katherine had all these fundamentals down, and I thought, Whoa, I should probably work harder at it! She’s always set a really good example for me in terms of working hard. So it’s good to have her here (at Villanova). She kind of keeps me on track, you know?”

Now, if she finds herself struggling during games, her shot not falling, passes not popping just right, Caroline will hearken back to the fundamentals. She’ll go Kat on that team, looking for a seam, reading the way her defender is guarding her, putting in a nice layup to get herself going. Or maybe just crashing the boards like few guards in the game.

They’re currently clicking, but that wasn’t the case, initially, at Villanova. The running joke, freshman year, was that the Coyers were cousins. The two were thick as thieves growing up—”Like, inseparable,” Caroline says—but a rift developed during that first year in college. The twins weren’t living together, for the first time in their lives, but more importantly, they had different outlooks on college.

“Katherine was more reserved,” Caroline says, Katherine nodding to that assessment. “She wasn’t sad, but she was a little homesick, and meanwhile I was just like, COLLEGE!! THIS IS SO GREAT! SO MANY PEOPLE!!”

Katherine: “She totally embraced it.”

Caroline: “And I’d be like, Come on, Kat, let’s go meet people! And she was like, ‘I’m…gonna go watch Netflix.’ She was just real quiet.”

Katherine, with a chuckle: “That’s kind of how I’ve always been. Caroline’s the most initially outgoing, and it takes me, like, two years to warm up to people.”

Caroline: “So, the first year we parted ways a little bit, and it was kind of bizarre.”

It’s come full circle. Now, they finish each other’s thoughts, one cutting across the other with the seamlessness of genuine camaraderie. The goal this season, as it is every year at a program of Villanova’s stature, is to get back to the NCAA Tournament.

After that, the paths may diverge. Katherine wants to pursue a master’s degree that will propel her toward a career in real estate, and she’s got her eyes turned toward a program offered by universities in northern England or Ireland. Two of her former Villanova teammates have pursued the same path, and it’s a pretty good gig. Keep playing basketball while you get a free education at one of the best institutions in the world.

Caroline will likely pursue a route more along the professional grade. “She’ll have to get an agent, do all that cool stuff,” Katherine says of the coming spring.

That’s still a ways away: for now, the twins are trying to ride this wave as long as they can. Basketball, together, is just too much fun.

It transfers into their leadership, as seniors. Both are captains, and they tell you in tandem that the way they go about leading is 100 percent different. When they get together to deliver a message, they feel it’s more effective, but there’s something to be said about a more individual approach, too.

Says Katherine, “Caroline has always been more vocal, through our entire experience here. And she’s our best player. So people have always seen her as the leader, whereas I do, like, the little things. Leading by example, things like that.

“But when I do have something to say, people usually do listen to me (to which Caroline injects an ‘Oh yeah!’) because I usually haven’t said anything for a really long time!”

Says Caroline, “I feel like when I say something, people will be like, ‘OK…’, but when Katherine says something, it’s like, ‘Yes ma’am‘.”

“I can be a little blunt sometimes,” Katherine says.

“And I’m like, Dang, maybe I should take a page out of her book,” Caroline says.

Says Joe Mullaney, “They’re just really good kids, and good students, and they’ve had a great four years. We’re gonna miss them big time, when they leave.”

Images courtesy of Villanova Athletic Media Relations

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Then came the AdvoCare Invitational over Thanksgiving weekend, with ESPN cameras continually rolling (the event is held on the company’s Wide World of Sports campus in Orlando). Wins over No. 17 Notre Dame and USC sandwiched a gritty three-point loss to Dayton, and confirmed a consensus that had slowly been building: Monmouth (yes, Monmouth) is for real.

Justin Robinson might be the second-most famous Hawks phenomenon at the moment (see: Monmouth bench celebrations), but after posting a record 77 points through three games, he was named tournament MVP despite not playing in the championship. (Monmouth took down the Trojans in the third-place game.) As USC coach Andy Enfield said afterward, “[Robinson] has it all, offensively.”

To hear Robinson tell it, there was extra motivation for that USC game. Monmouth had faced the Trojans in Los Angeles the week before, and lost by 11. “We believed we should have won that first game, too,” says Robinson. “In the locker room, we said that we were going to see them again, and we were going to play hard and win.”

Robinson has made waves for his scoring: 20-plus points in five of six games to begin ’15-16, but the 5-8 junior jitterbug feels that his greatest impact comes through his presence and energy. Like, 3 assists and 3 steals per game through those first six contests. Guys feed off that kind of approach. And then there’s the work ethic, best explained by Monmouth coach King Rice.

“We got back (from the AdvoCare tournament) on Monday,” says Rice, “and Justin was in the gym that night, working on the same things he’s always working on. He sets the tone for the whole team.”

But to get a greater sense of this team’s current surge, rewind 12 months-and-change to the start of ’14-15. It began with a tenuous trip to Morgantown, WV, to take on Bob Huggins’s Mountaineers, before a game in College Park against a Maryland team that, one season later, has turned into a trendy national title pick. SMU, in Dallas, came soon thereafter. The Hawks lost all three games, but there was a similar theme to each recap: West Virginia survived. Maryland barely hung on.

Rice, in his fifth year at the helm, has made a point of creating intensely difficult non-conference schedules. As he built the program through those first years, Monmouth was decimated by the big schools it played. Rice would hear the criticism: Why are you playing these games? As he looked at his team, unbowed, he had his answer. “Our kids enjoyed the competition,” he says. “Those losses didn’t affect us.”

“We knew our time was coming,” says Robinson. “This year, we’ve got it.”

At this juncture last season, Robinson wasn’t quite Robinson-ing to the extent seen to date in ’15-16, but he was still putting in serious work in the stat column. Points, assists, steals. That production has kicked into overdrive thanks in large part to the work put in during the past summer. There was ample motivation following an 18-point loss to Iona in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference tournament.

Returning players made a pact: they were going to stay on campus throughout the summer. They were going to get better. Says Rice, “Iona slammed the door on us, and our kids went right back to work. This year, we’ve had great numbers and great chemistry. It’s been fun so far.”

No one worked harder than Robinson, who in addition to workouts on campus, partook in the summer league grind. In one game, he dropped 50 points. Now, he is asserting himself as one of the foremost blurs at the guard position, nation-wide.

“And he’s so humble,” says Rice. “This summer, he put on seven to 10 pounds, and he’s dunking easily, but he just keeps working. At times, he’s almost too unselfish. He’s getting his points without putting up a lot of shots.”

Robinson gets to share this season’s story with his younger brother, Tyler, a freshman guard on this season’s team.

“He’s my best friend and partner in crime,” says Robinson, who rattles off some of his favorite memories growing up with lil’ bro in Kingston, NY. Eighth grade, dad nailing a basketball hoop to the tree by the house. Putting a trampoline under the hoop, and dunking to their hearts’ content. “Jammed fingers, basketballs flying, bodies flying, just kids being kids having fun,” Robinson says. “Tyler and I would get into fights where we wouldn’t talk for a couple days, we were so competitive. He’s only beaten me once in one-on-one, because I don’t let him. He runs his mouth.”

While Tyler went through his recruitment, Robinson made a conscious effort of maintaining a healthy distance. He wanted his younger brother to make his own choice. Well, excepting one potential option. “I told him if he went to Iona, I wouldn’t talk to him,” Robinson says.

It’s yet another fun wrinkle to what’s turning into a compelling narrative. And the kicker?

“We haven’t even played our best basketball yet,” says Rice. “Our defense was way better last year. So, we’re looking for major improvements on defense. Then, I feel like we’ll really be ready.”

Photos courtesy of Monmouth University Athletics

The post Look At Him Now appeared first on SLAM.

That cohesiveness has helped them develop into a devastating backcourt duo for Tulsa. Both are on pace to put dents into some lists in the program record book. Most recently, they helped the Golden Hurricane to a 23-11 record in 2014-15, which included a run of 10 straight wins to open American Athletic Conference play. It was Tulsa’s first year in that league, after joining from Conference USA.

With the lion’s share of production returning, headlined by these two star seniors, expectations are even higher for ’15-16. And it was with an eye on an NCAA Tournament berth that Tulsa head coach Frank Haith met with Woodard and Harrison to discuss ways they could improve for their final campaign.

It was most striking with Harrison. This past spring, Haith approached him about changing his jump shot—no small feat for a player about to enter his final year of college. But Haith wasn’t thinking mere tinkering. He had a major overhaul in mind.

Says Haith, “Our conversation with Shaq was, ‘Do you want to do this? We’ll do it only if you want to, because I think it’ll really help you.’ When you do that this late in a player’s career, it’s hard. They’ve done so many reps a certain way, but Shaq being Shaq, he bought in. He was totally open to getting better.”

Haith knew that if he could provide another offensive element to Harrison, already one of the country’s best all-around guards (see: heavy helpings of boards, assists and steals), Tulsa, which finished second to SMU in the AAC standings last season, might just nab a title.

So, back to basics. Haith had noticed that as Harrison loaded his shot, he would often bring the ball right in front of his face, sometimes even brushing his nose, before releasing. They worked on fluid motion finished by a high release point.

“We started off one-handed, like, I’m sitting on a little stool chair, hitting one-foot shots, and I did that for about a month, straight,” says Harrison. “The farthest I moved out to was barely at the free-throw line. It could get real boring, but the repetition with my new mechanics really helped me.”

Good thing that in Woodard, Harrison had a best friend and roommate who was almost always in the gym with him, lending moral support.

“Man,” Woodard says, when asked about Harrison’s regimen, “Shaq put in so much work. He was in the gym every day, and pretty much every night, making at least 200 shots. It’s been paying off in practice now, too. He’s knocking down open shots, and also hitting shots off the bounce. It just opens up more ways for him to be effective for us.”

Woodard had his own set of specifications from Heath. “The coaches wanted me to be more aggressive, getting to the free-throw line more,” says Woodard, who hit 88 threes and 89 free throws last season. “They wanted to see me take on a greater leadership role within the offense.”

He also kept burnishing his own jumper. Woodard was introduced to a drill that requires 250 made shots, done with a timer. “A really elite time is 20 minutes,” says Woodard, “and I pretty much crushed that goal. I’m down to about 16 minutes now. Each time I go in there, I’m trying to beat that time.”

“With James’s skill, he can shoot the ball, or attack and get to the line,” Haith says of Woodard. “Shaq is a defender, a rebounder, a set-up guy, in terms of assists. He’s not a true point guard, but he’s gotten so good at that part of the game. He’s better at seeing those things. Talk to any coaches, and they respect both these guys.”

The improvements will make the 6-3 Woodard and the 6-4 Harrison that much more dangerous, heading into a season in which they are two of Tulsa’s five returning starters.

“I feel like we feed off of each other,” says Harrison. “James is a knock-down shooter, who can also get to the basket. I can get to the basket, and knock down shots too.”

“We’ve got a fire when we play with each other,” says Woodard. “We push each other every day, and that’s the main thing for us: our drive, and our love for the game. We just love to compete.”

“Juice feels like my actual brother,” says Harrison. “On the court or off it, it’s just Woodard and Harrison, Harrison and Woodard.”

Harrison references Woodard’s nickname, which he’s had since his sophomore year in high school, when he rocked a hi-top fade. “Just like the movie Juice with Tupac,” says Woodard. “At first, it was just my teammates calling me that, but then my classmates and teachers caught on, and when I got to Tulsa, it was pretty much the same thing.”

“If I could characterize those two guys, it’s that they’re mentally and physically tough,” says Haith. “That gives you a chance. Look at Steph Curry at Davidson, or so many of the great guards in college basketball these past few seasons. If you develop your game, you can compete at a high level. With their work ethic, determination and passion, they’ve put themselves in that kind of position.”

Perhaps more important than the conversations concerning skill, Haith spoke with Woodard and Harrison about leadership. “A big message was about bringing their teammates along,” says Haith. “That’s what true leaders do. James is a quiet guy, and we want him to be more vocal. Shaq’s a fiery dude, but we worked with him on how to get his point across, to communicate effectively. With both these guys, you have to harness their gifts.”

Asked for his approach to leadership, Woodard gives the perfect preview for what could be a memorable season. “It’s keeping everybody accountable,” he says. “This is our final year. Can’t take no days off.”

Photos courtesy of Tulsa Athletics

The post Golden Guards appeared first on SLAM.

“Annie did not say that about me! Oh my gosh, that’s so embarrassing.”

Outsized expectations and good-natured ribbing aside, there is a very good chance that, somewhere down the line, Wheatley will be making the planet a little bit better. Last December, she was named to the University’s Scholars in the Nation’s Service Initiative (SINSI), which accepts up to five juniors each year and helps foster careers in US government. Next fall, Wheatley will enter Princeton’s Woodrow Wilson School in the Master of Public Affairs program. Her GPA, as you might have guessed, tilts heavily toward 4.0.

This past summer, as part of the SINSI initiative, Wheatley spent 10 weeks in Washington, DC, with the National Institute of Health, where she worked a daily 9 to 5 shift and was able to make serious headway on her senior thesis. CliffsNotes version: mathematical modeling of a virus in Mexico. Wheatley also worked with a project aimed toward bringing policy makers, scientists and global health experts together so that, she says, “You can implement programs in countries that really need help.”

Wheatley has always seemed wise beyond her years, an observation that she quickly refutes—”I left high school feeling like I had no idea what I wanted to do!”—but this is why she is the perfect example of a Princeton scholar-athlete. Seizing upon so many opportunities at this school has helped her begin paving the path she one day hopes to pursue.

In the summer of 2014, Wheatley spent eight weeks in Kenya through a school internship, where she instructed students and participated in field work with a conservation club. She enjoyed the experience, but noticed that when she talked to Annelies Paine, a Princeton rower and roommate on the trip, their conversations invariably shifted toward global issues, many of which concerned health.

“I thought to myself, Wow, I really like talking about these things—where can I talk about them more?” says Wheatley. “Princeton has allowed me to try things out that I’m interested in. You can grow so much just from listening to people around you, here. They’re brilliant, and to be a part of this environment, on this campus, is just a blessing in and of itself.”

This is the type of personality that wakes up some mornings and, with the prospect of a three-hour lecture on tap, pumps her fists. YES! “You grow so much from the intellectual atmosphere here,” Wheatley says. “I don’t feel like I know exactly where I’m going (for a career), but I do know what I like to do, and hopefully that will take me somewhere that I like.”

It’s probably worth mentioning at this point that Wheatley is also a starting forward and vital contributor for the Princeton women’s basketball team, which enters this season with serious momentum after finishing 2014-15 with a 31-1 record (!), punctuated by the first NCAA Tournament win in program history.

Mention Wheats to teammates and coaches, and you sense faces breaking into smiles, even over the phone. “Alex has done our program so right,” says Courtney Banghart, Princeton’s head coach.

Since taking the reins of Princeton in 2007, Banghart has worked painstakingly to create a culture in which player growth is paramount. It has begun to define the Tigers, and in Wheatley’s case, it meant shifting a mentality from humility to unabashed, indomitable confidence.

Humility—a wonderful life skill, but, as Banghart notes, a performance inhibitor during the rush of action that defines this game. Wheatley can need a little prodding to become, well, unstoppable.

“She’s just a machine,” says Tarakchian, a 6-0 senior who guards Wheatley in the low post during practice. “And she’s just a good person to her core. I always make fun of her: she’s, like, so nice that it’s kind of rude. She’ll think something over eight times before she does it, because she wants everybody to be happy with it.”

“She’s selfless to a fault,” says Michelle Miller, another Tigers senior. “Coach is always getting on her—You need to elevate and shoot that!—if we get the ball to her inside, and she kicks it out because she’s guarded. We all want her to be more aggressive, because she has the talent and the ability to really be a presence inside. And we need that.”

For Wheatley, it’s meant overcoming what she describes as her own nervous personality. “And basketball has helped me push past that,” Wheatley says. “It’s such a different culture, and such a supportive network. Playing at the level we do at Princeton is not an easy task, but you think, Sure, I can do this. It lends a new perspective: and the one among my teammates and coaches is: Try to do the impossible.”

Last season’s NCAA Tournament Round of 64 game against Green Bay was the perfect example of surge. Wheatley started slowly, her first-half performance marred by several turnovers, missed field goals and fouls.

As the first half had unfolded, Miller observed Wheatley’s match up in the low post, and came to a conclusion: She’s got this girl. At halftime, she told her best friend just that. “It comes down to trust,” says Miller, “and I was very confident that Wheats was going to have a really good second half.”

Wheatley finished with 15 points, 10 rebounds and 2 assists. “She stepped up,” says Miller of this latest display of Wheats Mode.

“She’s—a—machine,” says Tarakchian, stressing each word. “Once Alex gets that edge—and sometimes it takes an elbow to the neck to get her going—she’s just unstoppable.”

This is what Banghart wants to see from Wheatley in her senior season, for which she’s been named a team captain. “Alex’s kindness, experience, and gentle soul will all factor into her captaincy, but her leadership, for me, is going to be how committed she is to her numbers,” says Banghart, who wants a steady 18 and 8 a night from Wheats. “Literally, she’s the first kid I’ve ever said that to. But Alex is just so humble, and so gentle, that it actually has inhibited her production.” (Wheatley averaged 10.9 points on 56 percent shooting with 5.1 rebounds, 1.4 blocks and 1.0 steals in 2014-15. She was a First-Team Ivy League selection.)

Wheatley is raring to take up the mantle. “You don’t know what you’re capable of until you push yourself outside your comfort zone,” she says, “and at Princeton, that’s something I’ve continued to grow more comfortable with.”

“It’s the way that Wheats works, the way she genuinely cares for people,” says Tarakchian, who is a captain alongside Wheatley and fellow senior Taylor Williams. “She’s my captain, too. I look up to Alex and respect her like everyone else does.”

***

Wheatley has always stood out because of her athleticism. In high school, she ran the 400 and 800 meters and high jumped in track, at all-league levels. On the court, the 6-2 post flew past guards in transition and left posts flat-footed with her elevation on the low block.

Niveen Rasheed, Princeton’s first AP All-America and a senior during Wheatley’s freshman season, remembers watching Wheatley play, and shaking her head in admiration of the talent on tap. What a force it could be, once realized. She doesn’t know how good she is. “As a freshman, the hardest part is having practices go slower, so you can adjust to everything that’s being thrown at you,” says Rasheed. “But Alex had that natural ability to get it right away, and just run with it.”

“You show her something,” says Tarakchian, “and she’ll have it memorized in five minutes.”

The only time Rasheed can ever remember yelling at Wheatley is when the frosh didn’t show an urgency to score. “And she could score every time she wanted,” says Rasheed, “But she had this incredible humility about her. You wanted her on your team in practice and in games. I’m glad to have called her a teammate.”

As Princeton has become the Ivy League’s reference point, and a burgeoning player on the national stage, Banghart has grown accustomed to a frequent complaint. Princeton wins because Banghart always get the best players. It rankles.

“What Princeton gets are the people who are willing to put in the work to be the best of the best,” says Banghart. “They don’t remember the Alex that I saw during her freshman year. They don’t remember my conversations with her, that in order for this team to be great, she had to continue to get better.

“And Alex is such an important example of how one can grow in this program, and because she grew as a person, she also grew as a player. She had to learn to demand the ball, to be OK with finishing through somebody in the post. That’s so, so anti-Alex Wheatley. She’s the most gentle human being on the planet. So, to make this transformation in four years, it takes a daily commitment, and she’s been so dialed in to trusting that daily process.”

Banghart kept challenging Wheatley to add new dimensions to her game. Everyone keeps talking about how athletic you are. OK, but you were born that way—so what are you going to become, beyond that?

“She works so hard,” says Banghart, “and we wanted to see that work ethic pay off with her being a go-to player in the post, a versatile force in the mid-range. And she’s become a really, really effective offensive threat, from 18 feet in. She’s still the great athlete, with an unbelievable motor and all of that. But that’s not what she leads with all the time, anymore.”

Wheatley enters this final season alongside her four fellow seniors. Tarakchian, Miller, Amanda Berntsen and Williams. You want squad goals, they’re ‘it’. In addition to being one of the most talented groups in DI, they will likely be leaders in their respective fields 10 years down the line. To wit: when Miller is interviewed for this article, she has just finished a grueling organic chemistry exam. For an optional class. Ah, midterm week.

Miller reflects upon the seniors’ career arc: making the NCAA Tournament as freshmen, but then missing out on it as sophs. “That taught us a huge lesson,” says Miller, “and we talked a lot about that last year. How you need to work hard for everything, to not take anything for granted. To come back last year as juniors and win that Tournament game, it feels like we’ve had a fulfilling journey to this point.

“And now we have the opportunity to build upon last year’s success and take it a step further this year. We’ve been up, and then down, and then back up.”

They have a group text labeled ‘Cat 5,’ and sometimes the notifications blur into the hundreds. The five of them could not be more different; the five of them could not be closer friends.

“I don’t think we go more than an hour or two without some conversation blowing up,” says Wheatley. “Basketball has brought us all together, and it’s special to think that my classmates are some of my best friends on campus. However many years down the line, I know we’ll still be very, very involved in each other’s lives. I’m so thankful to Princeton for being able to share this experience with Annie, Taylor, Amanda and Meesh.”

Sometimes, though, Wheatley needs a break, and she’ll mute the text chain because “too many messages gives me anxiety,” she says, laughing. “Her phrase is, ‘I don’t ‘people’ well,'” says Miller, who’s also chuckling. “And I do too, sometimes. So, I like to use her phrase.”

***

Three years. Haven’t they gone by in a blink.

Banghart remembers ushering those five freshmen into her office and telling them, We’re gonna dream out loud. We’re gonna hold you to a standard that seems impossible—but it only seems impossible if you’re not dreaming big enough.

A message that was delivered before Princeton had won an NCAA Tournament game.

“And I’m telling them I want them to bring us to a Sweet 16,” says Banghart. “It’s the kind of story that can only go bad, unless it goes right, and these guys have made it right. It’s really remarkable, what they’ve brought this program to.”

Each of these players will tell you that it is Banghart—this community she has forged, the confidence they find within the framework, the lifelong friends they’ve made along the way—who has been instrumental to their growth. If ball is life, then relationships are the key that unlock the door to success. And no one understands this more fully than Banghart.

“She studies us—it’s weird,” says Tarakchian. “One day before practice, we were talking, and she turns to Taylor and says, ‘Taylor, you stress clean, don’t you. That’s your form of procrastination.’ Then she turned to Amanda, and then to Meesh, and then to me, and it’s, ‘You, you, you’ and she’s pinpointing it every time, just nailing it.

“She knows us in and out, our tendencies too, and that kind of stinks sometimes, because she knows what to say that’ll get to us. But it’s also awesome, because you know she cares so much. To take that time and get to know each of us inside and out like that—not many coaches are like that.”

The seniors’ motto is Last One Best One, and there are indications of the poignancy settling in. Tarakchian, who this past summer won a gold medal at the Pan-Armenian Games, remembers preparing to take the court, and catching herself. This is the first time in three years I’ve played without those four alongside me.

“It really knocked me back,” says Tarakchian. “I was like, Wow, this is my last run with these guys.”

“That’s the most important thing: the people you’re playing with,” says Miller. “Our bond is really special, and I couldn’t ask for a better group of girls to be my teammates. That sounds cliché, but I honestly do feel that. I just want to make the most of every day this year, especially on the basketball court. I don’t want to see it go by and have any regrets.”

“This is their turn. This is their team,” says Banghart. “They are going to have to have this team play to their personality, and this senior group is known for being really nice. So, they’re gonna have to learn to say hard things, and do hard things.”

This is where Blake Dietrick’s graduation might be most keenly felt. By the end of last season, Dietrick dominated games like one of the best players in the country, but it was her vocal leadership that cemented her legacy. “Not having her leaves that void of somebody willing to hold everybody accountable,” says Miller. “And I think for us, it’s not going to be any one person directly filling that role, but all of us collectively stepping up, in different ways.”

A note on this particular brand of Princeton leadership. Miller, Wheatley and Tarakchian all cite Rasheed, Lauren Polansky, Kate Miller and Megan Bowen, the seniors during their freshman year. How that quartet practiced as hard as they played, how that ethic became embedded in the program fabric. “We’re about giving 100 percent, of working as hard as we can on defense,” says Miller. “Now, as seniors, we want to instill that in the freshmen.”

A supremely talented group of six freshmen joins Princeton this season, the kind that could kick the team’s fortunes into overdrive. Wheatley, Tarakchian and Miller each highlight bringing these frosh along as a pivotal part of ’15-16.

“And that goes for this senior class in general,” says Tarakchian. “Captain is, honestly, just a title: it’s us five leading this team, through and through. Alex, Taylor, and I are gonna go to the circle before games and tell the refs we’re not gonna foul too much, and all that good stuff, but the five of us are all in for this thing.”

Says Rasheed, “In 10 years, no one will remember individual players as much as they will the program. It’s about reaching out to the younger ones, showing them how we hold ourselves off the court. We have certain mottos that get passed down, and it becomes a way of Princeton basketball. These things that are so key to being successful, to get the most out of college. My biggest takeaways are what my teammates taught me, like how to lead and manage people. Understanding how to make legacy last, what the classes below you will inherit. I know these seniors will keep it going.”

“We’re just paying it back now,” says Tarakchian, “and it’s so much fun.”

***

Her teammates are certain that one day, she will save the world, and it seems fitting that the scholar who once professed to have little idea of what her future held, upon leaving high school, had a favorite quote that has served as the perfect theme for her time at Princeton.

You have brains in your head, you have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself in any direction you choose. You are who you are. And you know what you know. You are the one who’ll decide where you go. The eternal sage, Dr. Suess.

This was one of Wheatley’s chief takeaways from her internship at the NIH this past summer. With an eye on the two years she’ll spend in a government fellowship, in between two years in the Woodrow Wilson program, she canvassed everyone she could find for recommendations about how to spend that time.

“And something that stuck with me is that you need a touchstone in your health career, you need to have had experiences in the field, just to look back on and remind you what you’re working for, and why it’s important,” Wheatley says.

It’s about the people, the bonds that develop, and the strength that flows through them. How this basketball team will serve as an ultimate touchstone for Wheatley’s life. One year left with these teammates and best friends. They’ve still got some places they’d like to go, some more history they hope to make. So, the final word might as well go to another sage, who happens to be one of Wheatley’s teammates, and part of this special senior five.

“Wheats has conquered every part of this place. It’s so hard to put into words what she’s able to do on the court, but she just freaking slays,” says Tarakchian, before adding, quite fittingly, “and her course work? She just dominates that, too.”

Photos courtesy of Beverly Schaefer

The post Wheats Mode appeared first on SLAM.

So, Jordan, Davidson was picked ninth in the 2014-15 Atlantic-10 pre-season poll, your first season in that conferen…

At which point, Barham gently interjects. “Actually,” the 6-5, 200-pound Davidson senior says, “we were picked to finish 12th.”

Twelfth, out of a possible 14 teams. That Davidson ended up winning the A-10 regular-season championship on the strength of a 14-4 conference record (the Wildcats won 24 games in total) is a testament to the culture at hand, and the skill in place. One that kicked into overdrive several years ago, thanks to a certain baby-faced assassin.

Barham remembers watching Davidson make that thrilling run to the Elite Eight in ’08. He was transfixed by Steph Curry, that slight-of-frame guard who could get any kind of shot off, whenever he wanted. Barham begged his mom to get him a No. 30 Davidson jersey; he hung up a poster of his new hero in his room. He says it was at this point that he began to pursue basketball more seriously. When Davidson came calling to recruit him, Barham says it was like a dream come true.

Curry still drops by campus—he was there this past summer to unveil a gleaming new practice facility—and Davidson coach Bob McKillop frequently uses pieces of his former star’s story as teaching tools. There’s the one about Curry’s first game in Wildcat red. In the 2006-07 season opener, against Eastern Michigan, Curry had 9 turnovers by halftime, and 13 at the end of the game.

This is where a program staple surfaces. Next play. Dust aside your disappointment, forget about the mistakes just made. What matters is finding a way—any way—to help your team.

“Coach tells us that you have to trust in yourself that you’ll be able to do what you do,” says Jack Gibbs, Davidson’s 6-0 junior point guard. “When things aren’t going well, there’s still so many things you can do to affect the game.”

***

Gibbs and Barham join Peyton Aldridge and Brian Sullivan as returning Wildcats starters—all of whom happen to be from Ohio. It’s quite the quartet.

They are the team’s top-four returning scorers, and a big reason why this coming campaign promises to be one of the best in program history. Gibbs is coming off averages of 16.2 points and a shade under 5 assists; Sullivan, a 6-0 senior, drained 83 threes, dropped over 4 assists, and posted an assist-to-turnover ratio of 2.75. Barham led the team with 6.1 boards and threw down some of DI’s most rim-rattling dunks. Aldridge, a 6-8 swingman, turned into a dynamic force able to rain from three or bang in the post.

They are the current practitioners of one of the greatest shows on court. When Davidson’s offense is clicking, the reads upon reads of its motion offense unfold like some masterful concerto. At times, the improvisations hearken jazz. Canny cuts are met by pinpoint passes, all washed down with a steady helping of surgical perimeter shooting.

Take its effectiveness during a road game at Virginia, last December. The Cavaliers entered that matchup ranked No. 3 in the country. Their vaunted pack-line defense was allowing just 46.3 points, tops in DI. In a resounding win over Harvard, nine days earlier, Virginia held Harvard to one field goal in the first half, and 21 points in total. And this was a Crimson team that went dancing for a fourth consecutive season in ’14-15.

But after watching Davidson grab a 36-32 halftime lead on the strength of some serious fluency, Virginia coach Tony Bennett said simply, They kind of schooled us. (UVA ended up winning 83-72.)

Sullivan is the youngest of three brothers, both elder siblings currently coaching. In addition to basketball know-how being embedded in his psyche, Sullivan has said that his brothers will pick his brain sometimes about McKillop’s principles. Everyone wants to learn about what he’s doing with this motion.

Last season, Davidson coursed to the first at-large NCAA Tournament bid in program history by posting 79 points per game—seventh-best in the country. Their 17.1 assists ranked third; their 343 threes were one behind the national lead. In addition to the Virginia fireworks, against Dusquesne in the regular-season finale, the Wildcats chalked up 35 assists on 40 field goals, 23 of which were threes.

When each member of the quartet is asked for a reason behind this stirring success, this withering precision sending defenses reeling, their answers remain refreshingly simple. “I would attribute it to how much we care about each other, honestly,” says Gibbs. “We spend almost all our time together. My roommates and I live right next to Brian [Sullivan] and his roommates. We’re family, and that means you don’t want to let your teammates down.

“We don’t have egos on this team. If someone is doing well, we’re happy. We get him the ball. Coach also listens to us, during recruiting. If a kid comes in, he asks us if we think he’ll be a good fit. If we say ‘No,’ he might look somewhere else.”

When Barham is asked that same question—what sets Davidson apart, what allows them to shred some of the best defenses in the country?—Sullivan lets out an “Oof.” Tough question.

“There’s a lot of different things, but the biggest is that we just like each other, and we like playing together,” says Sullivan. “There’s an unselfishness, and a oneness to the offense. The extra pass is always made. It’s the unselfishness of five guys working together.”

***

Says Aldridge, who notes he played on a series of top teams growing up, “When I came to Davidson, it was just totally different. We really want what’s best for the team. The end goal is just winning.”

“We have guys that are willing to sacrifice for the team,” says Barham. “We’re all setting screens, and running the floor. We know that’s the way we get really good shots.”

This isn’t to say that it doesn’t take time to master the nuances of all the wrinkles on tap—and that’s just concerning the secondary break. Gibbs says it took until the start of his sophomore season before he felt completely comfortable running the offense.

A strong culture of leadership helps in that regard. During his freshman season, Gibbs learned from Tyler Kalinoski and Tom Droney. Sullivan cites JP Kohlman and Nick Cochran as mentors.

“They were seniors during my redshirt year, and they were unbelievable leaders,” says Sullivan. “Even today, I try to emulate how they led the team. Even with Tyler [Kalinoski] last year, we were the same age, and we were roommates, but watching him prepare, practice and lead was a great help to me.”

Sullivan, who transferred from Miami (Ohio) following his freshman year in 2011-12, had the benefit of an NCAA-mandated redshirt year to learn the ropes. But even he recalls De’Mon Brooks, one of the best Davidson players in history, telling him that it took a full season until Brooks felt comfortable.

“It certainly is a process, but it doesn’t take as long as you might think,” says Sullivan. “Coach does a great job recruiting the right types of guys to execute it. You have to read and react quickly. When guys do it, and you create those gaps in the defense, and it’s like, Whoof.”

It was a more abridged transition for Aldridge, who was called into serious PT as a freshman.

“There’s definitely a lot going on, but the coaching staff did a great job of breaking it down for me,” says Aldridge. “Every drill in practice concerns some kind of offensive move we do. It took me some getting used to, but by the time conference play started, I felt more comfortable. And once you’ve got it, you’re just playing. Those set reads and rules mesh with our ability to flow. It just becomes natural.”

With each season, they try to enhance their skill set, to widen the breadth of their potential impact.

“Last year, it was spacing the floor, allowing penetration from the guards and Jordan, and that got me good looks,” says Aldridge, who hit 46 percent of his shots, including 39 percent from three. “Now, teams will realize how well I shot it, and they’ll start crowding me, so I have to be more dimensional than just shooting it.”

Sullivan’s shooting and savvy, Gibbs’s headiness and drive. Aldridge’s smooth, Barham’s bounce. All become meshed in the overriding philosophy: “We attack—relentlessly,” says Sullivan. “We look forward to playing the best defenses. We want to prove we can put points on the board against anybody. And with Coach, the stuff he draws up, and the way he teaches it, it’s opened my eyes as a player. It’s broadened my basketball mind.”

Call it the Steph approach.

“It’s about fearlessness,” says Sullivan. “Steph’s not afraid of anything. I try to take that from him, and I think he provides motivation for all of us. He’s not just in the NBA—he’s the MVP. He’s the flagbearer of this program, and he’s the ultimate at staying in the moment. Coach relays that to all of us.”

***

“It’s an ever-changing offense,” Gibbs says. “Even in the middle of practice, Coach will put something new in. We don’t usually run that many plays, though. It’s just a bunch of different reads, based on what the defense is showing. We go for the best shot—hopefully, a layup or a wide-open three.”

In high school, Gibbs mostly ran an isolation-based offense, but he notes that when McKillop watches recruits, he is most interested in how they adapt on the fly. Do they notice a good back cut? Can they make the appropriate pass to capitalize upon it? That quick thinking transitions to Davidson. Should McKillop note something about an opposing defense during the middle of a game, he expects his players to adapt immediately.

It takes conditioning to run these defenses ragged, but Barham says that after building a base in the summer, the season is dedicated to basketball. “We get our conditioning from the constant running of the secondary break,” says Barham. “We’re going up and down, up and down. It’s continual motion.”

A note on setbacks. The story of Curry’s first game for Davidson; the way things ended for the Wildcats last season.

Says Sullivan, “Losing to VCU in the conference tournament, and then to Iowa in the NCAA Tournament (Round of 64), still hurts. It was with us for pretty much the whole offseason. We have confidence about our team this season, but we have a bitter taste, too. It’s a great balance of knowing how good we can be, while still trying to prove how good we are. Being that close just makes you want it more.”

“After the Iowa game, Coach brought us in and made sure we realized what we’d accomplished,” says Gibbs. “First year in the A-10, and we won the regular-season championship. We got to where we wanted, but then, we didn’t get it done. We didn’t like the way we went out. We knew we could’ve done a lot better, and we knew we needed to get better.

“So, everyone was motivated this offseason. We’d gotten the first at-large NCAA Tournament bid in school history—but we don’t just want a taste of the tourney. We saw Steph lead this program to the Elite Eight, and we think, ‘Why can’t that be us?’ The goal is not just to make it to the NCAA Tournament, but to do some damage. And we can definitely do that.”

You get why Steph, when he was about Gibbs after a Warriors game last April, said: “It’s kind of his team now.”

Barham speaks of the 12-month journey that began days after the last season ended. Aldridge seconds the point.

“That’s what Coach told us, when we met a couple weeks after the Iowa loss,” says Aldridge. “Whatever we’re doing, we picture where we want to be. After our first practice, Coach told us that he’d planned it as the practice right before the NCAA Tournament. That’s how we took the mentality to be.

“We’re preparing to be there.”

Photo courtesy of Tim Cowie

The post Perimeter Assault appeared first on SLAM.

“It was great to meet him,” says Sears. “I’d never been out of the county before, and I’d never really considered living overseas—but talking to him, about how he’d made the transition to Australia, how he loved it, opened my eyes. (After a lengthy pro career down under, Maley is a general manager of operations at the Australian College for Basketball.—Ed.)

“I thought, Maybe I can do this—play overseas after college. We’re both kids from Yale, both solid players. It was really good to hear.”

Sears became something a celebrity over the course of the tour. When he was introduced before a game against Diamond Valley, a pro team in Melbourne, he received a standing ovation. When the game was over, Sears grabbed his bag and prepared to head back to the locker room, only to be mobbed by a raucous crowd.

“They wanted pictures and autographs—like we were pros,” says Sears. “It was really cool.”

They could certainly appreciate quality, which is something Sears showcased in force for Yale last season. He posted 14.3 points on 51 percent shooting, grabbed 7.5 rebounds—including 3.0 on the offensive end—and added 2.4 blocks, 1.5 assists and 1.1 steals.

Quirky. Different. You’ll get the gamut of cliché’d descriptors when people are asked to describe the Justin Sears effect. What is particularly awesome about this senior is the way he embraces the monikers—he knows that it is exactly his unorthodox approach that makes him so effective.

Sears played tennis, starting at age 4, and the footwork learned from chasing after so many winners, on the baseline and at the net, is reflected now on a different kind of court. When you’re chasing after a winner, you learn to shuffle your feet in whatever way works. This approach can also be applied to layups.

“Sometimes, I’ll make a play in practice, and coach [James Jones] will be like, ‘That will never work in a game.’ Then, two weeks later, I pull off the move and the defender is dumbfounded,” says Sears, chuckling. “That’s one thing about my game—it’s always been unorthodox and different.”

He cites Manu Ginobli and Al Jefferson as chief examples among players he studies. “They’re unorthodox with their footwork,” says Sears. “It’s like they’re thinking, ‘Well, most players do it this way, so how can I do it differently?'”

This summer, Sears has gone about developing his game in a more standard manner. “A big thing was working on my handle and my shooting, extending my range to three and just making better moves in different areas of the floor,” says Sears.

He senses a palpable hunger among his Yale teammates this season, strengthened by the bonding that comes with a foreign tour. “We made it all the way last year, and then we let the seniors down,” says Sears, referencing the Bulldogs’ loss to Harvard in a one-game Ivy League playoff. “That was tough.”

On one of the final days of summer, Sears found a box of t-shirts in the locker room. He grabbed one, thinking it was gear for the season ahead. But when he looked over it, he froze. On the front was written ‘2014-15,’ with the Yale logo and ‘Ivy League Champs’ beneath it. On the back, the message, We’re in.

“It really hurt to see that, to see that they had the t-shirts printed and ready to go for us getting into the tournament,” says Sears.

So, in vintage Justin form, he took one and hung it in his room. A constant reminder, for what he’s going to work toward.

When Sears says, “We have to redeem that,” it’s hard not to believe him.

Photos courtesy of Yale Athletics

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How did an Arizona kid end up at Lehigh? “Honestly,” says Kempton, who’s from Phoenix, “the first time I heard about Lehigh was when they beat Duke (in the 2012 NCAA Tournament).”

How do you deal with the weather in Pennsylvania, after all that sun growing up? “Some people call it gloomy here, but we never get rain in Arizona, so I don’t mind dealing with rain now. The green and the trees are a nice change of pace. And dealing with winters? Well, that’s basketball season, so I’m in the gym, sleeping, or doing schoolwork. You just have to throw on one, or two, extra layers when you head out to the car.”

In addition to being one of the most refreshing interviews in college basketball, Kempton has established himself as one of country’s premier low-post players. Patriot League Freshman of the Year in ’13-14, followed up with a conference POTY last term. He earned this latter award playing the majority of his sophomore season with a broken thumb.

Kempton didn’t actually learn of the injury’s extent until he re-injured it on the final play of the Mountain Hawks’ thrilling, three-overtime win at Arizona State last December, and he didn’t undergo surgery until this offseason. He still posted 15.8 points and 8.7 rebounds, on 50 percent shooting.

His well-versed post game hearkens to mind the Gasol brothers’ ability to mix power with finesse, an ability that Kempton notes “seems like a lost art in the modern game.”

He has a nickname, “Sweet T,” which heralds the finesse with which he works. This moniker was handed to him on his recruiting visit to Lehigh, when Kempton calmly sank a mid-range jumper during a pick-up game. Thanks to Gabe Knutson and Holden Greiner, on the Mountain Hawks’ roster at the time, he’s been Sweet T since.

Kempton had been hosted by Knutson, then a senior, who Kempton says was tied at the hip with Lehigh great—and current Trail Blazer, CJ McCollum. Here were two players who’d helped vault a small, elite academic school’s basketball program into the national conversation. “When I took the visit, CJ and those seniors really showed me what the program was all about,” says Kempton.

Says Lehigh coach Brett Reed, who’s been with the program since ’02 and at its helm since ’07, “Tim came into a great group of guys that really valued what we’re trying to do with basketball. They valued their relationships with each other, they were unselfish and caring, and Tim walked in and saw that, and I think it was really attractive to him.”

Reed credits assistant coach Antoni Wyche with developing the key relationship with Kempton on the recruiting trail. When Reed evaluated Kempton, he was impressed with the mobility he showed for his size, but it was a series of plays Kempton made on the perimeter that sold him. It hinted at Kempton’s potential as a national-level force.

“He had this passing ability, and good hands,” says Reed. “I thought there were the makings of an excellent player. And fortunately for us, Tim was very mature—he’s very intelligent, and he wanted the best in terms of basketball and academic opportunity.”

Reed says that the deal was sealed by a phone call from Kempton’s father, Tim Kempton Sr, to Fran McCaffrey, the former Lehigh coach currently at Iowa. It was a serendipitous case of six degrees: when McCaffrey coached at UNC Greensboro, Reed had been on his staff. Tim Sr, who’d starred for Notre Dame hoops in the ’80s, knew McCaffrey from the latter’s 11 years as an assistant with the Irish program. So he called McCaffrey, and asked about Reed and this Lehigh program. McCaffrey gave the go-ahead.

Tim Kempton Sr, himself a 6-10 post, had enjoyed a 14-year professional career that included 280 games in the NBA. Dad’s first lesson to son? Establish a jump hook.

Kempton didn’t hit his growth spurt until his sophomore year at Brophy College Prep, and when he did, he coupled skill to physical power to wreak havoc.

“My dad was the type of physical post player who loved rumbling,” says Kempton. “That’s where most of my moves come from. I have a post coach who knows exactly what I want to do. We have the exact same picture in mind.”

Since arriving at Lehigh, Kempton has thrown himself into film work. Last season, he watched Frank Kamisnky and studied the way the Wisconsin star used sublime footwork to dominate the paint whenever he wanted. “Tremendous,” Kempton says of Frank the Tank.

Reed can see the next stage in Kempton’s development—this summer, he stressed conditioning and extending Kempton’s shooting range. There is also his growth as a leader. Lehigh was very young last season, and a resilient core has grown up alongside Kempton. The Mountain Hawks’ point guard, Kahron Ross, was named Patriot League Freshman of the Year last season.

“We’re excited about the success we had last season, but we’re trying to get to the level where we have the confidence to go and beat whoever’s on the schedule,” says Kempton. “That’s what the great teams have.”

“We utilized Tim at a high rate as a freshman, and he produced,” says Reed. “As a sophomore, the focus was to change his body—lose excess body fat, tone up, and get stronger. That’s not just for injury prevention but also for performance. He did a very good job with that.”

When Reed is asked about momentum, he calls the vibe on campus this summer tremendous.

“We were able to invest in younger players these past few seasons, and now we have a great nucleus with strong experience,” says Reed. “We anticipate a strong season, to compete for championships at our level. There’s a real excitement. This could be a special year.”

Photos courtesy of Lehigh Athletics

The post Sweet Success appeared first on SLAM.

On his OU player page, Felder whittles down the reasons even more succinctly: Education, Teammates, Campus.

Then, there was the coaching staff, led by Greg Kampe. “They kept everything real with me,” Felder says. “They didn’t say I’d come in and play ‘X’ amount of minutes. They told me I gotta earn what I get. They also told me they’d make me the best player I could be. It was pure honesty. So far, it’s working.”

Felder averaged 7.6 assists as a sophomore in 2014-15, second-best in the country. His 18.1 points were top-50. The 2.0 steals? Twenty-eighth.

Felder grew up with the OU program, and his mom loved the stability provided by Kampe, who’s entering his 32nd year as head coach. It resonates, then, when Kampe says that Felder, who had offers from schools in the Atlantic 10 and Big Ten, is the highest-rated recruit he’s ever signed at OU.

“He’s really freaking good. We recruited him from the time he was a sophomore, and we recruited him hard,” says Kampe. “We didn’t recruit a point guard in the class before him—even though we needed one. We felt Kahlil had the chance to be really special, and we wanted him to see that the playing time was there.”

Kampe’s program had become synonymous with great point guard play. In 2011-12, Reggie Hamilton led the nation in scoring (26.2 points); two seasons before that, Jonathan Jones led the nation in assists (8.1). “We felt Kahlil could lead the nation in both categories,” Kampe says.

There was something about the mentality of this kid, a fearlessness when the 5-9 guard would go up against the big boys. That’s what Felder did in the summer following his freshman year in college. During a Detroit Pro-Am game, he saw Draymond Green headed for a dunk on the break. So, Felder raced to catch him, and fouled him hard. Didn’t want to allow momentum to swing the other way.

In an 81-79 win over Toledo last November, Felder got his high-rising act back on, blocking a game-winning shot to seal a win. “I play with two chips on my shoulders,” Felder says. “With me being little, I have to do other things. If a guy is 6-5, he’s immediately seen. But I have to battle on the floor, lock a defender up, do the little things.”

During the Grizzlies’ overseas tour in Spain this summer, Felder averaged 23 points and 8 assists. The team averaged 99 points. In the last game of the tour, OU had the ball with the game tied and 2 seconds left. Kampe set up a play where Felder came off a screen and got the ball.

“Then, the whole world goes to him,” Kampe says, “but instead of forcing a jumper, he found a guy wide open for a layup. In the past, Kahlil would have tried to win it himself.”

Kampe told the team afterward that that play was the best thing he’d seen on the whole trip. Game on the line, and the Grizzlies’ best player works within the team concept to win it.

“Kahlil still turns it over too much—but we do play lots of possessions, and he has the ball in his hands the whole time,” says Kampe. “He averaged 3.5 turnovers in Spain, but we played at 89 possessions a game.”

This season, Felder will reconnect with two fellow Pershing High grads, both of whom join the Grizzlies as transfers. Sherron Dorsey-Walker and Martez Walker, who come from Iowa State and Texas, respectively, are two reasons why expectations are high for OU this season. Felder remembers his recruiting pitch to the players he calls “brothers”: Come on, we need you. We can do special things here.

This season is about making the NCAA Tournament, and making a serious run. Felder wants to become more of a vocal leader. He’s already got the example part of leadership down pat.

“I’ve fought to win my whole life,” says Felder. “I hate to lose. Even in workouts, if I’m shooting against somebody, and I lose the first time, we’ll shoot 50 more times ’til I win. It’s that drive in me. I don’t know where it comes from—probably from my dad, watching him play.”

Before Felder’s sophomore season, Kampe delivered a car metaphor for Felder, who was coming off a debut season in which he’d been named Horizon League Freshman of the Year. Felder had been given the keys to the car, but he couldn’t go pedal to the medal just yet. As a sophomore, he could begin to let loose a bit.

Now, as a junior?

“Staying with the car idea, we’ve traded in the Mazda he had in his sophomore season for a Ferrari,” Kampe says. “He’s so fast. It’s his world, man.”

Photos courtesy of Jose Juarez, Oakland Athletics

The post Pedal To The Medal appeared first on SLAM.

Here’s the first, which he’s done since arriving at Northern Iowa, four years ago. When Bohannon’s alarm blares at 5:45, he heads to the gym to make at least 500 threes. Some days, he’ll hit 750.

Then it’s off to a 6 a.m. lift session on the track with the team. Three days a week, Bohannon will go for a post-lift run with junior teammate Jeremy Morgan. After that, a little more lifting.

Bohannon, who is a fifth-year senior, doesn’t have many class requirements these days, so he’ll often catch a quick nap before heading back to the gym for the Panthers’ afternoon session.

All those jumpers to start the day might seem a bit much, but for Bohannon, they were a way to begin to adapt to the rigors of college basketball. This message was imparted from Marc Sonnen, a 6-3 junior during Bohannon’s first season at UNI. Sonnen had picked up the act from Ali Farokhmanesh, he of the Kansas-destroying NCAA Tournament threes.

Bohannon quickly settled upon a mantra: I want to do this.

“At first, it kind of sucked, hitting that alarm so early each day, but I got used to it, and I began to understand what it takes to be successful,” Bohannon says. “I wanted to be the best shooter I could be, so I got in the gym every day.”

During the summer, the 6-4 redshirt senior will usually set up the Gun. Sometimes, he’ll bring in team managers, so he can have a rebounder and a passer. As the season looms larger, he’ll start going through these paces at game speed.

“He spends a ton of time working on his game, and working on that jump shot,” says Northern Iowa coach Ben Jacobson. “Two things it’s done, is help him improve as a shooter, but the other part, and maybe more impactful for our program, is that his teammates know he’s up at 5:30 every morning, shooting those 700 shots. He does it day after day, month after month.”

A player who’s started 66 straight games, grinding. Last season, Northern Iowa went 31-4, won the Missouri Valley Conference tournament, and reached the NCAA Tournament Round of 32.

Bohannon averaged 5.7 points, down from the 9.9 he’d posted as a redshirt-sophomore in 2013-14.

“But we had an even better season,” he says. “We were winning games, and that’s what you want.”

Says Jacobson, “If you asked him today, would you take 31-4 and a shot at Louisville, or average 10 points, ‘Bo’ will give you the right answer—and he’ll mean it.”

Before 2014-15 began, Jacobson told the Panthers that given the talent and experience on the roster, sacrifices would have to be made. Bohannon’s recollection of the collective response: Let’s go for it.

“It was the whole team buying in,” he says. “We really wanted to commit to it.”

Seth Tuttle, a Panthers senior forward, and one of the best players in the country, got frequent isolations in the low post. From there, UNI spread the floor with shooters, most often including Bohannon. Can’t really argue with the .885 winning percentage.

A guy like Max Martino, who’d been a key sub as a junior. Even as his playing time dwindled in ’14-15, he didn’t let it affect his leadership. Or Marvin Singleton, who was in the gym shooting 300 threes most days. He only took two for the entire season, but he wanted to make sure he was ready, just in case the situation called for it.

“And I could keep going down the line,” Jacobson says. “It was remarkable, to see the number of places on our team where you saw real sacrifice.”

Fifty-four of the 63 shots Bohannon made last season were threes. He’s hit 175 for his career, at a 38 percent clip. He now has a chance to break Northern Iowa’s all-time record for three-pointers, currently held by Ben Jacobson, who sank 203. (It’s a different Ben Jacobson.)

“It shows hard work paying off,” says Bohannon. “The record would mean a lot, but I’m more interested in wins and losses. It’s all about reaching the team goals.”

That’s a message Bohannon has sought to impart this offseason. Last season was fun, but it’s time to focus on the next one.

“The three seniors have done a terrific job all summer,” says Jacobson. “I feel great about the way they’ll lead this team. With Bo specifically, it’ll be a lot by example, but I’ve seen more from him in terms of being a little more vocal, and grabbing guys a little bit.”

Northern Iowa’s campus is just 45 minutes from his home, in Marion, but it is another closeness that most resonated with him. He can call the Ben Jacobson he might unseat on the three-point list “Benny Jac.” He rattles off the number of past Panthers he’s worked out with.

Bohannon’s college decision came down to UNI and Creighton. But as he kept coming up to campus, and meeting with the Panthers, he began to get a sense of why UNI would be the place for him.

“Just to be around the team that made the Sweet 16 run in 2010, and understanding how close they were, and how much it meant to them—that sold me,” Bohannon says. “I said, these are the guys that I want to play with. I want to try and do something special.”

On those daily jumpers. It got handed down to Bohannon, and he’ll pass it on, and it’ll keep going.

Says Jacobson, “That’s one of the ways our players understand you can make a difference in this program.

“It’s one thing to do it for three to four months to get ready for a season. It’s another to do it for a couple years. You make that commitment, stay on it for the better part of three years, and you’ve got something. That’s what you leave behind, in terms of tradition.”

Photos courtesy of Northern Iowa Athletics

The post Last Chance appeared first on SLAM.

Quincy Ford underwent back surgery 21 months ago, the final step in a painful journey that had begun in the summer after his sophomore season for the Huskies. As he’d unfurled his 6-8 frame from bed one morning, Ford had reached for his toes. To his horror, he realized that he couldn’t bend far enough to touch them.

Less than 16 months later after the surgery, he was the star in Baltimore, MD, site of the Colonial Athletic Association tournament. It was Ford’s 22 points, on 8-10 shooting, that propelled Northeastern to a win over William & Mary in the championship. Ford averaged 22 points during the three-game tournament, and earned that MOP distinction.

Such a long, long way from when no one could figure out what was wrong with his back. “It scared the heck out of me,” Ford says now of those first pain-racked days.

He’d tried to strengthen his back muscles to combat the constriction. He’d do rehab and work on his core. Epidurals, acupuncture, anything and everything.

He played the first two games of his junior season, a shell of his all-impactful self, before he realized that this was not going to get better.

Ford had visited with a doctor several times, that summer of ’13, and he’d been told that he should consider surgery only as a last resort. Now, he decided it was time to go under the knife.

On December 3, 2013, after Northeastern lost at home to Harvard, NU sports information director Matt McDonald informed media present that Ford would be out for the remainder of the season. He was having surgery on his back.

“I didn’t know the percentages of back surgery, or how likely I was going to be able to come back and play basketball,” says Ford. “I was so young, so that gave me optimism I’d be able to recover. But I was worried that when I came back, I’d have lost a step, or I wouldn’t jump as high, or I’d have less lateral movement.”

Surgery was successful, and with just weeks remaining in the academic semester, Ford went back home to St. Petersburg, FL, to be around family. He was restricted to resting. The scar from surgery had to heal. When he’d get restless, Mom would remind him: Be patient. Take advantage of this redshirt year to make a full recovery.

When he returned to Northeastern in January, rehab began. Manual treatment, massages, icing and heat—all this, before he could begin physical activity. It took him about a month to walk without assistance—or pain.

By early June 2014, Ford was cleared to resume official workouts. Finally, basketball. Now began the real challenge: getting his game back. “I started in July, and slowly got myself into pickup, and contact. In May and June, I was just trying to get my game back. I began to feel great, like I was growing stronger.”

Then came the first game of ’14-15, against Boston University. Ford remembers air-balling his first shot attempt. “It was just so different, trying to get into the flow of the game, from practice,” Ford says. “I was upset about it at halftime, but my teammates told me to just calm down.”

Ford had big expectations, but his mom’s advice rang true. He had to be patient, and let his body catch up. “And my play got better throughout the season,” Ford says. Certainly did: Ford finished the season as his all-purpose self. Third on NU in points (10.4) and rebounds (5.4), second in assists (3.2), blocks (1.1) and steals (1.0).

The Huskies earned a Round of 64 matchup with 3-seeded Notre Dame, and came within a whisker of shocking the Irish, who finished up in the Elite Eight. The momentum has carried over to the offseason. Though senior leader and double-double machine Scott Eatherton has graduated, four starters are back, including a core that has played together for at least two seasons.

That means relentless work this summer: anticipation can be such an adrenaline kick. Ford details 6 a.m. wake ups and workouts. Then, back to the gym to get extra shots up on the gun. He still does rehab, seeking to strengthen his back muscles. That was one of the first things Ford and the NU training staff concentrated upon, post-surgery.

Now, his core strengthening is more nuanced, the workouts more core-engaged, to increase his flexibility and alleviate stress from his back. “There’s a lot of stretching involved,” Ford says. “It’s really helped. I’m feeling a lot better.”

He has come a long way. There’s the natural progression of a player in college: as a freshman, Ford was a role player. He came in and rebounded, played good defense, shot if he was wide open.

“Now, my role has increased to where I can do a little of everything,” he says. Sometimes, that means channeling the offensive ethos of Mo Speights, another St. Petersburg native.

He poured in Mo’ Buckets at the conference tournament last season. He’ll take on the role of leader for NU this season—particularly for his younger brother, Sajon, a 6-11 Huskies freshman forward.

Couldn’t ask for a better role model.

Photos courtesy of Northeastern Athletics

The post Just Wait On It appeared first on SLAM.

There was a point, early on in high school, when Janning was deciding between basketball and running in college. She had a good case for both: she was all-state in cross country, and won state titles in the 300-meter hurdles and 4×800-meter relay.

But in her sophomore year at Watertown-Mayer High, in Minnesota, she decided on hoops. By March of her junior year, she’d committed to Creighton. When the curtain closed on her prep career, she had 3,587 points, and 458 threes, to her name.

She’s kept up with the running, though, and it remains a key element in her success on the hardwood. She runs defenders ragged, in Creighton’s motion offense. Add in some serious skill, and there’s a recipe for the reason Janning was named 2013-14 Big East Player of the Year, and First-Team All-Conference a season ago.

Then, the drive. When we were younger, in our old house in Watertown, my dad and I would play two-on-one against Matt.

That is a reference to Matt Janning, Marissa’s older brother by five years, who starred at Northeastern. She has called him her role model. When he was home from school, he became a workout buddy. While they cycled through drills, Matt would offer tips, ranging from the importance of nutrition at the next level; the best ways to exploit seams in certain defenses.

Matt, who has played the past few seasons in Europe, will often stay up to watch his sister’s Creighton games. The next day, Janning will get a text message—either from Matt, or from her dad, acting as conduit—offering thoughts on her performance.

“I really value his opinion,” says Janning. “We’re a lot alike as players, although my dad says sometimes my shot is better. I have more quickness at 5-8—but at 6-5, which isn’t big for a guard, Matt has this ability to always beat defenders. He’s so smart with his movement. I really learn from that.”

Both Jannings enjoyed success while flying under the radar of opposing defenses as freshmen. As sophomores, they blew up. Marissa, nabbing that Big East POTY; Matt, dropping 29 on the road at UConn. (He finished as the fourth-best scorer in Northeastern history.)

Defenses started keying on them, “and that’s why I can turn to him now,” says Janning. “When I face a certain defense, Matt gives me pointers on how to beat it, based on how he’d dealt with it himself. It’s kind of like cheating, having someone so close to you who’s got that first-hand knowledge.”

This past season, in addition to her first-team all-league honor, Janning earned the Big East’s Sportsmanship Award. Since she can remember, her dad and her brother taught her to respect the game.

When you’re subbed out, don’t walk—run off the court. This is a game, and you’re competing, but show respect to your opponent. When another player falls, Janning helps her up. If she fouls someone, she brushes her off. After games, she’ll often stay late, signing posters for young fans. This is how days are made.

Like the rest of the Bluejays, she is involved in the local community. Janning says a highlight has been working with Abide, a non-profit in the northern section of Omaha, NE. This past summer, Janning worked as a counselor in a basketball camp done with the group.

Here were kids who’d never had this kind of opportunity. Here was Janning teaching, having a blast. “I couldn’t imagine what these kids have gone through,” says Janning, “and then to see them light up, to see how much fun they were having, was awesome.” A particular highlight: learning from those campers how to bust the Nae Nae.

***

“We lost a lot of production (from the 2013-14 team),” says Creighton head coach Jim Flanery, beginning his assessment of Janning’s play last season.

“Obviously, Marissa felt a reasonable degree of pressure to produce, at an even higher level, because of that. And she did a really good job. Not only did she have a bullseye on her back, and the weight of expectations, but her role changed as the season progressed.”

Early on last season, Flanery and his staff were comfortable with Janning forcing the issue at times. With so much inexperience around her, it was often the best option.

That Janning was able to maintain her production while leading such a young team speaks to her ability. Now, that young core has experience. Janning remembers a pivotal moment last November, at South Dakota State. Four Bluejays fouled out, including Janning.

With the game on the line, the Creighton youngsters held on for a really good win on the road. “Our biggest thing this season is how deep we are, she says. “I’m really excited to see what we can do with our different lineups.”

Nine of the 14 players on Creighton’s roster this season are underclassmen. “But I don’t feel we’re young,” says Flanery. “Our sophomores have had great experience. This year, we have fewer question marks around Marissa. That will allow her to be more comfortable, and she’ll be able to tighten up her game and be more efficient.”

Working with her dad and brother during the summer, Janning parsed through shot selection: the best ways to attack when aggressive closeouts push her off the line. Finishing better around the rim. Continuing to get stronger with her right hand.

Last season, she shifted between running point and playing off the ball. While Flanery says Janning is a good passer, and reads defenses well, he feels she’s better on the wing. That is, after all, when all that running can be used most effectively.

“I always say she’s as fit as any player I’ve coached,” says Flanery. Her greatest attributes are her movement off the ball, and her three-point shooting. (Janning has hit 221 threes in her DI career, at a 37 percent clip.)

Flanery and his staff have charted Janning’s scoring efficiency, down to baskets after she receives the ball on the right side of the perimeter, and takes two dribbles to her left before releasing a jumper. An analysis Flanery settled upon: more threes.

“Her three- and two-point percentage have been very similar throughout her career,” says Flanery. “She’s very good at getting to the line, and she’s a tremendous free-throw shooter, so we’d like her to juggle between taking threes and, when she drives, getting to the rim, drawing contact and converting free throws.”

Sometimes in practice, Flanery will limit the number of dribbles Janning can take. Here, Janning learns that if she can’t make a move quickly, it’s best to give the ball up, reset, and make that defender run more. “Marissa becomes inefficient when she holds the ball,” says Flanery. “She’s at her best when she’s decisive with her action.”

Janning has embraced the challenge. She’s a competitor, as evidenced by her approach to defense. Nothing gets her adrenaline pumping like hearing, during the scout, that she’ll be guarding the opponent’s best perimeter scorer.

Even when she struggles scoring the ball, Flanery keeps her in the game. She’s the best of the Bluejays at staying in front of her mark. Shooters keep shooting; Janning knows great players keep grinding. They find a way, any way, to impact the game and help a team win.

***

She still remembers the thought process for picking a college. Briefly considering staying close to home, before the decision to branch out. Then, the visit to this Jesuit school in Omaha. Janning and her dad had taken a quick tour of Midwest colleges, and Creighton was second on the list.

When they got to campus, Janning was immediately greeted by the coaches. Nice touch, but a standard one with nearly every college. “But then they told me to come and watch a practice,” says Janning. She loved the motion sets. She knew that with her fitness, she could thrive.

Now, she enjoys hosting recruits. She wants to tell them about the tradition, and the respect Flanery gives his players. “We don’t have problems here. Flan knows that we have other things than basketball in our lives—well, I’m usually in the gym every day, anyway,” Janning says, with a laugh, before continuing:

“But ball isn’t life for everyone, and I think that’s what I respect most about Flan. You can talk to our coaches in person or on the phone about anything. And I think that’s what came across the most during my own visit. I just felt comfortable here.”

Now, the final year. What Janning said about the basketball team rings true about the academic staff, too. Take Tim Bastian, economics professor. “He’s helped me out with my resume,” says Janning, a marketing and entrepreneurship major. “His office hours revolve around his students. If I need help, when I’m coming back from a road trip, he’ll come into his office and we’ll get the work done. You don’t find that very often.”

Same goes for the feel of this program. Special player at a special place. Should be a special end to a tremendous career.

Top photo courtesy of Steve Branscombe. Second photo courtesy of Mark Kuhlmann.

The post She Fly appeared first on SLAM.

The Stony Brook senior is the two-time America East Conference Player of the Year. This past season, he was named conference player of the week eight times, including four in a row. He led the nation in double-doubles. Twenty-four in 35 games in ’14-15. This, while facing double- and triple-teams. He’s helped amass 71 wins in three seasons. Some kinda tune.

So, how does Stony Brook coach Steve Pikiell begin his assessment of his 6-8, 240-pound senior forward?

In fits and starts. “Jameel is one of the best…he’s the best…,” Pikiell says, before saying, simply, “I love the kid.”

Pikiell played for Jim Calhoun at UConn, and he’s coached long enough to have an accurate pulse on the collegiate game. He can say, unequivocally, that Warney would be a star at any program in the country. What makes him special, and an outlier in this transfer-crazed age, is that he’s chosen to begin, and end, his outsized career at a program deemed “mid-major.” Forget that tired term. This was the right fit.

Pikiell was one of the first coaches to begin recruiting Warney, who starred at Roselle Catholic in New Jersey. A relationship was forged, which became important in the summer before Warney’s senior year of high school.

After an AAU game that July, a tweet went out: Warney just offered by (BCS conference program). The news went viral. Schools swarmed to his next game. Says Pikiell, “That’s recruiting these days. Jameel went from having five teams recruiting him to having 150.”

It was here that Warney displayed a slice of the loyalty that defines him. The attention from all these schools was nice, but it barely made a ripple in his decision process. Within weeks, he’d committed to Stony Brook, and he stuck with it.

“A lot of kids pick the highest level,” Pikiell says. “Jameel picked the right place.”

His greatest attributes? Warney feels it’s a tie between rebounding and passing. (He dropped over 2 assists a game last season.) The latter skill is something he’s always had in his locker, and it might just help him land a roster spot on an NBA team next fall.

“Every year, there’s a smaller power forward that gets drafted, and finds a way to make his skill set work in the NBA,” says Warney. He used to watch DeJuan Blair, when he played for the Spurs, and he’s a big Draymond Green fan. “Got robbed for Defensive Player of the Year,” Warney says.

Pikiell takes it a step further. “He’s got unbelievable hands—that’s the first thing that jumps off the page. He might be the best passing big guy in the country. It’s like Checkers with him—he can read double teams and make the right pass. A lot of big guys can’t pass. He wants to pass.”

He’s a leader now: a kid who went from barely talking as a freshman on a veteran-laden team, to a captain in ’14-15. “That was an honor,” he says.

It’s been a great summer—the obvious highlight a team trip to Italy and Germany. The chemistry is humming. All five starters are back, and impact transfers Lucas Woodhouse (fifth in DI in assists in ’13-14) and Ahmad Walker join the core.

Warney could become the third player in America East history to win conference player of the year three times. Even if he doesn’t get it, there’s good company in the conference’s two-time POTY category. See: Malik Rose of Drexel, a 6-7 backboard-shattering ram of a forward who carved out a pretty nice career for himself in the NBA.

https://youtu.be/ryszvFn0AgA

Warney’s long since eclipsed the program blocks record, and is on pace to finish first in points and rebounds. He’ll graduate in December. He’s become the face of the program, a reason Stony Brook was able to pack 2,785 fans into their newly renovated arena last season.

He keeps picking pieces from players he admires. He’s a huge Celtics fan, and loved following the Big Three last decade. He saw the way different personalities and skill sets morphed into a title-winning team. KG’s intensity, Ray Allen’s deadeye shooting and drive, Paul Pierce’s leadership and scoring savvy. Leon Powe and Glen Davis: both undersized, highly skilled, forwards.

Powe and Davis are what Pikiell calls “find guys.” Many wouldn’t have predicted NBA careers for them, but they made a mark because of uncommon skill sets. “I look at a team like the Spurs,” says Pikiell. “They always get guys like Warney, and I think, maybe this is one of the reasons they’re so good.”

During that tour of Europe, Pikiell watched teams drool over Warney. In ’15-16, he’ll watch college coaches wring their hands trying to contain him.

“I haven’t had one issue with him,” Pikiell says of his star. “I’ve been around a lot of great players, and there’s always something. Jameel has been a dream.”

Photos courtesy of Stony Brook Athletics

The post The Right Place appeared first on SLAM.

Nicole Seekamp, star of the South Dakota women’s basketball team, had just been named the Summit League tournament MVP—the second time she’d received that honor, despite losing in the tourney’s championship game. That mattered little, now. Seekamp thought her collegiate career would end without a second trip to the Big Dance.

Even though she had only played three seasons of college basketball, Seekamp was listed as a senior. After participating in organized amateur competition in Australia, following her high school graduation, the NCAA had docked her a year of eligibility, and forced her to sit out a year before she could play for South Dakota. You know. Logic.

So this loss rankled a bit—that it came to South Dakota State, USD’s fierce in-state rival, was more salt in the wound. Seekamp says she still gets mad when she thinks about it. The Coyotes (pronounced ki-YOATS) hadn’t played to the potential that had seen them crowned regular-season conference champs.

“And I wasn’t ready to make real-life decisions,” Seekamp says, before waiting a beat and chuckling. “Just kidding.” She wanted a final “final” season, so after USD bowed out in second round of the Women’s NIT, Seekamp and the USD compliance office launched a concerted appeal of the NCAA’s initial decision. The university submitted a waiver, and in mid-April, it was approved by the NCAA—on condition that Seekamp serve a two-game “withholding” at the start of the upcoming campaign.

The news rifled through the state, and galvanized the fanbase. Not only was one of the country’s best players coming back, she was doing so with a competitive edge chiseled from unfinished business. South Dakota’s athletic director, David Herbster, attested to this once the ruling was announced. The school moved forward with its appeal for one big reason: Seekamp really, really wanted to make this final season count.

***

Seekamp has excelled ever since she stepped onto the court for USD. Two-time First Team All-Summit League (she was named honorable mention as a redshirt-frosh), three-time all-tournament team, and those two tourney MVP’s in tow. Three times named to the conference commissioner’s List of Academic Excellence.

Versatility is her calling card. It accentuates heavy helpings of skill, and an incredible capacity to step up her game in the biggest moments. Like at the 2014 NCAA Tournament, when USD faced No. 2-seeded Stanford, an eventual Final Four team, and Seekamp dropped 22 points on 9-13 shooting.

In ’14-15, she started 34 games, and finished with 15.6 points, 5.1 assists, 3.6 rebounds and 1.6 steals—in just 28.8 minutes per game. Had her career ended last March, her final contribution would have been a long, last-second jumper, in that 59-58 loss to Northern Colorado in the WNIT, ruled a two, instead of a three.

Amy Williams, USD’s head coach, didn’t recruit Seekamp, but since she took over in 2012, the Aussie has been on each of her teams. Williams can’t think of a more versatile player she’s coached. “She is a true point guard, and she’s kind of a different weapon at that position,” says Williams. “She can shoot the three, attack the basket, post up smaller guards—or go with her mid-range game, which is what I think sets her apart. She’s played minutes at the 1, 2, 3 and 4 for us. She just makes special plays at both ends.”

She’s not the most dominant athlete, but she’s efficient with what she has. That’s a standard take on Seekamp, who in a vintage display of humility, readily agrees with the assessment. “I don’t have the athleticism of some of these girls I’m playing against,” she says, “but in Australia, we find something that gives us an edge. For me, it’s my IQ.” From the time she was 10, Seekamp has been running pro-level drills. At the heralded Australian Institute of Sport, she played against older competition.

There is also a background in netball—think, hoops without dribbling or backboards—which helped hone her decision-making (by the way, she posted a 2.01 assist-to-turnover ratio for USD in ’14-15), but put simply, Seekamp has been balling since she was 5. She’s just got game.

Within her first few weeks of working with Seekamp, three years ago, Willians noticed when she’d sidle over to give pointers during practice, Seekamp could already finish her sentences. An intuition that sparks like a light switch, and it will come in handy in ’15-16, when USD cycles seven newcomers—five freshmen, two transfers—into the lineup.

This is yet another reason why Seekamp’s extra final season of eligibility could prove vital. “With Nicole, it’s like having an extra coach,” says Williams. “This summer, when we’ve put in something new during practice, she’ll take the new kids under her wing, and give them pointers. Nicole has a shot at the program’s all-time scoring record, but some of our coaches say that the newcomers will be the biggest benefactors of this extra year.”

***

Several captaincies of youth Australia national teams, and this stirring success at South Dakota. From her mom and brother, Seekamp got her game. From pops: ebullience. When she gets the chance to walk about Vermillion, site of USD’s campus, she’ll stop and chat with locals. That’s one of the things she loves most about this place. The laid-back nature reminds her of home.

Makes sense, in a way. Just as the name Vermillion evokes the red of the Coyotes’ uniforms, Seekamp’s South Australia home of Renmark is derived from an aboriginal word for “red mud.” Something about this pairing of player to place has always fit. Something about this final year of eligibility, too.

As they handle the hype, the Coyotes will stick to the program motto. GRITT: Greatness Resides In Toughness Together. “That’s our slogan for this year,” says Williams. “We want to be the hardest-working team. We’re not afraid to get down and dirty.”

And should a rematch occur with South Dakota State, in a championship setting next March? Seekamp gives another chuckle. She’s heard some wild stories about this rivalry, from years past. In one of the games she played in, she some SDSU fans shouted that she should get put on a boat and sent back across the Pacific.

Seekamp couldn’t help but give a little laugh. Then, she kept playing. And doesn’t she do it well.

Photos courtesy of South Dakota Athletics.

The post Redemption Song appeared first on SLAM.

During practice the previous Saturday, the 6-2 Freeman, then a junior, had landed awkwardly upon a teammate’s foot. As his teammates shifted to the other end of the court, to allow the trainer to attend to him, he feared he’d broken something. Later, he could barely put enough weight on the joint to hobble across the street to get back to his room. He feared his season was over, and he broke down.

It was revealed to be a sprained ankle. Old Dominion’s next game was on Monday, against Illinois State in the NIT. Luckily, Freeman’s family lives a 30-minute drive from the Norfolk, VA, campus. This had been a big reason why Freeman decided to transfer to Old Dominion in 2013. His mother had become very sick, and after playing his first two seasons at Campbell University, in North Carolina, Freeman wanted to be closer to home.

Now, Freeman phoned his mom about his dodgy ankle, and she came up to campus, a rehabilitation concoction in tow. “She did this thing with vinegar, and she wrapped it up in a brown paper bag, and put it on my foot. It took out a lot of the stiffness and pain,” says Freeman. He woke up the next day, and made another phone call, this time to his head coach, Jeff Jones. “I told him I wasn’t finished,” says Freeman. “I’d be ready to help.”

Freeman tested his ankle the day of the Illinois State game, but it was no-go. He had a cast on for that game, but after watching his teammates book a matchup with the Racers in the next round, he settled upon an ultimatum. There was no way he was missing Wednesday’s game. So, his mom drove back up and re-produced the same ankle treatment.

On Wednesday, Freeman remained a game-time decision until several hours before tip-off. After the pre-game meal, he went through a workout under the watchful eyes of a trainer and an assistant coach. He felt good, and he told Jones he was ready to go. He started, played 36 minutes, and hit ‘that’ shot, the crowning jewel upon a 25-point performance. “Take that last shot away, and he still had a terrific game,” Jones says. (Freeman also chipped in 4 assists.) “And he wasn’t anywhere near 100 percent.”

“My ankle was bothering me, but it wasn’t nearly as bad as it had been,” says Freeman. “All I could think of was how good it felt in comparison to the initial pain. The rest was adrenaline, feeding off the moment, blocking everything out. I’ve been in worse things. This didn’t seem like much at all.”

Six days later, in the NIT semis at Madison Square Garden, Freeman started and played 33 minutes against Stanford, but the Murray State game had sapped him. He finished 6-24 from the floor in a 70-61 loss. After the season, it took about eight weeks for his ankle to fully heal.

Performing at a high level, far from full fitness. Freeman’s childhood hero would’ve approved. Freeman hails from Virginia Beach, VA, and like most of his friends at the turn of the century, he couldn’t get enough of this hard-charging, undersized Sixers scoring guard who happened to be from Hampton. The 2001 NBA Finals were a high point, Freeman watching AI help steal Game 1 from the Lakers on the Staples Center court. Then, the banter and jawing with Kobe at the end of Game 2.

“My brothers are huge Kobe fans, and I was the only one in my family rooting for AI, and it stuck with me,” Freeman says. And Kobe? “I respect him, and I realize how great he is, but I wasn’t a big fan.”

Growing up, Freeman played baseball and football in addition to basketball, but he only began to seriously pursue hoops in high school. There began the forging of a game that was an amalgamation of his favorite influences. Scoring: bits of Iverson and McGrady. But Freeman grew captivated by point guards. The way they dictated the pace of play, had the game wound ‘round their fingers.

“I used to watch Chris Paul a whole lot—I really liked the way he got teammates involved, and made them better,” Freeman says. “Deron Williams with the Jazz, but also Steve Francis, Baron Davis, Steph Marbury. I liked the athletic point guards.”

Freeman starred at Kellam High, and was three times named team MVP. Midway through his junior season, with the help of an older brother, he revamped his jump shot. He’d had a little hitch in it, which had affected his range. Freeman can still recall that first game with the new shot. He felt off, and he reverted a few times to his old habits. He asked his other older brother after: Notice anything different?

The answer? “No.” But Freeman kept working on his form, and through constant repetition and video analysis, the he smoothed out the kinks.

The shot began to feel smooth at full speed. In the regional playoffs that season, Freeman dropped 26 points.

That summer, he played for Boo Williams’ AAU B Team. That helped him earn his lone scholarship offer, to Campbell. In his first year in Buies Creek, NC, Freeman battled homesickness, but he fought through, in large part by making a sanctuary of the gym.

He knew a lot of great players back home hadn’t gotten the same chance. It would be a disservice not to give his all here. “Basketball is basketball, regardless of where you go,” says Campbell. “The gym was my comfort zone.”

Asked to describe Freeman’s style, Jones refrains from “unique,” but he does attest to its rarity. That hitch in the shot forced Freeman to develop a mid-range game, something he still uses to dangerous effect.

“He’s so strong and balanced, and he has that high release on his shot,” Jones says. “And that mid-range game makes him special. Not a lot of kids in college can do that.”

Last season, for the Monarchs, Freeman posted 16.9 points, and went 44 percent from the field, 35 percent from three.

***

When Freeman is asked what sets him apart as a player, he pauses for a moment in reflection.

“If people tell me I can’t do something, it motivates me. I head to the gym. If I don’t do a drill right, or if I don’t make enough shots in the allotted time, I’ll come back in the gym. That’s what my brother always taught me. You can do anything, if just keep pushing. Nothing worthwhile was built in one day. You’re not supposed to be good at something the first time. It takes time. So, in games, if things aren’t going my way, I think of all the hours I’ve put in, and that allows me to be tough. If I miss a shot, I won’t second-guess myself. I stay aggressive.”

In high school, Freeman’s head coach honed his star’s competitive edge. During scrimmages, he’d pit Freeman against the other four starters, and see how far he’d go to win. Freeman’s two older brothers, Adrian and Aric, would beat up on him in one-on-one, forcing him to play physically. His dad instilled a sense of pride in working hard.

“If I was doing a warm-up run, he’d get mad if I didn’t give it my all,” says Freeman. “He told me that as long as I go all out, that’s the best I can do. Some guys, they won’t go all out, so that’s why I end up first.”

Jones has enjoyed working with a player filled with Kobe’s competitive edge. But what sets Freeman apart is the way he showcases that drive.

“A lot of times, when people talk about ultra-competitive players, they’re kind of quiet, withdrawn, angry or very serious,” says Jones. “Trey just loves playing. He’s smiling, talking to teammates, having a great time. Yet he’s so competitive. This summer, our strength coach had the team playing sand volleyball with a heavy ball—Trey’s trying to win that. The other day, our baseball coach threw batting practice, so our guys could play home run derby. Trey wanted to win that. You see him smiling while he does it, and that attitude rubs off.”

A standard day this summer has entailed a morning workout before class (Freeman is pursuing a master’s degree in sport management), then a lift session after lunch. He’ll shoot for a bit after lifting, then take a break before returning to the gym for a night workout around 8 or 9 o’clock. His brother Adrian drives up to rebound for him. Sometimes, they’ll stay until Freeman hits 1,000 shots.

Jones has talked to his senior guard about taking the next step in his ability to run point. Navigating on-ball screens at the top of the key, figuring out when to distribute to teammates. Once more, Freeman cues up footage of Chris Paul and Deron Williams, masters of that motion. Jones has talked to him about finishing his drives—going up off one foot, shielding his body against bigs. Another wrinkle to his already formidable offensive arsenal.

“If you ask him where he’s the happiest, it would be out there on the floor,” says Jones. “Doesn’t matter whether it’s a game, or 10 or 11 o’clock at night and he’s shooting on the gun in the practice gym alone. He just loves being in there. He’ll bring me the printout of his workouts, tell me, ‘Hey coach, I just got 1,500 shots up, and I hit 71 percent.’ He’s always competing, even against a machine. That makes him pretty unique.”

When Jones speaks to SLAM, it’s a Thursday morning, during a break of team camp. Freeman is one of the counselors that week, and his ebullient self is perfect for this type of setting. Who better to instill a passion for the game, and the steadfast dedication required to reaching the highest levels?

A quick question to Jones, about the upcoming season. The response: “It’ll be interesting.”

Same goes for watching one of college basketball’s foremost technicians.

Image courtesy of Old Dominion Athletics

The post Give It All appeared first on SLAM.

You’re not a freshman anymore.

If you’re going to run point, you need to play like you’re older. Hardwood adage, old as peach buckets in a Springfield, MA, gym. “There was a lot of pressure, but it helped me build the skills you need to play at this level,” Rodriguez says over the phone on a morning in late July. “It’s made it so much easier for me today.”

One game from that season now shines with particular resonance.

In the WNIT third round, the Utes hosted the University of Pacific, and escaped with a 60-55 overtime win. This past April, Lynne Roberts, the coach of those Tigers, was named the fifth coach in Utah women’s basketball history.

When she is asked about that game, Roberts remembers the 49 points and 32 rebounds produced by Utes forwards Michelle Plouffe and Taryn Wicijowski. She can still provide a vivid rundown of the final moments.

“We had a two-point lead with the ball and 10 seconds to go in regulation. They foul our best shooter, and she goes to shoot two at the line. I’m thinking we’ll win. Then she misses the front end, but she hits the second and we’re up by three. Utah is out of timeouts, and they had one play for late-game situations. We’d gone over it, we knew to switch out on Plouffe, but we didn’t switch, and she hit the three to send it to OT. The rest is history. To say that game still bugs me is an understatement.”

Rodriguez recalls the pace and the fury of a top-tier Division I playoff setting. Little scuffles, non-stop effort. “The one thing I took away [from playing a Lynne Roberts-coached team] is that these girls work hard. Her team had a lot of fight,” says Rodriguez.

The 5-10 incoming senior point guard now has 95 starts under her belt. This past season, she once more flexed her all-purpose brand of production, averaging 8.6 points, 3.6 assists, 3.1 rebounds and shades under a block—and over a steal—per game. Her 316 assists currently rank 10th all time in program history.

Speaking of history. Utah is one of the proudest women’s basketball programs in the country. Despite a 21-40 record these past two injury-scuppered seasons, the Utes’ all-time record rests at 846-385 (.687). It’s a big reason Roberts picked this place. She knows the potential, and she believes in the talent on hand.

Beginning with a talented point guard who simply can’t stop moving.

***

It’s a whirlwind.

That’s the phrase Roberts has settled upon when asked to describe this summer to date. (She’s been asked it a lot.) “This is the third time I’ve done this, taking over a program,” she says, referring to her stints at Chico State and Pacific. “When I got to Pacific, our RPI was 342 out of 346 teams in DI. It had been at the bottom for a long time. This is a much better situation, coming in, than it was at Pacific, but we’ll use the same approach to build.”

At Chico State, her first head coaching job, Roberts led the Wildcats to the postseason in each of her four seasons. Her final campaign, they went to the DII Final Four. Upon hiring her to Pacific, then-athletic director Lynn King hailed her as a program builder who practiced an exciting brand of basketball. Those words proved prescient. In her final four seasons at Pacific, Roberts’s teams won 84 games and punched consecutive post-season tickets.

In the returning Utah players, Roberts sensed a group tired of an ongoing narrative they can’t seem to shake. Following the promise of ‘12-13, injuries have continued to puncture hope. After Wicijowski was sidelined for ‘13-14, five key contributors missed extended lengths of time this past campaign. In early April, head coach Anthony Levrets was let go.

That was a difficult decision to take. Rodriguez had formed strong relationships with each of the departed coaches. During her final year of high school, someone would check in at least once a week to catch up. It had been Rodriguez’s dream to play in the Pac-12, but during recruiting, she learned she was the second or third option at point guard on many schools’ lists. Levrets told her from the outset that she was their first pick at point.

“It was really tough to say goodbye,” says Rodriguez, “but they say change is good, and as tough as it is, I’m looking forward to the coaching staff I have now.”

Roberts is a firm believer in the adage, “whatever you focus upon gets bigger.” So, neither she nor her staff has brought up the injuries. Onwards and upwards. Though college coaches are only allowed limited access to their teams during the summer—two hours of individual attention a week, for six weeks—already, Rodriguez has found their enthusiasm infectious.

“You’d think we were rebuilding, but we have so much talent; we just need to be steered in the right direction,” says Rodriguez. “It’s exciting. We can have a really good season.”

Perhaps the most exciting result of Roberts’s arrival is the implementation of her system. Pedal to the medal tempo, an offense—often four out—keyed by great guard play. Good passers, strong drivers. Skill is paramount, and that’s music to Rodriguez’s ears. During pick-up games this summer, she’s been wheeling and dealing to her heart’s content.

“I’ve always loved getting up and down,” says Rodriguez. “I have great endurance, so while other girls get tired, I could forever.” A cadre of good guards—including Paige Crozon and Katie Kuklok, both now back from injury, will be on the wings. Emily Potter, a 6-5 post who was primed for a huge season in ‘14-15 before tearing one of her anterior cruciate ligaments, loves running the floor. In Roberts’s final season at Pacific, she coached another elite forward. Kendall Kenyon averaged a double-double in ‘14-15. Potter could soon post similar production.

Endurance is something Rodriguez has always done well. At Warren High, in her hometown of Downey, CA, Rodriguez ran a 4:54 mile in track. As a sophomore at Utah, she played all 50 minutes of a double-overtime win against archrival BYU. Which feat was more difficult?

Good question, Rodriguez says, before settling upon the perfect answer: “It’s a different kind of toughness. A mile…you’re out there by yourself. It’s individual mental toughness, you’ve got to fight it out. Going 50 minutes against BYU, you’ve got teammates and coaches pushing you. Compared to the mile, it’s 45 more minutes of running up and down. But with the adrenaline of both, you don’t think about it ‘til that last buzzer sounds. Your body stops, and you go, WOW.”

Levrets stressed character in the players he recruited. Good students, with activity engrained. At Downey High, Rodriguez was student body president, and played three sports. In the fall of her senior year, after three years of running cross country, she took up volleyball.

This past December, Rodriguez was nominated for the Allstate Good Works Team, which honors collegiate student-athletes who give back to the community. Utah posted a press release announcing the nomination, and listed some of Rodriguez’s charitable works. High school to college, the list grew quite lengthy. Rodriguez began volunteering in middle school, through the encouragement of her parents. She worked with kids in an after-school program, and found that she loved it. Helping people, making a difference. She’s done it ever since.

“I’m so blessed with the life I’ve been given,” says Rodriguez. “Others aren’t as lucky. Giving back in some way is satisfying.”

One of her latest projects is a dog-walking service for the elderly and infirm in Salt Lake City. Rodriguez had the idea of doing something different, and she stumbled upon this idea one day while searching online. It’s not so much a problem during winter months at home in sunny SoCal, but Rodriguez realized there was more of a market on the sleety streets near campus. “I love dogs, and here, you get to be with animals,” Rodriguez says. “It’s great. During the season, it’s hard to keep volunteering, but it’s easier in the summer. If I can do one thing a month, it makes me happy.”

***

In Rodriguez, one of two seniors on this season’s Utah roster, Roberts sees a leader. It’s something that’s been building since the thrown-into-the-fire narrative of her freshman year. Admittedly quiet then, Rodriguez credits the former coaching staff with helping push her to become more comfortable speaking her mind on and off the court.

Now, when Roberts needs to schedule a team meeting, or impart a quick message to her players, she texts Dani.

“She’s the leader in that sense,” says Roberts, “and she’s done a great job with that. She’s a really quality person—I don’t know how else to say it. She genuinely cares about other people, and wants to do right. That’s all you can ask for as a coach.”

This summer, Rodriguez has worked on her shooting. Being a bit more consistent, a bit quicker with her release. She wants to be more aggressive in transition.

“As she goes, we’ll go,” says Roberts. “She’ll enjoy playing more up-tempo, to her strengths. She’s got wheels, and she’s done a really nice job in the weight room. She’s improved in all her maxes this summer. I always tell my seniors, my goal is for them to have a great senior year. You remember that year the most. So, this is really ‘her’ year.”

Asked about her point guard’s potential, Roberts rattles off a response. Dani? All-conference type player.

“I really think so,” says Roberts. “We need to put her in a position to play to her potential and her strengths as much as possible this season. She needs to be confident. Whether she needs to score 20 points or 7 a night—I don’t know yet. That’s part of the work in progress.”

This season could be viewed as exactly that.

Work in progress.

But Rodriguez and Roberts might be on to something, when they say that Utah could make some noise in ‘15-16. You need a leader who understands the vision.

That’s Dani. Whom better to shepherd this program toward a brighter future?

Image courtesy of Utah Athletics

The post More Than Ready appeared first on SLAM.

Fast-forward a few years, and Zikiteran Woodley, now simply known as “Zeek”, is a rim-rattling 6-2 junior guard for Northwestern State. His 22.2 points led the Southland Conference last season and finished fifth best in all DI. Some compare him to Charles Barkley, the mix of power with (maybe) a little better perimeter shooting.

Like Sir Charles in his prime, Woodley is a unique force—a hybrid guard/forward who can quickly enter the realm of the devastating. When he doused McNeese State for 34 points last March, the Cowboys head coach called him unstoppable.

Woodley has a running mate in the Demons backcourt by the name of Jalan West. In that same game against McNeese State, West scored 24 points (all in the second half) and chipped in a tidy 12 assists. It was the 11th double-double of his career. He is 5-10. Woodley and West finished a combined 23-29 from the floor, including 16-17 in that dizzying second half.

Some kinda unstoppable.

It is these types of performances that lend credence to the belief that these two guards might just form the best backcourt in the country. They have certainly been big reasons behind Northwestern State’s recent offensive pyrotechnics. In 2012-13 and ‘13-14, the Demons finished second in the country in scoring before taking top spot in DI last season at a tidy 84 points per game.

Some critics look at the beefed-up production, both individual and team, and cry foul. It’s simply the byproduct of an up-tempo system. What they fail to take into account is the incredible skill, and fastidious effort, that produces these results. Take West and Woodley, who partake in endless games of one-on-one, or cutthroat, or H-O-R-S-E. If Woodley sees West hit a crazy trick shot, he’ll head to the gym to the next day set about mastering it. “We just like to compete against each other and have fun,” says West.

They apply them to games, like the one last February against New Orleans. NSU trailed by 14 early; then, West hit an improbable 53-footer at the halftime buzzer. A furious Demons comeback saw the game tied at 84 with just seconds to play. West got the ball, and calmly hit a fadeaway 27-footer to seal the dub.

“They are special, but both of them have one trait that’s unique—they’re gym rats,” says NSU head coach Mike McConathy. “Jalan has practiced those shots he made in that (New Orleans) game. A gym rat has created that type of situation in their minds, when they’re competing against themselves. It’s just an artist working on a picture, or a writer fleshing out a story. There’s so much work that goes into the final product, and I don’t think people think of it in that light. So when they hit these types of shots, it’s almost deja vu. They’ve already created that moment in their minds.”

Last season, West averaged 20 points, 7.7 assists and 2.5 steals. As a sophomore, he became the first player since Speedy Claxton for Hofstra (and that was ‘99-00) to average at least 19 points, 6 assists, 4 rebounds and 2.5 steals.

Come next March, it’ll have been three years since his last NCAA Tournament appearance. West wants another one before he leaves Natchitoches.

***

How did the big schools miss them?

That’s the question that plagues this age, when transfer rates keep rising and major levels of production by a player for a team not deemed “high-major” draws stares.

Why aren’t they playing for, like, Kansas?

The answer is this: West and Woodley are throwbacks, in a wonderful sense of the word.

During his 16-year turn at Bossier Parish CC, McConathy coached West’s uncle, Terry. Terry told his nephew that if he attended NSU, he’d have a father figure in addition to a coach. When schools backed off West late on the recruiting trail due to academics, Northwestern State stuck in and offered him the chance to take a redshirt year as a freshman.

Perhaps the biggest factor: Both players came from communities in Louisiana in which they felt cared for. At Northwestern State, that support system is recreated. “A lot of times, we don’t place enough value upon that,” says McConathy. “Not just your immediate family or team, but having people around you that want you to be successful.”

It is a calling card of this program, which permeates both coach and player. When Woodley starred as a senior at Pelican All-Saints High, West, then a redshirt-freshman at NSU, came to watch his games. They’d speak afterward, and West kept his message succinct: He really wanted Woodley as a teammate, and he thought that Northwestern State would be the perfect place for him.

This is West, who finishes conversations with a sincere “Thank you” and “Stay blessed.”

Woodley is self-professedly quiet, and when he began at Northwestern State, it took him some time to grow into his new surroundings. But West was always near. If he wasn’t, the two would text, pinging advice back and forth.

When Woodley began his freshman season, West would talk with him before games. His message? Just play.

“I told him to take the shots he’d taken in high school—we won’t get mad,” West says. Woodley sees him as a big brother. West says he looks up to Woodley as well. “He’s got intangibles I try to add to my game,” West says. “He’s more of a brother than any teammate I’ve ever had.”

McConathy knows the formula that works for him. It helped him build a powerhouse at Bossier Parish, and it rejuvenated the Northwestern State program. When McConathy took over in Natchitoches in 1999, NSU had enjoyed just five winning seasons and no NCAA Tournament bids in its then-24 year Division I history. They’ve now enjoyed three trips to March Madness.

It attracts fans, including captivating subsets on a given night.

Take the 30 to 50 you might find at each home game, who’ve made the 40-mile drive from Pelican. Woodley’s high school was consolidated following his senior year, so now those fans travel to support their favorite son. Their Woodley-themed t-shirts pop out.

A former Pelican school counselor and her husband travel to the road games.

They see a force who continues to add elements to his game.

“A lot of teams don’t know how well Zeek can shoot the ball outside the arc. He’s one of the best shooters on the team,” says West. “He’s also very athletic and very strong. He’s like an undersized big who can play as a guard. He’s a mismatch for anyone—he can post up smaller guards, he can pull big men outside. It’s that Charles Barkley game. He can get anywhere he wants on the court.”

Woodley hearkens back to his beginnings to explain his effect.

“I can shoot it, but I think my athleticism is what makes me so successful. When I dunk, that’s when I get my team going, and the crowd jumping.”

Then he gets to talking about his brother. “Jalan can do it all,” says Woodley. “In practice, he’s blocking shots. He score whenever he wants, but he looks to get teammates involved. He makes everybody on the floor better.”

The NCAA Tournament: West wants back in. Woodley wants to experience his first. With the skill on hand, they might just get there. For now, they’ll continue to inspire a place.

“We all have good days and bad days, but every day is a good day having these kinds of kids in your program,” says McConathy.

Image courtesy of Gary Hardamon, NSU Photographic Services

The post Demon Duo appeared first on SLAM.

Alexander soon felt that same magnetic pull, and she began pursuing her state’s pastime. Only, as she watched games, she noticed something more. The way a canny cut here, or a tidy bit of footwork there, allowed the best players to thrive. It was Reggie Miller, her favorite Pacer, using his body to exploit every potential increment of space in order to rise up and release that inch-perfect jumper.

“Our body types are similar,” Alexander said over the phone on a Tuesday afternoon, explaining why she picked Miller as her case study for her education in hoops. “We’re not super-strong, so we have to move a lot without the ball. Reggie changed speeds so quickly. He’d sprint from one side to the next, and he always seemed to find a way to get open. I always enjoyed watching that. He had a mid-range game, and he could always hit those threes. I modeled my game on that.”

Enter endless games of one-on-one on the hoop in the family driveway with her two younger sisters. Then, Alexander would head over to the park to play pick-up. She honed her distinct offensive style, a two-pronged ability to either beat you from deep or, should a defender begin cheating, blow past you and utilize a medley of mid- to close-range shots.

Alexander never shirked the cultivation of a skill base. She hoisted all those jumpers, went through the series of dribbling drills, but she notes now that it was by applying these skills to game-type situations—all those runs in the park—that allowed her to try out what she’d worked on and, upon reflection, figure out when and where it worked best.

At Hamilton Southeastern (IN) High, Alexander played four years of varsity and ran point on one of the best teams in the state. She picked up two conference championships, including one in her senior season, when Hamilton Southeastern finished its regular season 20-0.

Despite playing a key role in so much success, and some impressive showings at various summer elite camps, Alexander didn’t get many looks from high-major colleges. This was partly due to the fact that she grew late into her current 5-10 stature. Once she did, schools began swooping in.

But Brown had been there from the beginning, and Alexander liked the perfect marriage it provided of high-competitive basketball and top-quality academics. She visited and fell in love with this school perched upon the top of a hill in Rhode Island’s capital. She committed before her senior year of high school.

“When I visited the campus, I loved the atmosphere,” said Alexander. “And with the open curriculum (a hallmark of Brown’s education for more than four decades), you can create your own degree, and try out different courses. It’s a really good experience. I thought a lot about it, and I just felt comfortable. And the degree is what matters in the end.”

Alexander had lived in the Midwest her entire life, so a culture shock was inevitable upon moving East. But she threw herself into the new. Meeting new people was exhilarating, and in her new teammates she found unconditional support.

Then came the dark. During her first two seasons at Brown, Alexander played in just 25 games. A bout of mononucleosis cut her freshman season short, then severe shin fractures ended her second campaign prematurely.

“Being away from family was hard enough, and then not having basketball, which had been my whole life for so many years, taken away…and the second year sucked,” said Alexander. “I wanted a fresh start, and then ‘that’ hits me.”

Every day, Alexander pushed through the tedium and told herself she would come back stronger for her junior season. “The mental game—that’s the biggest struggle I had,” Alexander said. So, she told herself she was starting over, and the last two years were swept away.

Then, that very spring, Sarah Behn was named Brown’s new head coach. A star at Boston College (she finished with 2,523 points, which still stands as the program record), Behn coached UMass Lowell for three seasons, shepherding them through the transition from Division II to DI ahead of ‘13-14. In their final season in DII, UMass Lowell averaged 82 points per game, playing an entertaining brand of up-tempo basketball. They pressed after made baskets, they searched for good looks on offense—preferably within the first 12 seconds of the shot clock.

When Alexander met with Behn in the spring of last year, Behn told her that she wanted the Bears to equal her previous team’s output. She wanted them to practice an entertaining brand; Behn knew from experience that it would put fans in the seats. Alexander realized this was someone who saw the game the same way. She signed on immediately. “Having Behn come in, her style and everything, it gave me more room to play how I do. It did for everyone, and that played a huge part in how the team performed last season,” Alexander said.

Twenty-nine points in the season opener, and eight games with more than 20 for Alexander before ‘14-15 was through. Her 15.0 points led Brown, and were the fifth-highest tally in the Ivy League. She slid seamlessly between perimeter positions, and used her expert conditioning to great effect. As defenses tired, Alexander’s eyes lit up. She’d drive even more. A fifth of her points last season came from the foul line. “[Coach Behn] really likes fast-pace, and we like to push,” said Alexander. “It was definitely different than my first two years here. She opened it up for us to feel free.”

Brown returns four starters from a team that went 10-18. A strong recruiting class joins that core. Behn is giddy about the prospect of depth. This offseason, she’s tasked Alexander, who was named one of three captains for this season, with becoming even more of a leader—and rediscovering her dead-eye three-point shot. (Alexander attempted just 27 treys last season.)

Music to the ears of a Reggie Miller fan.

“In high school, I used to be more of a three-point shooter, but last year I concentrated on mid-range and taking it to the hoop and finishing,” said Alexander. “But defenses really started to pack it in on me, so I need to be able to pull farther out and hit threes. This summer has been about building confidence. I’m putting up a lot of shots. I’ll be a threat from deep this season.”

Alexander has the possibility of a fifth season of eligibility, a silver lining from those abridged first two years, but the Ivy League strictly adheres to a ruling that does not allow a player to feature more than four seasons for one team in conference. That opens up the possibility of a grad transfer and immediate eligibility for another Division I team in ‘16-17, once Alexander has finished her degree in public health. “I’m considering getting my masters in that field, so I’m looking at schools where I could knock out that program during my fifth year in college,” she said. “I don’t want to be done already. I’ve played this long. I’ll be sad when it ends.”

That’s all in the future. Right now, there’s a reclamation act brewing at Brown. Behn has targeted 15 to 16 wins this season, which would put the Bears on the pedestal of a possible post-season bid. Said Behn, “We’ll keep trying to push the pedal to the medal.”

Alexander’s excellent junior season was two years in the making. It sprang from pain and disappointment, which she transformed into fuel. Now, she has a year of Behn’s new style under her belt, and all the confidence from being named Second Team All-Ivy. Add another healthy summer to the mix, and, well, some might watch a player rocking No. 13 for Brown this season and think of a certain Pacers all-time great.

Image courtesy of Brown Women’s Basketball

The post Pedal to the Medal appeared first on SLAM.

Suddenly Michaela Mabrey, a junior Notre Dame guard who harbors hopes of a career in sports broadcasting, seized an opportunity for a bit of on-air practice.

With a camera rolling, Mabrey turned to Hannah Huffman, her teammate, fellow junior and best friend, who just so happened to be the toast of Tampa on the night of April 5. After all, it had been Huffman’s heady defensive play in the game’s final moments that helped propel Notre Dame toward this celebration.

And yet, as she stood next to Mabrey, Huffman bore an expression of absolute concentration. This was an interview, after all. Serious stuff.

Then, Fighting Irish senior swingman Madison Cable popped in behind the pair for a quick photobomb.

Mabrey, unaware of Cable’s antics behind her, began. “So, Hannah, you made the game-winning stop. How do you feel right now?” Huffman paused briefly to collect a thought. Then, she burst into a little jig and belted out, “OH MY GOD!!”

Bedlam, again.

Photobombs, fun, celebrations of sterling success. There may not be a better representation of Notre Dame this past season. A group that lost two WNBA first-round draft picks, yet still managed to finish 36-3 in 2014-15. Camaraderie and sacrifice, a whole lotta skill. Those traits were as deeply enmeshed into the fabric as the famous green and gold.

And friendship. “Huff” (Huffman) and “Uncle Mike” (Mabrey), roommates who’d first met at junior nationals in Washington, DC, the summer before their senior years of high school. In one of those games, Mabrey faced Jewell Loyd. Huffman was in the stands with her parents, watching. Afterward, she met Mabrey. They talked of their excitement for what awaited them in South Bend—the chance to contend for National Titles on a yearly basis.

Then Mabrey, um, showed Huffman her tonsils. “She thought I was so weird,” Mabrey says over the phone in early May, holding back laughter that still manages to escape in stabs. “I had strep throat, and I just wanted to show her how big my tonsils were. And she still talks about it to this day.”

When reminded of this fateful meeting, Huffman expresses the exasperation that can only accompany years of friendship. Quintessential Mike. The Jersey Girl who plays with such ease, hitting threes from unconscionable distances, then dropping no-look passes. And a legit cook—just, not so much when it comes to baking. Like the time Huffman, Cable and former teammate Kayla McBride asked Mabrey to make brownies. She obliged, and followed every direction on the box…but the brownies ended up burnt. (Mabrey had figured the chocolate sauce was applied at the end.)

But back to those tonsils. Huffman remembers thinking, Who is this girl? “I was like, Yeah, those are super swollen,” Huffman says. “And Michaela goes, ‘Yeah, I can barely breath!’ Was it a normal conversation? Not really, but that’s Michaela in a nutshell. She’s just herself.”

Seems fitting that when Huffman and Mabrey got a cat this year, they named it Rascal.

This past season, the Fighting Irish stayed close, and they stayed loose—to the extent that, before one NCAA Tournament game, their team managers cast an eye around the locker room and exclaimed, Wait, you guys don’t seem very nervous.

These were proven competitors, and they always knew when to lock in. And so it had been Huffman, the super-sub, who’d made that key defensive play in the final moments of the Final Four to stymie South Carolina junior superstar Tiffany Mitchell into a shot that fell short.

As the season wore on, Notre Dame coach Muffet McGraw had become increasingly confident with handing Huffman difficult defensive assignments. She had yet to appear in the second half against the Gamecocks. But with her team up one point and in desperate need of a stop with seconds remaining, McGraw didn’t hesitate to call on her. “I trust you,” was all she needed to say.

“Hannah was huge for us,” says McGraw. “What she does doesn’t always show up in the stat sheet, but we felt really confident having her out there. She’s just such a team player. She’s never cared about anything other than helping this team succeed.”

McGraw remembers a game at Syracuse, early in the ACC season, in which Huffman posted 6 points, 6 rebounds, 2 assists and 2 steals in 19 minutes. In the NCAA Tournament, Huffman got better with each game. Against Stanford in the Sweet 16, Huffman took over. Hustle, steals, assists, layups, jumpers. All done to pinpointed perfection. When a timeout interrupted the surge, midway through the second half, her teammates raced out to engulf her.

Says Mabrey, who was one of the first off the bench, “I knew she was capable of that, and I was so happy. She was playing the way we know she can play, and seeing her parents there, able to watch her against a team like Stanford, which is right near her home, it was a special moment. She’s my best friend, and it was awesome seeing her succeed in something she’s worked toward her entire life.”

Asked afterward by reporters about her performance, Huffman said she was just happy she’d helped her team win.

This is Huffman, who has Notre Dame embedded in her bones. Her father, Lon, is a 1986 grad and a former member of the Fighting Irish golf team. “As you can imagine, my kids are brainwashed,” he says over the phone, laughing.

Growing up in Diablo, CA, Huffman never missed a Fighting Irish football game. She loved that ’05 team with Brady Quinn and Tom Zbikowski. But one of her first memories was snuggling up against her dad’s chair, watching Notre Dame win the 2001 women’s basketball championship. Even now, she can recall Ruth Riley’s heroics in those final moments against Purdue.

Predominantly a guard at Carondelet High, where she finished with a 4.2 GPA and a rep as one of the best players in California, Huffman has transitioned into a wing/post hybrid at Notre Dame. Rebounding, defense and toughness have become her calling cards. “Great teams have players like that,” says Lon. “She could have gone somewhere to jack up 25 shots a game, but that’s not at all what she wanted. It’s been tough, and it’s been good for her. Adversity makes you stronger. She understands the game better. My wife and I are so grateful she’s had this experience.”

Huffman knew she would be pushed in South Bend, and that is a principal reason why she picked it. “I give energy and try hard. I give everything,” says Huffman. “It’s not an easy role, but I control the effort I put forth. I don’t know how long I’m going in, so no matter the situation, no matter the stage, I play with energy and toughness.”

Under McGraw, the Fighting Irish run the Princeton offense with a rare blend of dynamism and incision. They score at one of the highest rates in college basketball, and this past season assisted on 60 percent of their field goals. “There’s a structure, but there’s freedom,” says Huffman. “Once you establish your role, you begin to find your niche. The one thing about the Princeton offense, it’s a thinking offense. You have to know the cuts, you have to know who’ll curl here, or flare there. I like offenses that require high basketball IQ. Notre Dame has great athletes, but we’re really smart, too.”

That’s what made this past NCAA Tournament so much fun to watch. “When you’re a role player, and you’re someone who has to add value or you’re back on the bench, it’s easy to play scared,” says Lon, who was in the stands in Oklahoma City with his wife, Kim, for that game against Stanford. “This year, Hannah figured out how to get out there and just play. That two-to-three-minute run midway through the second half against Stanford, she was the player I want to see. It was great.”

Says McGraw, “Chemistry and unselfishness: That’s exactly why we were so successful this past season. So many players put the team first. Hannah accepted her role, and played it brilliantly.”

This summer, Huffman, a finance major in Notre Dame’s Mendoza School of Business, will intern in San Francisco at Deloitte, whose CEO, Cathy Engelbert, happened to play for McGraw at Lehigh. “I know!” Huffman says, when asked about the six degrees. “I’ve got to find a way to run into her.”

From the end of May to late July, there will be workdays followed by relentless training at night. Then, this fall, the chase begins for that elusive National Championship. Is a sixth consecutive Final Four appearance in the cards, following Jewell Loyd’s decision to forgo her senior season and enter the WNBA draft?

“Every year, we’ve heard the same dialogue,” Huffman says. “We’re just focused on getting our team together. The first couple months of practice are brutal. They’re awful. But we get through them, we find out where we are and we figure it out. We’ll keep working, and we’ll get better.”

Says Mabrey, “Every year, the polls come out, and people think we’re either too high or too low. But rankings don’t matter. We know we have what it takes. We’re motivated and we’re excited.”

“This will be a very different team from the ones we’ve had,” says McGraw. “We won’t have the All-American, the top WNBA draft pick, at guard. Our strength will be in the post. We’ll be harder to guard in some ways, because we’ll have so many different weapons.”

In August, Huffman’s younger brother will head to Notre Dame to begin his freshman year. Like his sister, Joe is very, very smart. He loves this school, but after all, that runs in the family. As Lon puts it, “My favorite school is Notre Dame. My favorite team is women’s basketball. My favorite coach is Muffet McGraw.”

His favorite player? You guessed it.

Images courtesy of Matt Cashore

The post Hustle Hard appeared first on SLAM.

The 6-8, 205-pound Harvard junior was rising to the rim during a January 30 game at Princeton, when suddenly, in a flash of Jordan Xs, Okolie’s way became blocked. The Js belonged to Steven Cook, a 6-5, 185-pound Princeton sophomore from the Chicago area who was intent upon denying Okolie a bucket.

Cook met Okolie at the apex of his leap and stuffed him resoundingly.

“The biggest thing about Steve is his athleticism. He can jump out of the gym.” —TJ Bray, Princeton guard, 2010-14.

On a subsequent Princeton offensive possession, Cook used his dribble to navigate around Okolie before darting toward the basket for a left-handed layup. Cook’s next step would be with his left foot. Okolie was closing fast. Had Cook used the formula taught to every kid at skills camp—leap off your right foot, finish with your left hand—an extra step would have been necessary, giving Okolie enough time to recover and block his shot.

So, Cook read the situation and immediately rose instead off his left foot. Okolie was left lead-footed, able only to watch Cook notch two points. It the kind of scoring savvy The Pistol would’ve enjoyed.

“I don’t know if this came across in your phone conversation, but Steven is off-the-charts smart. He’s just a rare talent, and an incredible kid.” —Mitch Henderson, Princeton head coach

It is this exact ability of Cook’s, to meld antics of the above-the-rim, will-this-be-on-SportsCenter-later register with some serious old-school sleight of hand (and foot) that makes him one of college basketball’s most intriguing talents.

“Steven is everything you want a player to be,” says Henderson, the Princeton coach. “He has the ability to score, and when he plays, he brings life to the gym. At his best, he’s just fun to watch, and very unique.”

Henderson, a Princeton grad (’98), who was a member of the last Tigers team to win an NCAA Tournament game (he led that ’97-98 team, which finished 27-2, in assists), just finished his fourth season as head coach of his alma mater. Two of them have included Steven Cook. Like Bray, one of the best guards in Ivy League history, Henderson frequently refers not just to Cook’s talent, but to his precocious knowledge of the game.

Cook’s bounce helped him weather the transition to the collegiate game. So did his shooting ability. “If you can make shots and play defense, then you can make a big difference for the team,” Bray says.

Case(s) in point: in Cook’s now-completed sophomore season, he more than tripled his scoring average from his freshman campaign. He hit 39 percent of his threes, and his 45 steals were the second-best conference tally. Cook earned Second-Team Ivy League honors, joining Princeton teammate Spencer Weisz as the only two Ivy sophomores to be named to the all-conference team.

Princeton had started ’14-15 slowly, dropping four of their first five, including a difficult three-game set at the Wooden Legacy Tournament over Thanksgiving Day weekend. Cook pointed specifically to a loss to San Diego, when Toreros sharpshooter Johnny Dee finished with a game-high 29 points.

Was this a sign of a very young team, finding its feet? Neither Henderson nor Cook use that argument. “At that point, we hadn’t come together,” says Cook.

“I didn’t talk at all this season about the team being young,” says Henderson. “That was a deliberate choice. There were two Final Four teams playing with a lot of freshmen. Now, that’s not to compare ourselves to Kentucky or Duke, but you can be really good when you’re really young. We play the guys that understand what it takes to win.”

Fast-forward three months later, and Princeton once again endured a hot-shooting performance, this time from Columbia junior guard Maodo Lo. Despite Lo’s 37 points, bolstered by a staggering 11 three-pointers, the Tigers willed themselves to an 85-83 win. It was one of the most entertaining games in college basketball last season.

It was also a manifestation of a feeling that was spreading among the team. By the end of the season, the Princeton youngsters had droves of experience, and they felt like vets. “We ended up in third place in the league,” says Cook. (The Tigers finished 16-14, 9-5 Ivy.) “I don’t think a lot of people predicted that.”

Next season, Princeton returns its top four scorers. The last time such a strong cast came back, the Tigers went dancing the subsequent campaign (’10-11). Henderson remarks upon the high level of commitment he’s seen from the group. The momentum from the end of the season is carrying over into spring workouts.

“That’s what this program has been about—a culture, passed down from generation to generation,” says Cook. “It’s all about putting in work. Doing whatever it takes to win Ivy League championships. This offseason, that’s going to be our focus, and our goal.”

So Cook will keep rocking those Js, which are a way of honoring a hero—even if he was too young to see Jordan play at the United Center. “He was such a hero,” says Cook. “Wearing those shoes—it was a way I could represent my area.”

Photos courtesy of Beverly Schaefer

The post More Than Good appeared first on SLAM.

But even as the losses mounted this in 2014-15, to the tune of a final record of 9-22, Timmer resisted that urge. He ended as the Bulldogs’ leading scorer at 11.5 points, earning All-Missouri Valley Conference freshman team honors. He boosted that scoring tally by almost four points during conference play. It was a validation of the potential his head coach, Ray Giacoletti, had often referred to when asked about the 6-1 guard.

“Not to sound arrogant, but I expected this out of him,” Giacoletti said. “I expected him to be able to push through tough times.”

A quick note, before we continue: Timmer was just a freshman.

Puts his teammates’ needs before his own, totally embraces the process—including learning from veterans. “We looked to the five seniors for leadership,” Timmer said. “Seeing how hard they work and operate, you follow that. Our season was for them, we wanted to make sure they went out on a great note.”

Giacoletti took the Drake job two years ago, following six seasons as a Gonzaga assistant. Within weeks, he’d offered Timmer a scholarship. He kept tabs throughout the summer, sharing in the assessment of Timmer’s coach at Eisenhower (WI) High: Kid was a program-changer.

He certainly was a scoring savant. In his senior season at Eisenhower, Timmer averaged 28.7 points. He finished as the 19th-best scorer in Wisconsin state history.

Many have referenced Giacoletti’s Gonzaga roots, and figured that he would try to build Drake by emulating the successful model set in Spokane. That’s true, to a certain extent. Giacoletti wanted to take the best components he witnessed at Gonzaga: administrative support, a genuine sense of care emanating throughout the program.

And the players. “Go back 15 years to when Gonzaga got rolling, it was Pacific Northwest kids (Santangelo! Frahm! Bankhead! Calvary!) who outworked people,” said Giacoletti. “I think Milwaukee and Chicago will help us get to the next level at Drake.”

Timmer, who hails from New Berlin, WI, quickly became captivated by the prospect of helping Drake rise. “When I visited the campus, everything fell into place,” Timmer said. “It was right academically. It had the right feel of campus, and Des Moines is a great city.”

Timmer committed in August of 2013. This past fall, he witnessed the unveiling of a brand-new practice facility. He started the ’14-15 season opener, and finished with 16 points and 6 assists.

But Drake started slowly. With his team sitting at 3-9 at Christmas break, Giacoletti opted for a re-set. He set about simplifying things: Win the day. Work every day to get better. This was Year Two in a four- to five-year process. Timmer never worried that the team might splinter. “We stuck together, we came together. We knew eventually we’d find it,” Timmer said.

It mirrored Timmer’s own adjustment to the college game. The pace on both sides of the ball, the recognition of the way defense fuels everything. In high school and AAU, you could take possessions off. Do that in college, you get subbed out.

Giacoletti gave Timmer a video of former Ohio State defensive stalwart Aaron Craft to study. “We wanted him to watch what a little bulldog Craft is at every defensive aspect,” Giacoletti said. “Loose balls, taking charges, making sure his man doesn’t score. We expect that same thing out of Reed. I tell him every day that we’re throwing a lot at him. But as he continues to listen and buy in, he’ll see this experience pay off.”

Drake saw success: a three-game win streak midway through conference. An 8-6 record at home for the season. “It was hard for me at times,” Giacoletti said of the losses. “But this was about the foundation being built; it’s about where we’re headed. The big picture is clearly in place.”

Timmer was a kid who had a 31 on his ACT. He’s a poster child for one of Giacoletti’s chosen recruiting pitches, referencing Drake’s academic standing: If you’re not going to Northwestern or Stanford, Drake’s your best option. Timmer is enrolled in the school’s pre-pharmacy program, one of the country’s best.

Des Moines is one of the premier cities in the Midwest. Drake players have the chance to intern at any number of companies. Two local businesses were listed on the Fortune 500 for 2014.

Timmer’s effect might be best have been represented during successive possessions of a mid-season game. On the offensive end, he dribbled around a high-ball screen and nailed an 18-foot jumper. Standard stuff.

He put his head down and got back on defense. Then, on the subsequent defensive possession, Timmer lost his man at the top of the key. Jumper. Onions. It was then that Timmer reacted. He received the inbounds pass, and jackhammered the rock into the hardwood. An expression of personal dissatisfaction. But the moment passed quickly. Timmer set about initiating the offense on the other end.

The type of kid that gets it. Next season, Drake will have momentum. There’s a team trip to Italy in August to look forward to, 10 additional practices that will give the newcomers a chance to gel.

“Once we get these guys together, we’ll have a chance to figure out these pieces to the puzzle,” said Giacoletti.

You can bet Timmer will be leading the way.

Photos courtesy of Getty and Earl Hulst, Drake Athletics.

The post Foundation appeared first on SLAM.

Those two victories in tow, the GU women equaled the men’s team’s tally of eight NCAA Tournament victories as a double-digit seed.

They earned a trip home for the regional, a date with No. 2 Tennessee on tap last Saturday at the Spokane Arena—the site where, four years ago, Courtney Vandersloot thrilled the nation, leading the Zags past Louisville and to the cusp of the Final Four.

Elle Tinkle, a junior on this year’s Gonzaga team, remembers watching that run as a high schooler. She also recalls two years ago, when Gonzaga had another chance to play at the Spokane Arena for an NCAA Tournament regional, only to fall to Iowa State in the first round. That 2012-13 Gonzaga team had 10 underclassmen, Tinkle included. The way they’ve grown into veteran contributors is part of what made this season so special.

Against George Washington and Oregon State, Tinkle couldn’t think of one player who didn’t make an impact. True freshman point guard Emma Stach dropped 6 assists in the first round against George Washington. Redshirt freshman post and budding star Emma Wolfram had 17 points against Oregon State in Round of 32. Tinkle? She finished with 14 points, 7 rebounds (5 offensive), 3 assists and a steal in a team-high 33 minutes against the Beavers.

“For us to go in (to Gill Coliseum) and play as well as we did was pretty unbelievable,” Tinkle says. “We were on another level.”

It’s also the tide against which they’ve traveled. And to illustrate that, a certain backstory needs be addressed. Last spring, Kelly Graves, Gonzaga’s head coach for the past 14 years, left for the same position at Oregon. Since first taking the job, Graves had built the Bulldogs into a reputable national power. Now, the popular narrative heralded the end of an era. At the very least, a step down from a lofty pedestal.

So, when one marvels at the Zags’ seamless invocation of an underdog’s edge in the first rounds of this year’s Tournament, consider: They’d worked a chip on to their shoulders months before the start of the season. They wanted to prove people wrong.

Upon finding that Graves was headed to Eugene, OR, a group of returning Gonzaga players came together. Who did they want for their next head coach? Who could keep this great run going? Lisa Fortier, a Gonzaga assistant for the past seven seasons, quickly emerged as the frontrunner. “A bunch of us vouched for Lisa,” says Tinkle. “She knows this program. She recruited the majority of us, and developed us into the players we want to be. That background made us want to play for her.”

All those rumblings of a fall? Gonzaga entered the Sweet Sixteen with a 26-7 record. For the seventh consecutive season, it crested 25 wins and earned an NCAA Tournament bid. Each of its losses in ’14-15 came to a team that made either the NCAA or WNIT fields. “We kind of knew there were going to be a lot of people who disregarded us as a team,” says Tinkle. “But the expectations people had for us didn’t match what we expected ourselves.”

This success is due in no small part to Tinkle, who blossomed into the Zags’ most dynamic force. In the offseason, Tinkle had spoken with Fortier about expanding her role. As a freshman and sophomore, she’d been a defensive stopper, known best for her rebounding.

Through the first five games of ’14-15, Tinkle was a key reserve, averaging 5.2 points and 4.4 rebounds in 20.4 minutes. Then, senior forward and starter Lindsay Sherbert hurt her knee. Granted a start against local rival Eastern Washington in the very next game, Tinkle hit a game-winner.

She’s been sensational since. Her 29.1 minutes per game ranked second on the team behind senior Sunny Greinacher. She posted 11.7 points, and bumped that tally up to 14.9 points in conference play, which led the squad. She finished second in steals, third in blocks and rebounds—one of those players with a hand in every key statistical category.

After losing to BYU in the West Coast Conference tournament semifinals, Gonzaga was on the proverbial bubble for Selection Monday. Once they discovered they’d earned a bid, motivation flowed. “We kept saying, if we got another chance to play, we’d take full advantage of it,” says Tinkle.

The fans were ready, standing in droves for tickets. A palpable buzz permeated campus. There’s nothing quite like March.

Tinkle’s parents were in the crowd on Saturday afternoon, including dad Wayne, who just finished an impressive first season as head coach of the Oregon State men’s basketball team. He was also on hand at Gill Coliseum last weekend, cheering on Elle. Her younger brother, Tres, a prized recruit headed to OSU next season, is on spring break. He was at the Spokane Arena, too.

“The support we have is pretty amazing,” Tinkle says, noting that even when Gonzaga goes on the road, their fans often outnumber those of the host. “It’s special now, to be able to come back and play in front of our fans.”

***

Spokane Arena was certainly special, last Saturday afternoon. The decibel level reached that of a rock concert, and most of those 8,686 fans in attendance were pulling for the Zags. They went downright raucous as they watched Gonzaga pull to a 17-point lead with just over 6 minutes to play. They shared in the profound disappointment as the Bulldogs were unable to weather Tennessee’s vaunted full-court pressure, eventually losing by 4 in OT.

Seniors Sunny Greinacher (24 points) and Keani Albanez (20) were sensational. Next season, they’ll have graduated. That means Tinkle will have to help shepherd this team into the next stage of its journey.

Considering her grit against the Lady Vols—it was Tinkle’s awareness that allowed her to step up to Tennessee center Bashaara Graves at the end of regulation and force the miss that sent the game to OT. (Tinkle was credited with a blocked shot, but this was all about positioning.) Along with all the skill, that’s the type of play Gonzaga has become known for.

“I love these players, and the way that they fought for each other and fought for us as a staff,” Fortier told reporters afterward.

No reason to think next year will be any different.

Photo courtesy of Chris Oertell

The post Survive And Advance appeared first on SLAM.

Well, actually…this wasn’t a bet. It was a deal.

“So,” Dietrick says, launching into the story. “We were 2-0 on the season, and I told Annie, if we go undefeated—and I didn’t say she had to—but I asked her, Will you bleach your hair? And Annie was like, ‘For sure!'”

“Absolutely,” says Tarakchian.

Princeton finished the regular season 30-0, and thanks to some quick thinking from Dietrick in the press conference following the Ivy League finale at Penn, the deal got fast-tracked from after the season to before the NCAA Tournament. When ESPN caught wind of the arrangement, Tarakchian’s hands were tied. Soon, her hair was no longer brown. But she didn’t mind, not that much. “It’s a great story,” she says with a laugh.

“She’s a woman of her word,” says Dietrick.

Interviewed in tandem, the camaraderie between Dietrick, a senior, and Tarakchian, a junior, quickly becomes evident. They riff and joke seamlessly, running with thoughts the other produces. That two of this team’s best players share such ebullience helps paint a picture of camaraderie.

That one of their teammates, a soft-spoken 6-0 guard with a great chance at being named a Rhodes Scholar this fall, feels just as at home within the framework says just as much, if not more.

“OK…” junior Michelle Miller says, taking a deep breath. “Our student-athlete dean said, basically, that I would be a strong candidate for a Rhodes Scholar. And yes, I do plan on applying for it. But I haven’t applied yet.” (Miller was the recipient of Princeton’s prestigious Shapiro Prize last fall.)

Before delving further into Miller’s academic excellence, or proceeding toward a diagnosis of her game, first: the demeanor.

“I’m very, very quiet,” Miller says, minutes after helping Princeton to that historic NCAA Tournament first-round win, 80-70 over Green Bay, last Saturday.

Miller’s former Princeton teammate, Niveen Rasheed, might have explained it best in a tweet during the first half, during which Miller dropped 15 points on 6-10 shooting.

MEEEEEEEEEESH! YOU BEAUTIFUL SILENT HUMAN!

Miller chuckles when told about Rasheed’s words. Half an hour after the Green Bay game ended, she stood outside the Princeton locker room, barefoot. (A search for ice had proven unsuccessful.) Miller was fighting off the last remaining effects of a virus that had kept her from practicing for the past several days. In fact, she’d been a scratch for the Green Bay game until just 12 hours before tip-off.

Against the Phoenix, she willed herself to 20 points, 7 rebounds and 2 assists. For long stretches in the second half, she guarded Green Bay sophomore forward Mehryn Kraker, the game’s high scorer with 21. The most Miller allowed: “It was pretty tiring.”

So, Miller isn’t the most vocal?

“If you have five people screaming the whole game, that’s not fun for anybody,” says Dietrick. “You need people who lead more by example than with their voice. That’s not to say we don’t try to make Meesh louder. We get on her a lot about that. And I work on curbing my voice. It’s perfect!”

Says Tarakchian, “Meesh has shown her dedication in different ways. It’s the way she practices, the way she plays in games. She’s just so focused. You can tell she cares for this program. She’s not outward about it, but she gives a lot for us, and she’s ready to go every day.”

Dietrick nods along to that thought. “Michelle’s just really consistent. We always know what we can get from her.”

On the recruiting trail, Princeton head coach Courtney Banghart searches for skill—often the multifaceted sort. A player must be accustomed to winning; you don’t want to have to teach that. There should be a level of competitiveness that sets the prospect apart from the pack.

And then there is the intangible. An enthusiasm for life. The great thing about Princeton, like any family, is that this enthusiasm manifests differently in each member. It all blends into a cohesive whole.

“This whole year has been possible because of what everyone has done,” says Miller. “It’s one through 15. We rely on our depth every day to get better. That’s showed in our success this year.”

Says Banghart, “We’ve got 15 women in one place for nine months. We do a great job of making sure it’s a group of 15.”

***

Miller finished her career at Pasadena Polytechnic (CA) School, better known as ‘Poly’, with 3,331 points. It was the second highest tally in Southern Section history, fifth all-time in the state. And yet, when asked to describe the impact of her former star, whom she’d once referred to as “The Kobe Bryant of Pasadena,” Poly coach Kim Weber pointed to a defensive performance.

In Miller’s sophomore season, Poly faced Fresno Christian in a state playoff game. Unsure of how best to combat Fresno’s formidable 6-5 center, Weber decided to have Miller guard her. Miller did so—quite adeptly, as Weber remembers it—and she still managed to score 26 points in a 53-49 loss.

“I never took charges, and I took three charges in that game,” Miller says, with a chuckle.

Something you learn quite quickly about Miller: Yes, she is an elite scorer who, once she finds her rhythm, becomes near unstoppable. No, that does not begin to describe her overall impact.

Asked about the defenses Miller faced on the path to all those points, Weber launches into a lengthy list. Boxes-and-ones, triangle-and-twos, face guards. Three defenders at a time. “The one thing I remember, she really let the game come to her,” Weber says. “She was always hitting something.”

Weber remembers a kid who, once Poly basketball season ended, would take off her kicks and jump into the swimming pool. Miller set the school record in the 50-freestyle and was a two-time MVP. And volleyball, in the fall? Miller was a three-time Southern Section nominee at setter, despite never playing club or pursuing the sport before her freshman year.

She maintained a 4.9 GPA throughout high school, often juggling more Advanced Placement classes than fingers on one hand.

Was she ever overwhelmed?

Miller takes a deep breath and thinks. Well, there was this one time, her senior year. She’d just helped Poly to its first swimming championship in 20 years. But she had a basketball All-Star game to get to that evening. There’s Miller, clad in her hoops gear after dashing to the locker room to change, still placing a finger on her team’s trophy.

Miller was more offensively geared coming out of Poly, but Banghart has challenged her to take on a more comprehensive role. Miller was already on it. Before her freshman season, she filled out her goal card with a thought: win an NCAA tournament game. That means defending key players like Mehryn Kraker. “When your best shooter defends with toughness, you’re a better team,” says Banghart.

Weber remembers the way the interviews piled up, as Miller continued her rise up the California prep scoring ranks. Asked about that now, Miller gives a little sigh. Weber: “She was interviewed a lot, and her first comments were always about her teammates. She rarely spoke up, but she was respected. It made her teammates want to play better for her. She was always playing her hardest. I always thought she’d do well at Princeton. It’s clearly been a good fit.”

Then, Weber with perhaps the key line. “She’s just a good person.”

***

“So, we have a ‘buddy’ we’re given at the beginning of the year,” Dietrick says. “And it changes every year.”

Another hallmark of the program. Veterans taking newcomers under their wings, passing down lessons. Might be coffee dates; could be making sure you’re awake for early morning workouts. During Tarakchian’s freshman year, Rasheed was her buddy. Dietrick had Lauren Polansky, the three-time Ivy League defensive player of the year.

Tarakchian, succinctly: “It works.”

Adds Dietrick, “We’re all each other’s buddies, though. Everyone fits in with everybody else.”

Rasheed has said that on campus, you’ll never see a Princeton player without a teammate within two feet. Dietrick remembers heading to Princeton’s Elite Camp the summer before her senior year of high school. She didn’t know anybody, but Nicole Hung, then a Tigers incoming freshman, looked out for her.

Banghart always wants to know whether a prospective recruit fits in with the team. “There have been times where people haven’t clicked with us, and we’ve told Coach that, and she’s like, ‘OK, that’s it,'” says Dietrick. “It makes a difference, that we’re just as much a part of that whole experience. These are people we have to live four huge years of our lives with. They’ll carry on our legacy. So we want to know: Is she gonna be a good teammate? Will she be up at 7 for lifting?”

At which point Tarakchian interjects, “Is she nice…”

Dietrick seizes upon this. “Yeah! Is she a nice person!”

Tarakchian continues seamlessly. “It’s basic stuff: Good teammate, wants to win.”

Dietrick: “Laughs easily.”

Maybe this is another sort of intangible. The reason so many fans, President Obama included, have flocked to this team.

They see enthusiasm. Warming up before the Green Bay game, Dietrick’s eyes alight when some of her favorite songs come on the Xfinity Center loudspeakers. The senior, always chatting. They see fastidiousness. The way Miller played defense on Kraker. Eyes sweeping, feet moving, and though you had to strain to hear it, the calls of Ball, Ball and Shot!

“I’m still quiet, and it’s just naturally how I am, but as an upperclassman, I try to lead,” says Miller. “It might not always be vocally. It might be by example, with a hustle play, or what I put into the offseason. My teammates trust me. And I think that’s what’s important. I’ll never be the loudest, or the most vocal, but when I do say something, I try to make that message count.”

They see a great story.

***

Maybe the most telling was a banner, frequently held aloft by a Princeton fan in Maryland. “Defense Wins Rings.” After an offseason of re-dedication toward that principle, it would have made Banghart smile. So did Tarakchian’s avowal, post-Grenn Bay. The 6-0 “tweener” (she’s become a big fan of the word) finished with 19 points, 17 rebounds, 5 assists and a steal, and the first thing she told Banghart in the locker room was, I promise my defense will be better in the next game.

Facing No. 1-seeded Maryland in the next round, on the Terps’ home court to boot, Princeton battled. Banghart loved what she saw. The Tigers got good shots and executed the game plan they’d been given. They lost their first game of the season, 85-70, pushing their opponent the entire way. 31-1.

Maryland coach Brenda Frese had seen Princeton on film earlier this season, when she’d studied film of the Tigers’ emphatic non-conference win over Michigan. “I told our staff, you wait until the bracket comes out. Whoever plays Princeton is gonna have a game,” Frese said.

The Terps, not known as proficient from deep, finished 12-20 from beyond the arc. Dietrick: “If a top-five team in the country has to shoot 87.5 percent from three (in the second half) to beat you, then more power to them.”

Banghart: “We owned the tempo of that game. I wouldn’t take back one shot that we took. We did what we wanted to do.”

Dietrick and Tarakchian stood outside the locker room, heads held high. They’d just been talking about this run. They knew how special it was. The stories they’d tell their grandkids one day.

Annie’s hair. Both players burst out laughing when Dietrick offers that up. “No matter what I’m gonna say to Annie, I love her to death. I’d do anything for her,” says Dietrick.

“We did a lot this year,” said Tarakchian. “It was a fun ride. I couldn’t have picked a better group to play with. It’s gonna hold a special place in my heart.”

Said Banghart, “I leave this season with enormous pride, and not just in the numbers, but in how they did it. I look at this team as a real connector. I will never forget the number of people who totally invested in this team, and we played in their honor.”

***

Maybe it was the sign in the stands for both games in College Park. “It’s Miller Time!”, the number 34 printed to the left of the slogan. Miller’s parents had flown in for the game, but this sign was the work of a fan.

This past summer, Miller befriended Sarah Johnson, then an incoming freshman at Poly. They met through Koko Archibong, a Poly and Penn alum who held training sessions at the Poly gym. Poly is K-12, but Johnson had attended a different middle school before transferring in, so she was understandably a bit nervous about a new place, new friends to be made.

Imagine how it meant the world when Miller agreed to mentor her. “She answered any questions I had,” Johnson says. “Even as she was so incredibly busy.” (As in, MCATs to study for. A chemistry major, Miller plans on pursuing medicine. Maybe ophthalmology, like her father. Perhaps neuroscience.)

On Selection Monday, Miller received a text from Johnson. “She sent me a picture of when I was on ESPN,” says Miller, who soon learned that Johnson was headed to Maryland, the NCAA Tournament’s first rounds coinciding with Poly’s spring break. “That was so cool,” says Miller.

Selflessness. With players like Miller, one sees how a legacy builds. Rasheed testified to that, as she stood on the court following the Maryland game. Like so many Princeton fans who’d made the trip, she wanted to hail the players as they emerged from the locker room.

After watching Princeton beat Green Bay, Rasheed decided she had to book a trip to College Park for Monday night’s game. She landed 45 minutes before the opening tip—just enough time to throw on her old orange practice jersey, No. 24 on the back, and tote her luggage into the arena, where she joined a cadre of fellow former Princeton players.

Rasheed remembers listening to Banghart’s vision, the palpable enthusiasm imbued, and thinking, How cool, to be a part of that. Rasheed finished her career in 2013 with four Ivy League titles. She’s the greatest women’s basketball player in Ivy League history. Now, she fields interview requests pertaining to Princeton with: Anything for the program.

Like so many, across so many walks of life, Rasheed cheered the incredible rise of this ’14-15 team. Held her head high after the end. She knows there so many more chapters, still to be written. Now Dietrick joins the ranks of the alumni, and she will keep a beady eye on the group. When she returns to campus, she’ll be welcomed right back into the fold.

Miller says, “I couldn’t be happier to do it with this group of girls. It makes me know I’m in the right place.”

The team’s standard practice break reveals that. Tigers on 3. Family on 6.

Images courtesy of Beverly Schaefer

The post A Legacy Builds appeared first on SLAM.

Romelo Trimble hails from Upper Marlboro, attended Bishop O’Connell High and now stars for the University of Maryland, but he can certainly relate to the hype and frenzy experienced by another baller with the same nickname 12 years ago at Syracuse.

“Actually, I wasn’t that aware of Carmelo until he got to the NBA, but I did know that he had the nickname Melo,” says Trimble, who grew up a Terps fan and remembers watching Juan Dixon and Steve Blake race to the 2002 National Championship.

Trimble became a sensation but decided to stay in-state thanks to a challenge from Maryland coach Mark Turgeon. “He wanted to recruit me as a point guard, and at the time, I was a 2,” says Trimble. “He was honest with me and that made me want to come here.”

Last November, Trimble became the first Maryland freshman in eight years to start a season opener at point guard. He was tasked with directing a new motion offense and assuming leadership for a team in transition after five players transferred in the offseason. Then, less than two weeks into ’14-15, Dez Wells, the Terps’ leading scorer for the past two seasons, suffered a fractured right wrist that kept the senior out seven games.

No pressure, right? “I was a bit nervous when the season started, but I had veterans around me, and when [Wells] got hurt, Coach Turgeon just said, ‘Next man up.’ I had to dial in and play basketball,” says Trimble.

Through 30 games, he leads 25-5, No. 10-ranked Maryland in points, assists and steals per game (16, 3.1 and 1.3, respectively). Add in an uncanny ability to get to the line, which the 6-3, 190-pound Trimble does at one of college basketball’s most prolific rates.

It’s the sort of leadership and production that keys lengthy NCAA tournament runs. Carmelo with ’Cuse in ’03. Trimble and the Terps this spring? It’s been too long since we’ve seen a Melo rule March.

The post 2.0 appeared first on SLAM.

That being said, Walker is continually cognizant of the past, of the chips that fell into place for Northeastern to make its thrilling run to this year’s Colonial Athletic Association tournament title. The storylines that have taken root these past few seasons. Motivation embedded. It’s what makes this thing so special.

Two years ago, the Huskies had rolled into the conference tournament as heavy favorites, before falling to James Madison in the championship game. That still stings. Walker brought it up at the press conference following this year’s title, and he reiterates the point during a SLAM interview. He felt so bad for the seniors, Jonathan Lee and Joel Smith, who missed out on the NCAAs in ’13.

Walker and his returning teammates made a pact. They were going to get back to that point. But wait a second. Walker would first like to recount the journey of his teammate, 6-8 redshirt-junior Quincy Ford, who missed the ’13-14 season to undergo surgery for a lingering back problem. After scoring 22 points in last weekend’s CAA tourney final, a 72-61 win over William & Mary, one of four teams (including Northeastern) to nab a share of the CAA regular-season title, Ford was named the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player.

“First off, I just want to say how proud I am of Quincy. What he went through, playing all of his sophomore season hurt, and no one really knew about it. Then, he goes through major back surgery and all the rehab, being lonely…he never traveled with us. That takes a toll. But he worked really hard, and got his confidence back. I applaud him for that,” Walker says over the phone on a Wednesday afternoon.

He is known around Northeastern as “Davey”, but given his proclivity for flight—seriously, check YouTube—Walker was quickly bestowed a nickname heralding his aerial inclinations. (Think: last name of a certain Star Wars protagonist.)

But Walker won’t bring up that nickname, in large part because his focus is always turned toward others. Northeastern coach Bill Coen calls his star junior an indispensable component to this team, and there are the 13.4 points and 3.5 assists, along with the fact he leads NU in six statistical categories, including clocking in at 37.0 minutes per game.

When a team reaches the NCAA Tournament, there is something special about it, an undefinable quantity that, in this age of everything metric, is part of what gives March its luster. Say, selflessness. Asked about his impact, Walker first brings up senior teammate Scott Eatherton’s rebounding ability before proffering, “I think I just try to bring…well, I’m quiet. But I’m working on becoming more of a leader, and I think my teammates agree. The last four or five games, I’ve been more talkative, bringing energy, talking guys up, giving them confidence. I’m just trying to make plays and knock down shots,” Walker says.

In three games at the conference tournament, he averaged 14.3 points, 5 rebounds, 4 assists and a shade under 2 steals. Twice he went the full 40 minutes (in the opener, he merely played 37.) Along with Ford and Eatherton, Walker was named to the All-Tournament team.

“Once we won, it didn’t even feel real,” says Walker. “We were standing up on the ladder, cutting down the nets and taking all these pictures.”

Northeastern is on spring break this week, so when the team returned by bus to Boston from Baltimore on Tuesday morning, they were met by a greeting party consisting predominantly of academic staff. “But even going around campus now, there’s a few people around, and since this hasn’t happened in such a long time, you get people saying ‘Congrats’,” says Walker. “That’s a shock. We’re not really used to that.”

Northeastern drew an average of 1,254 fans to 12 home games at historic Matthews Arena, the lowest tally among the 10 CAA teams this season. The Huskies love that court, though—all the tradition associated with the oldest multipurpose athletic building still in use in the world. Walker can’t wait to unveil the championship banner at the first home game next season.

As for the recipe behind this season’s success, Walker attributes cohesiveness. “We have the closest team I’ve been a part of. Every guy is cool with each other. We tell each other we love each other. Even out on the court, it’s, ‘I love you, man.’ We want to play for each other. It doesn’t matter who scores 20 this game or that. As long as we win, we’re happy,” he says.

He’s a biology major. Asked about the future, Walker says he would like to pursue basketball. If not, well, there’s always med school.

But now, he’s prepping for the NCAA Tournament. Doesn’t get much more fun than that.

Photos courtesy of Colonial Athletic Association Sports.

The post Sky Walker appeared first on SLAM.

“Getting some cool colors,” Luttinen said, with a quick glance at her arm.

Portland lost 66-58 to Santa Clara in the first round of the West Coast Conference tournament. It was the Pilots’ 26th loss of the season, and this one had not started well for Luttinen. The 5-10 guard had picked up two early fouls, and two minutes upon returning, midway through the first half, she’d landed awkwardly upon an opponent’s foot. Within two minutes, she’d checked out, then back in. Visibly hobbled until the break, kneading that ankle during timeouts, she’d managed just two shot attempts by halftime, at which point Portland trailed by 12.

It was in those final 20 minutes that Luttinen, as she’s done so many times on The Bluff, as UP’s campus is known, put on a show.

“Kari is one of the most competitive individuals I’ve ever coached,” said first-year Portland head coach Cheryl Sorenson. “She’ll win every line sprint in practice. If there’s a shoe lace-tying race, she’ll want to win.”

Said Luttinen, “Oh yeah, I’m pretty competitive. You don’t want to get against me in anything, really. I’m pretty gnarly when it comes to that.”

It’s been that way ever since Scott Luttinen, Kari’s dad, can remember. He pinpoints a weekend the summer before her eighth grade year. Kari had begun playing AAU only recently, and in one of those tournaments, he felt Kari had lollygagged. So, he confronted her. Pick what you want to do, go after it 100 percent, and be the best you can be. Otherwise, find something else to do.

He needn’t have worried. Luttinen had played the gamut of youth sports, but she committed to basketball and poured herself into the game. She began working with trainers in the Seattle, WA, area who normally didn’t include girls as clients. But Kari could always do things on a court most girls couldn’t. At Seattle Preparatory, she was a scoring sensation (running one-handed floaters!) And she always seemed to turn it up come tournament time.

Sorenson gives a deep sigh when asked about the close games for Portland in 2014-15—in WCC regular-season play, seven defeats came by five points or less, including four of the last five. Against Santa Clara in the conference tournament, the Pilots cut that sizeable halftime deficit to six with just over a minute to play. Then, they nearly grabbed a steal that could have really put them in business. But the ball sailed just over senior Cassandra Brown’s fingertips, and Santa Clara converted a layup to finish off the result.

“We really believed that we could make anything happen as long as we kept fighting, fighting, fighting,” said Sorenson. “We were almost there. You saw the fight against Santa Clara. What might’ve happened if we’d just gotten a tip going our way. But the players bought in, and we bought in as coaches, and it was just trying to leave the hallmark of the program. Never-say-die. That’s where we’re headed, and it’s in large part thanks to Kari.”

A team captain this season, Luttinen crested 1,000 points for her career. But when she was asked about the legacy she wanted to leave on The Bluff, she began with a line about playing as hard as you can, as long as you can. Something which, a SLAM reporter noted, sounded a lot like her head coach. “Oh,” Luttinen said with a chuckle, “Yeah, Cheryl says that a lot, so I’ve kind of gone off of that. But my role as a captain has always been to lead by example. I’m not necessarily the most vocal, but I’m the one that’s trying to work the hardest to bring everyone else up.”

Scott made it a priority to attend every UP women’s game he could this season, including the last hurrah in Vegas. His colleagues at work understood. This was a once-in-a-lifetime type deal, his daughter’s collegiate farewell tour.

In UP, he appreciated what he considers one of the few remaining outposts of academic-athletic standing in a sport intent upon redefining the word. The countless road trips crisscrossing the country, game times catered to TV. So many missed classes, projects, tests. A player becomes closer to an academic adviser than her classmates.

But at UP, the travel schedules were more manageable. Flights simply along the West Coast corridor. Luttinen was able to maintain a business major, and was named academic all-conference three years in a row.

And she loved playing for this program. Enter those final moments of Luttinen in black and blue. After taking just two shots in the first half against Santa Clara, she showcased that smooth offensive game. Tough mid-range jumpers off the bounce, hand in her face. Threes. She ended with 12 points in the second half, an impressive number until one considers that a month before, she’d doused those same Broncos with 22 in the first half.

Jim Sollars, the longtime Portland coach who’d recruited her, once referred to Luttinen’s “knack” for scoring. (Sollars retired after the 2013-14 season.) At Portland, the toughness and camaraderie and competitiveness also showed forth. This was a kid who, after her prep career had ended in the state tournament, said that she hoped her team came back next year and won it without her. The reporter who’d filed the story and gotten that quote called Scott the following Monday morning to tell him it was one of the greatest reveals of character he’d seen.

Sorenson joined Sollars’ staff ahead of Luttinen’s freshman season, which made this season special. She was so proud of this departing class, Kari included. “She’s just a joy to be around,” said Sorenson. “She makes you want to pour the effort in to make her better in any way you can.”

Said Scott of the final game, “She had that rolled ankle, could barely walk around on it, but she stepped up. Got it taped up tighter, got some ibuprofen, and went after it. It didn’t quite happen, but it was cool to see.”

The latest example of character revealed. Luttinen isn’t sure yet whether she will pursue professional basketball or enter the working world, but one has to think, with that competitive edge and the talent tethered along with it, she’s got a great shot at making it work.

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“Are you on your phone right now? That is so lame,” Few said to Kyle Wiltjer, feigning exasperation. After a brief meditation on the inseparability of kids with their technological gadgets these days, Few turned his attention toward Kyle Dranginis, a 6-5, 202-pound redshirt junior guard who had averaged 22.7 minutes, 8 points and 4.3 rebounds during the Zags’ three-game run to yet another West Coast Conference tournament title.

Dranginis wasn’t named to the All-Tournament team. Unlike teammates Wiltjer and Kevin Pangos, he is not a semifinalist for the Naismith Player of the Year. He is a substitute for a Gonzaga team that, after sweeping toward the conference regular season title, racked up every individual award.

And yet, few played a more significant role in Gonzaga’s charge toward their third straight conference tournament title. Dranginis played 16 minutes in the second half of the championship game against BYU, deputizing superbly for Gary Bell Jr, a senior starter who suffered from cramps.

One of Dranginis’s foremost tasks: chasing BYU senior and scorer supreme Tyler Haws, among the nation’s leaders in that department, this way and that. Dranginis helped limit Haws to 15 points—seven below his season average. He blocked two jump shots. Gonzaga retained possession both times.

“I don’t really know what my role is, but I just go in and try to make plays happen,” Dranginis said, taking a break from the celebrations in Gonzaga’s post-game locker room at the Orleans Arena. “I just get in there and fly around and give it my all, basically.”

Asked about those two blocked shots, one of the 6-5 Haws, the other of the 6-3 Chase Fischer, Dranginis shrugged. “I’m tall, and I’m a little longer than some guards. I may not have the quickest feet, so I learned to give a little space, but at the same time, I’m able to contest those shots. I just use that to my advantage.”

Gonzaga was eventually able to separate from the Cougars for a 91-75 win thanks in large part to a sensational sequence from Dranginis. In the span of two minutes in the latter stages of the second half, Dranginis swooped gracefully for a left-handed layup (he’s a righty), blocked Fischer’s mid-range jumper and, on the ensuing defensive possession, nabbed a steal. Then, he did just enough to put Haws off yet another shot.

It was a key ingredient to the recipe Few often refers to. That’s when this team is at its best. Locking down defensively, tough as nails, getting energy going.

“If you follow our team, there are stretches where Kyle has changed how the game has been going,” Few said after the championship, before rattling off the guard’s greatest attributes.

Swiss Army knife, problem solver, gap-puncher, timely shooter, really good on the glass.

But what really stood out to Few in the championship game was Dranginis’s ability to chase opponents off screens—namely, Haws. “He’s done as good a job of that as anybody on this team over the years,” Few said of Dranginis.

Seven players have led Gonzaga in scoring this season. Only six times has it been Kevin Pangos, who was named the WCC Player of the Year. Three different Zags led the team in scoring in three games at the WCC tournament, but it was most telling that in the championship game, six posted double digits. It is a vein of sacrifice coursing through, but these players wouldn’t refer to it as that. It’s simply the culture in place.

Dranginis remembers visiting Spokane as a high school recruit. He was a two-time Gatorade Player of the Year in Idaho. But all he wanted to do was win. “It’s kind of like a family here—and I know a lot of people say that, but it really is. Everyone cares, and they want the best out of you,” Dranginis said. “They’ll get on you if they know you’re not giving your all, because it’s for the best of the team and to get the best out of you.”

Few has referred to three of Gonzaga’s posts, the 6-10 Wiltjer, the 7-1 Przemek Karnowski and 6-10 Domantas Sabonis, as separating them at the national level. Each possesses a different skill set. Wiltjer’s all-around savvy, Sabonis’s polish, and Karnowski, who scored 24 points against San Francisco in the WCC quarters: power.

Though they might be referred to as stars, Dranginis sees the same selfless thread. “They’re such great teammates. They don’t want to be too selfish,” he said. “Sometimes you have to get on Przemek to be a little bit more aggressive, because he’s so powerful down there. You have to let him know, like, ‘Come on, you can dominate those guys!'”

Gonzaga played the first of the two semifinals on Monday evening, which allowed a BYU assistant to watch most of their win over Pepperdine before heading to prep. He had Byron Wesley’s number highlighted, starred and circled on his scouting report. After finishing with a game-high 25 points against the Waves, Wesley finished with three against BYU. Gonzaga still won by 16. “That’s the beauty of this year’s team,” Few said. “A different player can step up every night.”

Wesley led USC in scoring last season before transferring to Gonzaga this past spring. He’s become another versatile defender, and stat-sheet stuffer. He calls this season the best in his life. There are a number of transfers on this season’s roster, but they all share Wesley’s sentiment. Rather than rock the boat, they took the Dranginis approach: when your number is called, do whatever it takes to help this team win. “If you look at the history of this program, this stuff works,” said Dranginis. “[The transfers] realized that, they saw what we were capable of, and they bought in right away. It’s been fun so far.”

Angel Nunez, one of those transfers, alternated poses with the championship trophy in the locker room. Another, Eric McClellan, engaged in a boisterous FaceTime conversation on his phone, to which Dranginis occasionally joined in. On the bill of their championship-commemorating caps was a sticker, which read: Top of the World, The World is Yours.

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In addition to its aesthetic aspect, the atrium provides a glimpse into the first-floor practice court, which is used by the Beavers women’s basketball team. And around 9 p.m. this past Thursday, or roughly an hour after Stanford had played spoiler and, through a 69-58 victory, scuppered a chance for OSU to clinch its first-ever outright Pac-12 women’s regular-season title, one saw Beavers sophomores Gabby Hanson and Sydney Wiese on that court, putting up jumpers.

Scott Rueck, head coach of OSU and architect of one of the most thrilling rebirths in recent hoops memory, had spoken to the events surrounding that particular evening. Here was a team on the cusp of history, facing a perennial power (the Cardinal had won at least a share of the past 14 conference crowns). The Beavers hadn’t beaten the Cardinal in 28 games. This time, Stanford had the added luxury of playing spoiler. It was a perfect storm.

Still, Rueck wanted more. It was the first time all season he could remember watching a team hungrier than his own. Beavers juniors Jamie Weisner and Deven Hunter, who sat alongside him in the post-Stanford press conference, shared the sentiment. Hunter’s eyes were red, Weisner’s voice low. This was just the fifth loss for Oregon State since January 31 of last season, and they took it hard.

“Stanford is a really good basketball team, but we didn’t play our best,” Rueck said. “I can take a loss, but we have to play right. I didn’t feel like we had our ‘it.’ But our group isn’t satisfied with that. They’re warriors, and they’ve responded correctly to every bit of adversity they’ve faced over two seasons. They get back into the gym, and set about fixing it. I anticipate that they’re going to respond to this one. And that is unique.”

Before this season, Wiese remarked that when she’d head to the gym to hoist shots this summer, Weisner was already there. This team was hungry. The losses last season, to USC in the Pac-12 tournament championship game, then to No. 1 seed South Carolina in the second round of the NCAA Tournament, had shown they belonged on the national stage. Now, they wanted more.

As Rueck said after the South Carolina loss, “I’m motivated right now—I want to get back at it. I can’t wait to watch this team work this offseason. This is a pivotal time for us. This team has continued to learn from each lesson this season.”

Said Weisner, seated alongside Rueck on the podium, “We’re going to work this offseason.”

“We decided we had goals,” said Hunter, a 6-3 junior flex forward who, along with 8.2 points, 7.3 rebounds and 2.9 assists provides unquantifiable helpings of heart and soul. “Last season, we’d seen what we could accomplish,” Hunter said. “We knew together we could make an impact.” Enter a Twitter hashtag: #WWBN1 (We Wanna Be Number 1.)

Hunter, who grew up about an hour north of campus in Keizer, is one of two Oregon natives on this season’s roster. She grew up making trips to Corvallis to visit her grandparents, who live in town. “It felt like some place I’d been before, so I was always comfortable,” she said.

She spoke after the Friday practice, following the Stanford defeat. Rain pattered against the windows of the gym. This team’s response, a metronome beating steady, might be attributed to the personality of the players.

To her left, 6-6 junior post Ruth Hamblin was cycling through a series of post moves with her dad, who’d come to visit from Canada and was throwing entry passes with either hand. Weisner and Ali Gibson, a senior guard, were shooting jumpers on a side basket. Wiese talked with Rueck at midcourt. Yes, practice was over, but the work wasn’t yet complete.

All part of the reason why this place, for Hunter, has come to feel like home.

***

This year, everything’s new.

Rueck sat on a plush chair in his office, situated on the second floor of the practice facility. He was speaking about trajectories and expectations, the kind that come in a season in which your program has become a fixture in the top-10. There is a different feel when you’re coming up, the nation discovering your team. Maybe it’s more fun. It’s certainly a rush. Now, Oregon State’s success has grown to where they are expected to beat Stanford.

“That’s not easy to manage. That’s hard,” Rueck said. “You’ve got to make sure that you continue to have that hunger. You have to ask yourself: are you appreciating everything? Are you grateful for the whole thing? That’s probably been our biggest hurdle this year, making sure we don’t take this stuff for granted. You can become a machine.”

They went into Chapel Hill in mid-December to take on North Carolina, then ranked sixth in the country, and emerged with a comprehensive 70-55 victory. Twelve days later, they went neck-and-neck with Tennessee on Pat Summitt court. “That was special,” Rueck said of the span. “That was everybody all-in. When you see a group performing on-a-mission type deal, what’s better than that? That’s why we do this.”

When Oregon State is clicking, they enter the rarefied sphere of programs that, even though you know what’s coming, execute with a precision that leaves you helpless all the same. “This whole thing has been put together with the expectation that we want to be elite,” said Rueck. “When you expect that, you’re going to rise to that challenge.”

Jonas Chatterton has a unique perspective on this growing elite-ness. For the past three seasons, as an assistant coach for Colorado, he’d prepped against Oregon State in Pac-12 play. With each passing year, he noticed a team that kept getting better.

Now Chatterton is a first-year OSU assistant coach. “We have weapons at all five places on the floor, so that makes us really hard to guard,” he said. “Defensively, I think we’ve been really good with our discipline. And that’s the whole thing, when you start scheming, you have to have buy-in and execution. And for the most part this year, I think we’ve done a really good job of that.”

He refers to the culture Rueck has implemented. “I tell recruits this all the time: these guys come to practice every day, and it’s not a dread. We compete, we go hard, but we enjoy practice—which is really rare,” said Chatterton. “This team enjoys each other at a level that’s pretty special.”

When they met about the Stanford loss, two choices were outlined. Said Chatterton, “We can put our head down, or we can go to work and keep progressing. And one thing I think has been really cool, is that we’ve never discussed what we’ve done, where we’re going. We go to work. It’s, ‘Next day, get better.'”

Rueck had a sense that his team would respond to the Stanford loss. And facing a dangerous California team on a sun-drenched Saturday afternoon in Corvallis, Oregon State did just that.

***

When Rueck led George Fox University to the Division III national championship in 2009, capping a 32-0 season, he returned to Newberg, OR, to find a town unfolding to celebrate the team.

“The next thing you know, we’re having parades, we got keys to the city, and we come in limos and the town is lining the streets,” Rueck said. “I saw this team—this small group of people—and the influence it could have on a community.”

Rueck is an Oregon State alumnus, and he knew from his experience as a student that Corvallis would provide similar support. It’s impossible to go more than a block in the downtown area without bumping into orange and black.

“My vision was to create and build a program with people, from staff and coaches to players, that our community would be proud of,” Rueck said. “They’re great role models, and we can impact the community and inspire as many people as possible. At least put a smile on their face. Now, we have a team full of not just very good basketball players, but they play, compete and live in a way that is fun to watch. Like, I’m going to go out of my way to watch this group, because what they do is special. They may not win every night, but they are going to love the way they compete.”

An hour and a half before tip-off against Cal, Wiese emerged from the OSU locker room, a level below Ralph Miller court at Gill Coliseum. This 6-0 guard, jokingly described by her teammates as “half human, half dinosaur,” walked toward the stairs that would take her to the main level. Along the way, she passed two seated security attendants.

Came the exhortation: Go get ’em. Get your game face on!

To which Wiese merely chuckled. Then, as she ascended the stairs, she slapped an Our House poster on the wall, the letters painted in orange and black. She was wearing the same long-sleeve, white T-shirt of her teammates. On the back was written:

Gibson
14
Leave No Doubt

Gibson. The lone senior on this season’s roster, like Alyssa Martin the year before. As she made her way to midcourt with her family, in attendance for Senior Day, the first four teammates she passed threw up the Katniss Everdeen salute. An homage to their leader, whose confidence in this program had convinced many of them to commit to it.

Rueck had spoken the previous afternoon about the challenge this day presented. Getting back to who we are, what got us here. Playing with that passion, putting a smile on the face. When we’re doing our thing, I don’t know if there’s a more fun team to watch in America.

So it went with Wiese, who hit seven of nine threes against the Bears. Gibson left no doubt with two emphatic blocked shots. And Hanson, whom many refer to as Oregon State’s sixth starter. We need to get her going, Rueck had said on Friday. Against Cal, Hanson ignited the flame. Twelve first half points, three rebounds, two assists. The across-the-board production she’s known for. Consummate knowledge of schemes on either end, replete with an ability to riff when need be.

“I couldn’t take her off the court,” Rueck would say afterward of Hanson. Added Chatterton, “I can’t think of a better sixth man in our league. It’s part of the buy-in. On this team, everyone fills their role.”

Oregon State beat the Bears on the trot, 73-55.

Rueck has reiterated the importance of recruiting: assembling a group that will go to any length for each other. It’s why Martin, in attendance for Saturday’s game, was invited down to the net-cutting ceremony commemorating the outright Pac-12 title. Her former teammates knew they wouldn’t have arrived at this point without her.

“It’s an emotional day,” Rueck said in his press conference. “This is a team that deserves to win at this level. You’ve got to be grateful.”

Rueck was asked about taking this job in 2010, whether he thought he’d be able to lift banners like he had at George Fox. “I never knew if I’d be able to cut another of these down,” he said of the net. “I hoped. To be here in five years…it’s so hard to do it this quick. It’s a grind, and this is remarkable.”

Gibson sat at the press conference with a net draped around her neck. Wiese was next to her, offering up sound bytes of gold: It’s a lifestyle. We wanted to shock the nation.

For Rueck’s first home game as Oregon State head coach, 1,562 showed up at Gill Coliseum for a sizable victory over Long Beach State. This season, OSU averaged 4,167 per contest, the Pac-12’s best tally. On Saturday, 6,238 souls were in the stands, never far from trembling under the weight of stamping feet. The decibel levels rivaled that of a rock concert.

Glimpses of the past, as well as the future. Katie McWilliams, a blue-chip recruit from nearby Salem signed with Oregon State for next season, was in attendance on Saturday, as she so often is for OSU home games. She stood in the Gill Coliseum foyer at halftime, and referenced Wiese. Yes, she’s a tremendous shooter, but she’s also a terrific facilitator, McWilliams noted. See: her four assists against Cal.

That’s one of the reasons McWilliams wants to come to Corvallis. These players are muli-faceted, and the skill development is superb. “I kind of compare myself to Sydney,” said McWilliams. “I think she’s pretty unselfish herself. She could score more than she does, but she passes. And that’s the way I am: I like to pass first.”

Asked about McWilliams, Rueck said, “I know what works well with me, and I know what works well at Oregon State, the type of person that would appreciate what we have here, who would appreciate what we do as a basketball team. The type of person who can take care of her teammates, and is selfless. When you look at Katie, I think people who know our program would say, Perfect fit. We find that, and we go all-in to try and get that player. And once we get them, the sky’s the limit.”

Now there is a team, 26-3 heading into this week’s Pac-12 tournament, at which they’ll hold the No. 1 seed. They’re ranked No. 8 in the country.

Reward, after so much hard work. On to the next possession, the next play. As Rueck will tell you, that’s what life is all about.

Image Courtesy of Karl Maasdam, Oregon State Athletics

The post We Wanna Be Number 1 appeared first on SLAM.

(I hadn’t.)

Taking that into account, Huffman offers some advice about Madison Cable, the ‘Maddie’ in question, followed by the slightest of chuckles. “Well, good luck. She does not like to talk about herself.”

Dale Cable, Maddie’s dad, will add later on: “I think her teammates and I have talked more about her in the past five years than she has. It’s sometimes like pulling teeth to get her to talk about herself.”

This is not to say that Cable is not vocal. Bring up the dogs, the two golden retrievers back home (she’s named one of them Sidney Oatmeal Cable), and the puppy, Donnie, currently taking South Bend by storm. Thanks to her lighter class load this semester, Cable has the time to take care of him. When she goes to practice, Donnie takes a nap. His Instagram account, which Cable orchestrates, is already blowing up. “It’s so much fun to get a little puppy. He’s getting really good,” says Cable.

“Maddie loves a lot of things, nothing more than that dog,” says Huffman, laughing.

As far as interviews go, it’s simply the way she is wired. Here is a player completely devoted to her team. In a sense, it follows that her focus would turn outward first. Says Huffman, “She can almost be too unselfish sometimes, but that just speaks to her personality. She’s all about the team.”

Dale hones in upon this point, too. “That’s just her—her focus is on the team and on winning. They go hand in hand. Her first question after a game has nothing to do with her. It’s, ‘How did the team do?'”

It’s what her first teammates at Notre Dame noted. Here was Skylar Diggins, ahead of Cable’s freshman season: “Maddie? She’s kind of the quiet one. But she’s actually really funny if you get to know her.”

“My personality, I like to have fun,” says Cable. “Be goofy, joke around. This team makes a lot of jokes, and it helps with the atmosphere. But when it comes time to play, I’m serious.”

Maddie being Maddie. The subtle sense of humor setting a room aglow. “Maddie was my roommate, my first summer here,” says Huffman. “Right away, she was very outgoing. Jokes, goofy…that’s the best way to describe her. She puts herself out to be made fun of. These last couple of years, you see the confidence she’s gained. She feels she can bring more of that goofy side out.”

Adds Dale, “She’s quiet until she gets to know people. She’s careful with what she says. But after that, she does have that subtle humor, and it does sneak up on people.”

At tip-off, you might notice Cable sitting on the bench next to Huffman and Whitney Holloway. Cable calls it a ritual. “It’s always been like that,” says Huffman. “It’s not so much good luck, but we’re just talking about what’s going on. We talk over the scout. Then, we’ll make little jokes. We’re still engaged, but it helps keep us loose.”

Cable grew up in Mt. Lebanon, a suburb seven miles south of Pittsburgh, and there’s a ruggedness revealed from the moment she checks into games, usually around the first media timeout. Immediately, you see the grit. The uncanny nose for contact—Polamalu jumping a passing lane.

“I think Maddie’s very versatile, but very easy to underestimate,” says Huffman. “Some teams scout her and think she’ll just shoot threes when she comes in, but she does so many things that don’t go on a stat sheet. For a smaller guard, she’s a great offensive rebounder. She’s a fantastic shooter. But it’s her intangibles that set her apart. That jumping ability, the great reach. Out of everyone on this team, she has the best nose for the ball. You watch her and wonder, ‘How did she know the ball would go there?'”

Notre Dame has long been known for the selflessness pervading its program, and few embody the ethos more fully than Cable. When a teammate goes flying out of bounds in pursuit of a loose ball, she is on hand to pick her up and give a hearty high-five.

“She is the consummate team player,” says Notre Dame head coach Muffet McGraw, who hails Cable as one of the team’s unsung heroes. “She doesn’t care if she starts or if she comes off the bench, if she plays three or 30 minutes. She just wants to win. That’s all she’s ever cared about.”

McGraw continues. “The best teams that we’ve had at Notre Dame, we’ve had that sixth man that’s so versatile, who’s given us whatever we needed. You get a list when Maddie checks into the game: defense, scoring included. A lot of teams aren’t as good when they go to the bench. Sometimes, I think we look better.”

There are the steals and “almost-steals.” All those deflections she causes. One of which, in the second half of a convincing win against No. 8 Louisville this past Monday, saw Cable jump a passing lane, as is her wont. She got a hand to deviate the path of the ball, and it caromed off the leg of Cardinals guard Jude Schimmel and out of bounds.

Notre Dame ball.

“I just try to bring energy and encourage other people to do the same,” says Cable. “Whether it’s in practice or a game. When other people catch on, everyone else gets better.”

***

She began playing because of her sisters. Kassie and Jourdan were six and four years older, respectively, and Cable was a constant at their practices and games, roaming the sidelines, shooting. When she wasn’t shooting, she watched. “I liked it,” Cable says. “I just kept going with it.”

“One time, when I was in sixth grade, our dad was our coach, and he told my team that we weren’t allowed to shoot threes. We weren’t strong enough yet,” says Jourdan, who remembers looking off to the side to see her little sister calmly swishing treys. “I asked my dad about her, and he says, ‘Oh no, she can shoot them!'”

“I remember Christmas, when she was in first grade,” says Dale. “It was so cold. We were all waiting for Christmas dinner. But Maddie had gotten a basketball, and she wouldn’t come in until she’d made five in a row from the three spots she’d picked. She was shooting on a 10-foot hoop, with a regulation-size ball. She’s so competitive, and she’s always been like that.”

Dale coached Kassie and Jourdan on school and club teams from fourth to eighth grade. He alternated coaching Cable through those years with a close friend, who had a daughter in the same grade.

Skill development was paramount. Dale made sure his daughters developed the correct shooting motion and skill set to match. To that strong base, Cable coupled her unbridled intensity. “150 percent,” is how Dale describes her effort.

Jourdan remembers heated games in the backyard, sister vs. sister, and the moment the tables turned. Maddie, now a high schooler, began blocking Jourdan’s shots. “It was a wake up call,” Jourdan says. “My little sister wasn’t so little anymore.”

Cable became a coveted prospect, and recruiting became hectic, the Cables inundated with letters and phone calls. Noise, noise, noise. Dale vividly remembers the final stages, when Cable was close to picking a school. She’d narrowed her list to five, and the big questions were surfacing. Where do I want to go? What am I looking for?

Notre Dame had some serious cards in its favor. Prestigious academic reputation, for one. Then came the definitive discussion, with the Cables nestled around their kitchen table. Cable’s high school coach, Dori Oldaker, was there too, and Dale remembers her asking the question that tipped the scales. How big is the factor of playing for a national championship each year?

At Mt. Lebanon, Cable had played in four state championship games, in the highest Pennsylvania prep classification, and taken home top prize three times. The Blue Devils went undefeated her sophomore year. She’d helped compile a 114-14 overall record. There was a challenge in pursuing that level of excellence. Cable’s kind of challenge. South Bend it would be.

“For the past seven years, she doesn’t know anything but being in a finals setting,” says Dale, referencing Notre Dame’s tremendous run in recent years. National championship appearances in ’11, ’12 and ’14, a Final Four in ’13. Then Dale adds, in reference to this year for Maddie: “Hope I don’t jinx it.”

The Fighting Irish are currently ranked fourth in the country, 26-2 heading into Thursday night’s game against Pittsburgh. Dale sees a purpose in the play, different from many other teams. “They have certain kids, like Jewell [Loyd] and Brianna [Turner] who do most of the scoring, but it’s never a one-on-one show. They share the ball, they get good shots. That’s engrained, and that style fits the type of kids brought here, Maddie included,” he says.

“Coach McGraw focuses upon defense, playing hard, and playing as a team,” says Oldaker. “Maddie thrives in that type of environment.”

“She leads the team in steals. She’s shooting the ball extremely well (47 percent from three, also leading the Irish),” McGraw says of Cable this season, before citing, like Huffman, the intangibles that set the senior apart. “It’s the little hustle plays. She’ll take a big charge, dive after a loose ball. There’s just so many things.”

For the eight weeks Cable was home this summer, she put up at least 500 shots a day with Dale, five times a week. “She’s self-motivated,” says Dale. “Rah-rah motivation doesn’t really work for her. She doesn’t scream and yell. Her leadership is by example.”

***

Everyone who knows Cable returns the descriptor. Maddie being Maddie. It often prefaces some really good stories.

There was the game Cable’s junior year in high school, when Mt. Lebanon traveled to the T-Mobile Classic in Alabama over Christmas break. Faced prep power St. Mary’s (CA) High on national TV.

As Oldaker recalls, “There were two broadcasters at the scorer’s table for that game. Now, for some reason, Maddie has always called me her mom—jokingly, of course. She’s got a wonderful mother. But she’d be like ‘Hey Mom,’ on the bench, and Carl (Satira), my assistant, she’d call him Dad. She was doing it during this game, and the commentators turned to me and asked, ‘Are you her mom?’ It was just so natural. You gotta love her. There’s just nothing not to love about that kid.”

The Georgetown game, her sophomore season in South Bend. Midway through the first half, Cable double-teamed Hoyas center Vanessa Moore in the post. “[Moore] swung her elbow, caught Maddie across the jaw, and she got bloodied up,” Dale says of the foul, which was called a technical. “They checked [Maddie] out, got the blood controlled. Because of the blood, she couldn’t shoot her foul shots. But she wanted to shoot them.”

Jourdan remembers a picture popping up on her phone afterward. There was Maddie with a chipped tooth, beaming. “She has this grit. It’s crazy how many times she ends up on the floor,” says Jourdan. “When she was younger, it was the same thing. She loved getting bruises during games. Black eyes? Yeah. She’s not afraid to get into it.”

“Just Maddie being Maddie,” says Huffman. “She has no fear putting her body on the line.”

It’s sometimes easy to forget about the profound levels of skill. In addition to the picture-perfect form and range extending past three, there are these layups. The one on the road last Thursday against Georgia Tech. Notre Dame, nursing a one-point lead with 8 minutes to go. Fighting Irish guard Lindsay Allen misses a mid-range jumper way short. Cable, unchecked, glides in from the right baseline and, in one sweeping motion, converts an acrobatic, up-and-under reverse tip-in of a layup. It was one of 11 rebounds and two of the nine points she provided in the 71-61 win.

When I recall this to Dale and Jourdan, they finish off the play for me. “That was pretty,” says Jourdan. “At that level, every player has smarts, but Maddie’s knowledge is excellent. She could tell you every detail about a play that happened in high school. I’ll have no idea what she’s talking about, but she remembers it like it was yesterday. She just sees the game really well.”

“She has the ‘it’ factor,” says Oldaker. “She has that will-to-win, hate-to-lose you love in a player.”

This week, the family converges upon South Bend. Jourdan arrives on Wednesday. Dale was already out there this past weekend, and he got to see Cable help the Irish to that 68-52 win over Louisville, Notre Dame’s 12th win in a row.

It had all the makings of a classic Cable performance. Within minutes of checking in, she’d cycled through defending a 6-2 forward and two guards listed at 5-10 and 5-6. On her first defensive possession, she forced that 6-2 forward into a tough miss. The next time down the court, Cable dove to the floor to save a loose ball for Loyd.

Then came a steal, a burst of pace upcourt, and a hard-nosed finish to cap an 8-0 run that put Notre Dame up 17-14. Louisville called timeout. Cable, who’d gone tumbling to the floor, got up and headed back to the bench. But not before doling out a few high-fives, smiling that smile.

She missed the ’11-12 season, her true freshman campaign, due to stress fractures in both feet. Notre Dame does not use “redshirt” in its athletic classifications, so Cable, despite her senior academic standing, would be eligible to play in ’15-16.

Which means more winning plays. Opponents can’t wait.

Image courtesy of Stephen Treacy

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Midway through the second half of this past October’s game, a 6-0 freshman guard named Courtney Ekmark dribbled toward the top of the key and calmly asked for an on-ball screen from one of her male teammates.

“She looks at home out there,” remarked Huskies legend Rebecca Lobo, on the call for ESPN, which was streaming the event. It was as much a reference to Ekmark’s command of the situation as her ability to hang with the boys. Which made sense—Ekmark had spent the past year playing in boys leagues around her home of Phoenix, AZ. She’d practice with her younger brother’s AAU team and play in at least two games each weekend. She trained three times a week with Frank Johnson, a former NBA player and coach. She even spent a weekend working with fabled hoops guru John Lucas in Houston.

Ekmark was the top-ranked student in her class at St. Mary’s High, and after three years, she’d completed a heavy course load that allowed her flexibility. She could finish her remaining few pre-college requirements through online coursework.

She was also one of the nation’s top basketball prospects, committing to UConn before her sophomore year’s second semester wrapped. In April of her junior year, she’d traveled to New Orleans with her father, Curtis, to watch the women’s Final Four. As UConn cruised to National Title No. 8, Ekmark turned to her dad and said, of the Huskies’ scintillating play, “This has nothing to do with high school basketball.”

Ekmark had been mulling over the prospect of asking for home school in her final year before college, but that weekend sealed her decision. Her parents, initially skeptical, came on board when Ekmark, in typical fashion, presented a well-researched PowerPoint. UConn guard Moriah Jefferson had been home-schooled. Same with Tim Tebow. As long as Courtney fulfilled two requirements: making a plan, and working hard to fulfill it, they were on board.

So, with more time afforded her, Ekmark tinkered and tailored and refined her game, seeking every little thing that could prepare her for what she’d seen at the Final Four. Like many kids, Ekmark had run the gamut of youth sports: soccer, basketball, tennis, even gymnastics until she grew too tall. Unlike many kids, she tethered an uncanny discipline to her endeavors. One day, she decided she wanted to become a great shooter. So, she made a chart. Ten thousand shots later, she’d begun to see results she liked.

There were all-star games, and while some were fun, at times Ekmark would grow frustrated. Her telling take on one of these events: not enough passing. But on the way home, she’d reflect on how lucky she was to be headed to a program filled with teammates who played the right way.

This is what happens when a program has won nine National Titles through such a tremendous aesthetic. They win, and they look very good doing it. They inspire the next generation to work until they’ve deserved to counted among them.

So it goes again this season. In a Feb. 9 showdown that pitted the then-No. 2 Huskies against No. 1 South Carolina, likely their last great test before the NCAA tournament, UConn stuck to the script. Midway through the first half in Storrs came the spark. Then, the deluge. UConn transformed a three-point deficit into a 47-31 halftime lead.

Speaking with reporters following the 87-62 win, UConn’s 21st straight since an overtime defeat to Stanford in November, which snapped a 47-game win streak, Auriemma said that the possibility of playing in this kind of game convinces recruits to become Huskies. It’s the whole point of coming to this place, where pursuit of perfection is the stated goal. Test yourself against the best.

That win showed how far this year’s team has come. During that afore-mentioned First Night. Auriemma said that heading into ’14-15, he had two groups. There was the core of veterans returning from back-to-back titles, and a group of four talented but unproven newcomers, whittled to three following Sadie Edwards’s transfer in December. Auriemma knew it would need to become a cohesive group if UConn was to repeat the three-peat of the early aughts.

That means committing to the program’s quintessential brand of improvement. When Auriemma recruited Stefanie Dolson, he figured she’d contribute to UConn through her versatility on offense. Because at that stage, the 6-5 forward simply wasn’t a good rebounder. But by the time Dolson graduated last spring, she was pulling down a team-best 9.3 boards per game. She was a fundamental factor in title No. 9.

Saniya Chong, now a sophomore, experienced her own drought last season. Despite opening her UConn career with some excellent offensive performances (this is a kid who finished her high school career with a shade under 3,000 points), Auriemma saved his highest praise for a game in which she didn’t score at all. If she was going to really help UConn, she’d need to round out her game. She had to learn what it meant to be great. Setting screens and embracing stifling defense had to become part of her day-to-day arsenal.

That’s what Chong had come to UConn to do. Auriemma said recently that the 5-8 guard could have picked any number of big-time schools, and she would have been a star. But Chong wanted to fit into a team. So, she came to Storrs. She instinctively sacrificed the spotlight for the consistent pursuit of national titles.

Says Ekmark, “Every time a player goes here, they get so much better. Every day, you’re pushed, you’re tested. That’s why they get so much out of their players. That’s why I came here.”

“I would hope that every kid that comes to Connecticut wants to improve and be a better player,” Auriemma wrote in an e-mail. “It’s a pretty competitive environment. If you stay the same, your playing days are going to be over before you know it. Every day, you have to improve. That’s part of the challenge of being here.”

This season, the three freshmen have contributed in different stages. Kia Nurse, a 6-0 guard from Canada possessed with uncanny cool and drive, was a starter from the third game and checks in at second on the team in assists, steals and three-pointers made. Gabby Williams, a 5-11 guard-turned-forward from Sparks, NV, has begun to flex her muscle and athleticism in the post, showing some prodigious finishing ability around the rim. She averages 6.4 rebounds in just 17.0 minutes a game.

“Kia has been more than anyone would have any right to expect,” Auriemma wrote. He cited each freshman’s tremendous desire to improve. “Gabby has days and weeks where she looks like she’s a senior. She also has days and weeks where she looks like she’s a freshman. Right now, we’re trying to get her to understand that consistency is the name of the game in college.”

Ekmark’s campaign was wrenched by a stress reaction that caused her to miss six weeks. Since returning in early January, she has begun working her way back into the fold. “We’re still trying to figure out what works, and what role [Ekmark] is going to be able to fill,” wrote Auriemma. “She missed a bunch of weeks with a foot injury and obviously that didn’t help. Eventually, we’ll find what kind of role she will fill. It’s going to be up to her to embrace whatever role that is going to be.”

Against South Carolina, the three freshmen played a combined 24 minutes (Nurse had 19 of them). That relatively low number had more to do, however, with the sterling play of the starting five and some superb production from Chong. But when the freshmen sit, they do not sulk. They watch. From watching, they learn. Once again, UConn is applying the recipe that has produced these championship runs. Leadership passed down. When your number is called, seize the opportunity.

“Seeing games like the South Carolina game, with the whole stadium sold out, you just want to be in the center of that,” says Williams. “That’s why we came here. Every day in practice, we’re competing against the best players in America. When it comes to these big-time games, you’re ready. I wanted that challenge.”

***

Auriemma remembers the teams with Taurasi and Moore, how their greatness was revealed through the intensity of practice. Those defensive sessions when he’d pit his players against a greater number on offense. First, three-on-four. Then, three-on-five, then six. Each time the opponents were sufficiently stifled, they’d demand that Auriemma throw on one more.

There are many reasons why UConn has become the pinnacle of women’s college basketball, but that commitment is paramount. Auriemma enlists the services of all-everything All-Americans who’ve been told, as Mosqueda-Lewis said to SLAM last December, “that we’re good at it all, that we don’t need to fix anything.”

“I think that sometimes, when freshmen get here, they’re shocked at how hard it is compared to what they think it’s going to be,” Auriemma wrote. “Every high school kid in America thinks they can go to college as a freshman and be really good. Basically, the answer is, they’re out of their mind. Playing at this level, for any freshman, is really hard.”

“But they never put you in impossible situations,” Nurse says of the coaching staff. “They push your limits, but it’s so that you get better. When it comes to a game, you realize, I’ve already done this a million and a half times.” Adds Ekmark: “It’s our job to soak in what they’re saying.”

“The main thing is doing what you’re really good at,” says Williams. “This team is so talented that each person only has to do so much. For me, I’m playing in the post. I came into college without a single post move, and it was a wake-up call. But that’s where I fit into this team, so I put my trust in the coaches. They see things we don’t. They find what you’re really good at, and they find a way to make it work.”

Mosqueda-Lewis can look back at her first three years and realize she was implicitly gleaning certain aspects of leadership from the likes of Kelly Faris, Caroline Doty, Bria Hartley and Dolson. This season, Nurse notes, Moriah Jefferson will pull her aside and tell her when and where and how best to attack. “Our leaders are exceptional,” says Nurse. “[Morgan] Tuck is always talking, giving you advice. To have that trust and that understanding, it makes me feel more comfortable.”

Says Williams, “There’s nothing better than hearing something from your peer. When something’s not going right, the leaders on this team are the first ones to grab me, tell me what I need to do better. That’s why these teams have been so successful. Teammates haven’t been shy to tell ugly truths. That’s the type of leader I want to be.”

“If you’re a freshman, you pay attention to what Kaleena is doing,” wrote Auriemma. “You pay attention to how she gets ready for practice, the things she does in practice, why she’s such a good shooter. There are great examples around you every minute of every day here. If you pay attention, and I think our freshmen are, then you’re going to get better. All our junior class knows is winning National Championships. So if you’re not affected by that, you’re just not paying attention.”

Asked about the Stanford loss, from which UConn has rebounded so resoundingly, Nurse says, in perfect deadpan, “It was a bit of a kerfuffle.” She remembers the team sitting down afterward, talking it over in earnest. Nurse, who’d fouled out, was particularly eager to make amends. “We didn’t want it to happen again,” says Nurse. “We made a change from that point, and worked to get better.”

Auriemma calls Nurse as competitive, if not more so, than any player on this season’s team. “She competes like that every minute of every practice and every game. She plays the game the way it was meant to be played,” he wrote. Adds Williams, citing Nurse’s extensive experience with the Canadian senior national team, “She’s already played against the best players in the world. She doesn’t play like a freshman. She brings a rare intensity, and she couples that with always wanting to learn.”

Williams continued: “After Stanford, we knew we would have to step up, starting in practice. We knew that people weren’t going to roll over just because UConn is printed across our chest. After that loss, the way we practiced and communicated completely changed. We realized, ‘We’re good, but we need to be great. Before that, we weren’t being great.”

Auriemma sees a team that has gotten better with time. “I’m not sure we understood completely what life was going to be like without Stefanie [Dolson] and Bria [Hartley],” he wrote. “[The Stanford] game was a great reminder of what we had to do. We needed players to step up, other than Breanna Stewart. We needed to get much better defensively. I think we are better in every area now than we were that night.”

***

Curtis Ekmark, Courtney’s father, began coaching his daughter at the U9 AAU level. When I first spoke to him, in October 2013, the first words he used to describe Courtney’s impact were “Intelligence, dedication, discipline and subtlety.”

It was intelligence that allowed Ekmark’s offensive game to continually expand. Curtis knew that at UConn, that trait would be utilized. It has allowed her to stay engaged, even as that stress reaction sidelined her earlier this season. Her mind, always humming. “When I was out, that sucked, but you can still do your best given the situation,” says Ekmark. “For me, that was watching my teammates practice. I kind of figured out the flow of the offense, specifically player tendencies. This person likes to cut at this time, this player likes to shoot from here. Little things I might have missed when I was on the court.”

Like Mosqueda-Lewis before her, Ekmark hoped to shed the tag of ‘shooter’ affixed to her throughout her prep career. She wants to be known as a complete player, one who can duck down into the post, board up and provide assists like we’ve seen Mosqueda-Lewis do on the biggest stages.

Adds Auriemma, “Courtney has some skills that have helped us, and would help any team. I think defensively, there’s going to have to be some growing. She’s going to have to learn how to guard at the collegiate level. Offensively, she has a reputation of being able to shoot the ball. Right now, her shooting percentage (31% FG, 22% 3FG) is not where she wants it to be. Again, it’s more getting acclimated to the college game than anything else.”

The acclimation to her new teammates has been seamless. Ekmark lives next door to Nurse and Williams, and, as Nurse notes, “We’re usually dancing and singing. It helps to have the two of them there, going through the exact same freshman things.”

That final year before college, Ekmark created a bucket list comprised of five categories. Charity, religion, basketball, family and…other—namely, things she normally wouldn’t have had the time to do during a school year. Like, cooking class. “Oh yeah, that was fun,” Ekmark says, chuckling. “I actually did it with my mom. It was at Sur La Table, and we made homemade pasta. Next year at UConn, I’ll be in an apartment, so I’ll have a kitchen, and I’ll be able to cook.”

Ekmark plans on majoring in sports management and business. Maybe she’ll throw in a broadcasting minor, too. “These are kind of broad ideas,” she says, before noting she’d obviously like to play basketball as long as possible. “But coaching, law school, being a wedding planner, those are three things I’ve thought of. Still, you never know…”

Maybe another thought will arise, another path to take. After all, she still has three-plus years to go. These UConn kids, huh. Always thinking one step ahead.

Photo courtesy of Stephan Slade

The post Torchbearers appeared first on SLAM.

A transfer from Virginia Tech just eligible this season, Lloyd packed her most decisive punch through a spinning three-pointer, sunk five feet behind the stripe with just over 6 minutes left in the game. It left her hand as the shot clock buzzer sounded, and fell through the hoop moments later. USC was suddenly up 5 and in rapture, thanks to something straight out of One Shining Moment. “She was the hero,” Cal coach Lindsay Gottlieb said afterward of Lloyd. “That shot just deflated us.”

If Lloyd was the hero, then a 6-1 USC guard, also a redshirt-sophomore (but for a different reason) provided the heartbeat. Jordan Adams finished with five points, six assists, six rebounds and three steals, but, as Trojans coach Cynthia Cooper-Dyke noted, “What she gives us, you can’t put on a stat sheet.” For example, it was Adams’s deflection of a Mercedes Jefflo pass that allowed Lloyd to nab a steal that effectively sealed the game.

“The thing about Jordan, she is so talented,” Cooper-Dyke continued. “She helps in so many ways. She plays as a forward in the back of our zone defense, she runs point on offense. She inbounds the ball. She morphs into what we need every night.” Then, with a gleam in her eye, Cooper-Dyke added, “If she makes a couple layups, she could’ve had a nice little number line tonight.”

When told this, Adams gives a little chuckle. She’s seated on a folding chair just off the Haas Pavilion court, ice bags Cello-taped tightly ’round both knees. She’d played 40 minutes, she needed the cold. As she spoke to SLAM, her voice rose in earnest when she approached particularly salient points, eyes lighting up like they do in games when she sees a sliver of space appear. Blink and you’ve missed the inch-perfect pass she delivers.

Adams is more austere command than fly-by, fast-paced action. But when she is firing, it’s basketball at its best. Cooper-Dyke had referenced this capability at Pac-12 Media Day last October. The passes. The inflection Cooper-Dyke placed upon that word provided a portal into Adams’s uncanny force. Poise, precision, skill. The road it took to master them. Since she began hooping on the regular in third grade, Adams played against girls three to four years older than her. “I couldn’t jump, I wasn’t big, so I had no other choice but to be a point guard,” she says.

When told of her coach’s comments, of Cooper-Dyke’s exhortation to still see more from her, Adams nods her head, totally cognizant of the intent. “Of course, she’s demanding” Adams says. “[Cooper-Dyke] yells, she has her moments, and some people, from the outside, they see, ‘Oh, she’s tough, she’s this, she’s that.’ But honestly, what she’s saying is right. You just have to understand that she’s trying to help you.”

So, those layups missed? Well, four of Adams’s points against Cal had come from two supremely deft finishes in the lane. And Cooper-Dyke called them “professional-level” moves.

“When you get injured and you come back, it’s not necessarily that you’re afraid you’re going to get re-injured—there is a bit of that fear—but the biggest one is that you’re not going to be the same player you were before the knee injury,” Adams says. “Doubt enters your mind, and fear. You feel like you suck, you feel like you’re not good anymore, you feel like you’re not going to live up to the hype. I know I did this—I started to live in my own feelings. It really, really beats you down.”

A cadre of teammates was there to help. So was Cooper-Dyke, one of the all-time greats in women’s basketball, whose energy and verve are such that her players profess to having seen her do cartwheels into 6 a.m. practice. She helped build Adams back up. You’re Jordan Adams! You’re the same Jordan you were in high school, you’ve just got to bring it out. You have that ability, it hasn’t left you. You just have to know it for yourself.

“That’s what I’ve been doing,” Adams says, “getting my mental right.”

Says Cooper-Dyke, “You see a lot more of her confidence now. She’s playing with a little more swag. The real Jordan is coming out. We just need more of it!”

Adams was academic all-conference in ’13-14, and will wrap up her bachelor’s degree in communications (with a minor in business) this spring, before moving on to a graduate program in communications management next fall. This is her second season as a team captain, a role which Lloyd says she performs “perfectly.” When the Cal game ended, Adams’ first instinct was to wrap Lloyd in a bear hug. Game recognize game.

Before games, she is calm. Well, before home games there are Call of Duty showdowns on a split screen between teammates, and they can get a bit rowdy. But once Adams sits down on the bench, with tip-off moments away and fans roaring something considerable, she ducks her head down, shuts her eyes and experiences this moment of complete…calm.

Then, the team captain resurfaces, the one who realizes she has a responsibility for this season’s short-handed side. Ariya Crook, the Trojans’ leading scorer in ’13-14, was dismissed in September. Then, Chyanne Butler and Destinie Gibbs were gone. Kiki Alofaituli, a pivotal member of the surge toward the 2014 Pac-12 tournament title that sealed an NCAA tournament bid, left the team for personal reasons last month. Talented freshmen Mackenzie Calvert and Kristen Simon are scheduled for MRIs on their shoulder and knee, respectively.

Says Adams of the attrition, “Everyone in the country is telling us, we can’t do it this season. But we have talent, we have heart, we can beat good teams. We hung with South Carolina on the road in the season opener. But we have to believe that. We can’t listen to people saying ‘You guys aren’t this, you just lost another player!’ That kind of stuff just brings negativity — you’ve just got to push it out.”

Against the Bears, Adams sensed a nothing-to-lose mentality reverberating from her team. The kind that keys the sort of performances seen toward the end of ’13-14, when USC was one of the hottest teams in the country. On nights like these in Berkeley, celebrating a big win over a great team, Adams can sense a bridge back to what makes the Trojans fearsome.

“We’re down to eight players, but we told each other before (the Cal game), ‘You can’t get tired. You can’t foul out. It’s just not an option.’ We just came out here and believed in one another and Alexis Lloyd stepped up for us so big, so big, tonight,” Adams said, clapping her hands along to each word for emphasis. “She knew that she needed to. We knew our roles. We stepped up.”

It was the kind of hair-raising pep talk her head coach might have given. Seemed perfect somehow to have it come from Adams.

Photos courtesy of David Foley, USC Athletics

The post Captain Adams appeared first on SLAM.

“It’s kind of confusing to explain,” Minato says to a SLAM writer, unfamiliar with this particular scene. (To sum up: four regiments, 36 companies, 150 cadets in each.)

Minato is a junior at Army, or in West Point jargon, a “second class.” She also happens to be one of the most dynamic guards in college basketball.

But long before she hits the court, she’s wolfing down a meal before the first class of the day begins at 7:30. These studies, many of which concern her environmental science major, might run until 3:30 p.m., with only a brief break for lunch in between. Then, it’s off to practice, which runs ’til 6 or 6:30, at which point it’s off to dinner and back to her room for homework, which she will complete by 11:30. Lights out, head to bed, get ready to do it all again.

“It’s a pretty busy day,” says Minato, “so you gotta learn to manage your time.”

Since the start of her sophomore season, Minato has averaged 22.2 points while hitting 46 percent from the floor, 43 percent from three and 91 percent from the line. She boards up, provides assists and nabs steals. Quite consistently, too—she’s 11th all-time for Army in terms of dimes dished.

It took Minato just 59 games—see: February of her sophomore season—to reach 1,000 points for her career. Fastest it’s ever been done in the program’s 38-year history. In a 50-46 come-from-behind win on the road over Bucknell on February 15, Minato scored 22 points—and played all 40 minutes for the second game in a row and 12th time in 2014-15.

That marked her 73rd consecutive game scoring in double digits (a conference record). She currently clocks in at third in the program’s all-time scoring ranks, and grows ever closer to the top mark. She’s posted 49 points in a game, last season against Holy Cross.

She even took down Steph Curry in a three-point shooting contest last summer, when Team USA stopped by campus for a training session ahead of the FIBA World Championships. Coach K, himself a West Point grad, declared Minato the victor after noticing that Curry had…stepped over his respective stripe a few too many times.

“She’s probably had to do too much for us,” says Army head coach Dave Magarity. “I coached Rik Smits for three years (at Marist), and he was the No. 2 pick in the ’88 NBA Draft. That’s probably the only player I’d compare Minato to in terms of consistent production, efficiency and play.”

Minato fell upon the school rather late by Army’s recruitment standards, which are among the nation’s most stringent. Recruiting classes wrap quite early for Magarity, but with Minato still uncommitted by December of her senior year at Huntington Beach (CA) High, Magarity decided to make a push. Minato received an e-mail with the Black Knight logo, but she sat on it for a few weeks, not quite sure what to make of it.

But there is a strong current of military service that runs through the Minato family, and as she began to research the school, she noticed opportunities unfolding. Magarity was able to scout Minato with his entire staff during a trip to Arizona State, which coincided with Minato’s participation in the Nike Tournament of Champions tournament, in Phoenix. Soon, she was headed to West Point for a visit. She loved the campus and the way the team fit together.

“Not only was the family history a big factor, but I’d be going to a place I could be challenged physically, mentally and emotionally, going after a really unique experience I know I couldn’t find anywhere else,” says Minato.

Magarity compares West Point to the Ivy League, and in terms of academic rigor, it’s fitting. Then, there are the physical requirements: exacting fitness tests on top of athletic requirements.

“There’s so much that goes into this place that people don’t understand,” says Magarity. “To see what’s expected of these players, it’s remarkable. But they’re different. They’re focused. They have a big picture. Kelsey knew that she would have to lead and command people after graduation.”

Minato describes her collegiate experience so far: challenging, rewarding, satisfying. Upon graduation, she will be commissioned as a second lieutenant into the U.S. Army. Following a five-year commitment, she’ll have the choice to stay on as a captain in the service.

“There have been moments where I’ve been overwhelmed, but there’s a reason why we have to take so many classes here. West Point piles a ton of stuff on us because they want us to learn how to operate under stress and pressure and still be an effective leader. I’ve hated those moments, but it’s a good learning experience to learn to juggle responsibilities, even when you’re not in the most ideal conditions,” says Minato.

There’s something about going through it with teammates who share in each stage of the mental and physical rigors. “It’s not just a team—you’re with girls who have gone through the same experience as you,” says Minato. “There’s a lot of people willing to help. It’s just a matter of seeking them out.”

“My responsibility, not only as a point guard but as a team captain, is to make sure everyone stays focused,” says Minato. “We’ve focused upon coming together as a team, bouncing back from adversity and just playing basketball. That’s all it comes down to.”

She’s been to an NIT, but she wants another NCAA tournament berth like the one last season. And she wants to advance in the field. Playing at this rate, why not? Speaking of performance, here’s the scary thing.

“She can get better,” says Magarity. “I’m always busting her chops about it.”

Photos courtesy of Army Women’s Basketball

The post Cadet Kelsey appeared first on SLAM.

“If it’s a good time for you to talk, it’s a good time for me,” she says.

Tarakchian. The Swiss-army knife of a 6-0 forward averaging just shy of a double-double for the Princeton women’s basketball team, which is 19-0 and off to the best start in Ivy League women’s basketball history. As of Monday, ranked 18th in the country—the highest ever for an Ivy. One of two remaining unbeatens in the women’s game this season.

And this particular road trip, the Harvard/Dartmouth swing. It’s a fitting time for Tarakchian, a junior, to look back.

But let’s start with an email. Benjamin Badua, sports information director for this Princeton team, contacts Tigers coach Courtney Banghart about a SLAM Magazine writer’s interest in profiling Tarakchian.

“I’m the biggest ANNIE fan on the planet,” Banghart writes.

When she speaks with SLAM, Banghart is in her car. It’s Wednesday night, and she’s on the way home from a team dinner. She begins with a few descriptions: Tarakchian is critical to Princeton’s success. You could call her the heartbeat of this team, on and off the court. If you need a three, a rebound, or a charge—she took three charges in practice yesterday!!—Tarakchian will provide it. The kid would play every minute of every day, if she could. Just loves the game.

Then, we get to brass tacks. The bus story. The reason behind this kid’s renaissance. “She’ll probably tell you about it,” Banghart says, stifling a chuckle, “so I’ll tell my version first.” Of course she did, Tarakchian will say later, laughing as well.

It’s Thursday, Feb. 20, 2014, Princeton practice ahead of last season’s Dartmouth/Harvard trip. Back-to-back games on Friday and Saturday: the root canal-type deal known as Ivy League conference play. At this point, Tarakchian was a sparsely-used sophomore trying to find her place in the team.

Banghart begins. “It’s so hard to get mad at Annie. She’s just so loveable. But she was so passive. She’d get the ball on offense, put it over her head, and look for the next pass without even thinking of scoring.”

It kept happening. How can I get through to her, Banghart wondered. She decided to go for broke. The next time Tarakchian fired a pass without so much as a glance at the basket, Banghart stopped practice and yelled.

If the next time you catch that ball, you put it over your head, I don’t want you on the bus!

“I remember that perfectly,” says Amanda Berntsen, a Tigers junior guard. “Annie is such a great offensive player, but she wasn’t looking to score. She was just looking to pass, and Coach knew what she could do and she got tired of seeing her not do it. When she said that, ‘Don’t get on the bus,’ Annie kind of looked at her and said, OK.”

Berntsen remembers the sense of something triggering. “Annie scored on the next three possessions of practice. It just foreshadowed what was to come,” says Berntsen.

Says Michelle Miller, another Princeton junior, “Coach is very honest, very candid with you. That helps develop a good relationship. Sometimes we can over-think things, so she challenges you to just play. You’ve done it your whole life, so you know you can get back to that.”

Tarakchian got on the bus, and produced 14 points and seven rebounds in a resounding win over Dartmouth. She followed with 15 points in another dub over Harvard the following night. For her efforts, she was named Ivy League Player of the Week. Banghart sent a jocular tweet: she was happy a certain player had gotten on the bus. Tigers past and present responded with an emphatic YES.

In the last nine games of ’13-14, that fateful weekend included, Tarakchian averaged 11.4 points and 6.8 rebounds. She was named a starter for the final two contests, and posted double-doubles in each.

Asked about that moment of that practice, Tarakchian responds simply. “I needed that.”

“I needed (Banghart) to rip me a little bit and tell me to play the way I know how. I knocked away the cobwebs, and I just went for it. It was so refreshing to be able to help my team on the court.”

Banghart had endured the doubters, the incessant appraisals of, I just don’t see it with that kid. But she knew that there was supreme talent on hand; she just hadn’t quite figured out how to get it.

“It was a surprise to so many,” Banghart says of Tarakchian’s late-season surge. “But it was exactly what I was expecting all along. I’d figured out how to help her understand what her piece to our puzzle was.”

This is a coach who channels Socrates in her instructional method: drawing out the best in her players. One who believes that you haven’t taught it until they’ve learned it. That leaders are judged upon the success of the people that they lead.

She has brought endless reserves of positivity and empathy to Princeton. If a player is struggling, the team not living up to its goals, Banghart works painstakingly to find the right remedy.

“She is absolutely the most positive influence I have ever been around,” Tarakchian says of her coach. “The enthusiasm she brings to this team drives us all. She understands what she needs to do to bring out the best in each of us. I don’t know how she does it, but she’s able to do it because she genuinely wants the best for us.”

Tarakchian is still cresting the wave of momentum. This past summer, she spent 10 weeks in Greece for an internship. In between the work, and from the moment she returned Stateside, she was chipping away at her game. This season, she’s been sensational. Two more conference player of the week awards. MVP of the Cancun Challenge, in which she averaged a double-double through three games over Thanksgiving weekend. She’s currently posting 10.2 points, 9.3 rebounds, 2.7 assists and 1.2 steals while hitting 44 percent from the field and 49 percent from three.

This past weekend, Princeton shrugged off a 20-day layoff (players had been taking first semester final exams) and, with Tarakachian back where it kind of all began, decimated Harvard by 50. The following night, she finished with 15 points, 10 rebounds, six assists, a block and a steal in an 83-65 win at Dartmouth.

When a team starts a season 19-0, winning with such aplomb, there are a multitude of reasons behind the success. For example, top-15 national rankings in an ever-lengthening list of team statistical categories, on both sides of the ball.

And yet, the emergence of Tarakchian might just be the most telling and stirring, because she encapsulates everything Banghart wanted this program to be.

***

Banghart had tracked Tarakchian throughout her time at Chaminade (CA) High, a high-powered program with an annual stake in the state championship field. She noticed colleges passing over this kid, who seemed saddled with the ‘tweener’ label. Not quite quick enough for a guard; not quite tall or strong enough to bang in the post.

But Banghart was a New Hampshire kid well-versed in her region’s sporting lore. When others saw slow, can’t really jump, Banghart saw … Bird. Like Larry Legend, Tarakchian didn’t have a killer first step. But she could play multiple positions, and she found ways to impact the game from each of them. There was passion and so much skill.

“It wasn’t so much, ‘Wow, I found this kid no one else saw,’ but people were caught up on what she didn’t have,” says Banghart. “We’ve gotten blue chip kids here at Princeton, we’ve gotten dynamic athletes, but when you’re setting out a team, you don’t need five kids who do the same thing. You need different skill sets. With Annie, the kid had game, and that’s what we recruited.”

True to her SoCal roots, Tarakchian patterned her game after a modern-day star for the Celtics’ age-old nemesis. “I was a really big Lakers fan growing up,” she says. “We’d watch games, I’d have my oversized Kobe jersey on, and I’d watch what he did and go outside and try to do it too.”

Her dad and older brother would join in games. Pops stood 6-3, big bro played football. “So, I wouldn’t want to go in the post,” Tarakchian says, laughing. “I got my shot, and my range, from that.”

Neighbors would complain when the clock struck 10 or 11 at night, and there’d be Annie, hoisting jumpers, that doggone ball always bouncing. Betterment is often set to such a soundtrack.

Banghart compiled four commitments for the 2012 recruiting class, but she kept after Tarakchian. She decided to have all five players come on the same official visit to Princeton. When they arrived, Banghart pulled the four commits aside and told them, Let’s get Annie to come here.

Tarakchian remembers meeting that quartet, how each brought a different personality and type of game to the table. Miller, the elite scorer; Berntsen, the feisty, fast, do-it-all guard; the top-level posts in Alex Wheatley and Taylor Williams.

A self-professed “slow decision-maker”, Tarakchian credits Banghart with helping guide her through the process. She never felt pressed for a commitment.

When Banghart met with the five recruits in her office, she set forth a challenge. The ’09 Princeton recruiting class, which included Niveen Rasheed, Lauren Polansky, Kate Miller and Megan Bowen, was at that point readying a charge toward a third straight Ivy League title and NCAA tournament berth. They’d make it four for four before they were through.

With the ’12 recruits, Banghart said, Let’s get to the Sweet 16. “I knew they had the pieces, and I was going to hold them to that,” Banghart says.

Berntsen felt inspired. She wanted Tarakchian to be a part of this journey. “The day before we left, I sat down with Annie. I told her how great it would be to have her get to Princeton, how great a time we’d have. I wanted her to be my teammate; I wanted her to be my close friend.”

Tarakchian: “I didn’t need much convincing. It was such a great weekend, and I thank my 17-year-old self for making the decision.” Before November of her senior year, Tarakchian was on board.

Banghart thinks for several beats before assessing Tarakchian’s impact since arriving on campus. “I would call Annie the greatest at life,” she says. “She’s on the student-athlete council, the wellness committee, club boards. She has her hands all over this place, and she’s one of the most loved people on campus. She’s just so loved. She’s so nice, and she cares about everything and everyone. She’s the true Princeton model.”

And the kicker, hearkening back to that initial revelation: “Every single NBA owner wishes they would’ve had Bird,” says Banghart. “That’s kind of how it is with Annie.”

Tarakchian can’t get enough of the energy emitted from this place, the awesome people you meet each day. She feeds off all of it. Her freshman season, she spearheaded a music video re-creation of Mariah Carey’s All I Want for Christmas Is You. Her four classmates starred alongside her. Banghart remembers Tarakchian and Co. asking if they could show a little video after film one day. Please let it be appropriate, Banghart thought. It brought the house down.

“I’m definitely more quiet, so I let Annie take the lead on that,” Miller says, laughing. “But it was a lot of fun. Annie brings people together really well, and that video was a great example of that.”

You can tell a lot about a person based upon the way she plays. That’s one of Banghart’s favorite lessons for her team. Tigers senior Blake Dietrick is a warrior, one of the fiercest competitors Banghart’s ever seen. She’ll succeed because she will compete through life. “And Annie, she lives how she plays,” says Banghart. “She is selfless, she is cohesive. She makes everyone better, and she’ll keep doing that the rest of her life.”

***

When Shirley Tilghman stepped down as the president of Princeton in 2013, a party was thrown in her honor.Shirleypalooza. During the course of the festivities, Tilghman was asked to name her two favorite things at Princeton. Her first answer was the arts. The second?

Women’s basketball.

You can sense the smile as Banghart recounts this over the phone. Tilghman had asked if she could be the Tigers’ academic-athletic faculty fellow. To which Banghart responded, ‘Oh please.’ As if the school president even had to ask.

Still, Banghart was curious. She asked her friend what exactly drew her to the post. The answer she received floored her.

The way your women carry themselves. The glue-like nature of this team is inspiring.

Banghart charges each player with taking care of a teammate. If one isn’t doing well, a buddy is there in an instant. Many programs profess to be without cliques. That word doesn’t exist in Princeton’s lexicon.

Tarakchian and Williams are the only two players who room together, and that’s part of the point. “You don’t need to be the same, or do the same things; closeness is about how you treat each other, how you trust each other. And this team is genuinely close,” says Banghart.

Says Tarakchian, “When something happens to someone on the team, you want to be the first person to know. You want to be the first person to congratulate or console. We share everything, every moment, and its something we’re known for on campus. We’re kind of obsessed with each other. I love these girls.”

“It’s really rare, and it’s special,” says Berntsen. “Everyone is here to win. No one is just looking out for herself. I’m thankful every day for my teammates.”

“That’s meant more to me than anything, that they are respected and liked and cared about,” says Banghart. “We have football players at our games, dancing around. There is this campus-wide affinity for our women’s team, and they’ve earned it.”

Miller remembers looking at the stands during a break in the Ivy League opener against Penn, on Jan. 10. Whoa, she thought, this is one of the best crowds we’ve ever had. Several football players, dressed in crab suits, kept trying to distract the Quakers as they shot free throws. Miller couldn’t help but chuckle.

The juniors still remember that challenge, set forth on their official visit. Getting to the Sweet 16. Well … Miller says, when she’s asked. Right now, the Tigers are focused on getting through this Ivy League season, one game at a time. After all, hopes of a fifth straight conference title and NCAA tournament appearance were dashed with a loss on the final day of last season. They do not want that to happen again.

“We’re aware that if we keep playing well and keep winning, we can get a decent seed that will set us up to win a game in the tournament,” Miller says. “Obviously, everyone would love to do it. It would be the first NCAA tournament win for the program.”

Says Berntsen, “We saw how badly Niveen (Rasheed’s) class wanted to win that first-round game. It’s motivated us.”

Motivation is the key word. The Tigers have been one with it since summer. That’s when they laid the groundwork for this season, re-committing to the stifling defense inherent in top teams, getting the conditioning that allows them to play with such pace.

Tarakchian isn’t done improving, and that’s pretty incredible. She’s got more to give to this program. To this place.

“She is the type of girl that knows everybody on campus,” says Berntsen. “Professors, people in the dining hall, maintenance workers. She makes you feel happier. She is this team’s heartbeat, she brings everyone together. I know she’ll always have my back.”

Then, the kicker.

“It’s like Coach said. She’s just great at life.”

The post Work Hard Play Hard appeared first on SLAM.

Perhaps it’s partly due to genes. Corey is the son of Hersey, an offensive savant who averaged a DI-best 36.3 points as a senior at Bradley. He was the sixth overall pick in the ’88 NBA draft, and enjoyed a 13-year career in the league.

So the younger Hawkins always had access to gyms, and he’d head there to hoist jumpers. Lots of ’em. Losing himself in the sound of composite leather tickling twine. The beat of the dribble on hardwood. Siren call for so many.

As a senior at Estrella Foothills (Ariz.) High, Hawkins averaged over 36 points per game. He set single-season and all-time scoring records for the state. Since he hadn’t immersed himself in the AAU grind, it wasn’t until he began breaking history that attention circled. How does it feel to be the state’s scoring leader? 

Hawkins took it in stride. He’s long understood the bigger picture. Stats are important only when placed in the context of a team’s success. (His Estrella Foothills teams won a lot.)

He’d committed early to Arizona State, but as a freshman in Tempe, Hawkins averaged just 8.4 minutes in 24 games. “I felt I had a lot of talent that wasn’t showcased,” Hawkins says. “I’ve always had the utmost confidence that I could compete with anybo`dy.” So, that spring of ’11, he decided to transfer.

Enter Jim Les, who had been a teammate of Hersey Hawkins at Bradley. Though he’d had just one DI scholarship offer out of high school, Les finished his career with 884 assists, a tally that currently ranks 17th all-time in DI. He played seven seasons in the NBA, including one in which he led the league in three-point field goal percentage.

After nine years coaching his alma mater, a string that included a run to the Sweet 16 in ’06, Les took the UC Davis job in May, ’11. He soon learned from his old friend Hersey that Corey was transferring. Here was a kid with the talent to play anywhere in America, but Les knew that Hawkins’s year at ASU had shaped him. He was looking first and foremost for a place where he would be comfortable. He needed trust, a framework he could fit into.

When Les spoke on the phone with Hawkins, he kept his message succinct. The Aggies had won the ’98 DII national championship, but they did not have a pedigree at the DI level. They didn’t have the facilities Hawkins had enjoyed in his year in Tempe. But Les had a vision and a background of succeeding at the highest levels of basketball. He had the utmost confidence that he could build a winner here.

Hawkins visited Davis, and loved the town’s tight-knit feel. Tyler Les, Jim’s son, was on the Aggies roster. Hawkins knew the family well, and he’d once run riot with Tyler at basketball camps conducted by their dads. “There’s a level of respect established anytime you can go where you’re coached by a guy you feel comfortable with. I knew he’d have my best interests in hand,” says Hawkins, who soon signed on.

Here, he could help bring a program to prominence. He’d have the chance to showcase his skill set. Our staff will challenge you. We’ll have your back. We’ll help you get better. We’re gonna work our way up, Les told him.

“Sometimes kids can get focused on the numbers and stats, that they have to average this or shoot that,” says Les. “They lose sight of everything that leads up to those numbers, the fundamentals and practice, committing yourself to what’s best for the team. Corey puts up gaudy numbers, but his chief concern is, How can I help my team win. He does that every day in practice.”

At UC Davis, Hawkins has been a revelation, showcasing one of the nation’s most well-versed offensive arsenals. There’s that shot as a sophomore against UC Irvine. Worth a YouTube search. Driving to his right from the top of the key, drawing contact near the low block, flipping a 10-foot shot over his right shoulder. Buckets.

How the hell did he do that?

This season, he’s averaging 20.8 points, hitting 51% of his shots. He takes 5.6 free throws per game, and hits them at an 80% clip. It’s a style that happens to mirror a former Arizona State star, one who also directs traffic for his team. “It’s the James Harden approach,” says Hawkins. “He’ll get 30 points, but he gets it by going eight of 12 from the floor, and getting the rest from the line. He knows when defenses shift on him, he can involve his teammates. I pride myself on being a good passer, too.”

“I’m amazed at how efficient he is,” says Les. “He doesn’t take many bad shots, and that’s a product of his upbringing. He averaged 36 points as a senior in high school, but he was the most unassuming, least-cocky, least ‘it’s-all-about-me’ type guy. If you have that approach going in, you can put up those types of numbers.”

Despite a recent loss at Hawai’i, UC Davis is off to a 14-4 start, their best-ever at the DI level. “We progress on a steady diet,” says Hawkins, referring to Les’s subscription for growth: strong practices, conducted at game pace. Cohesiveness. “We had the pieces; this year has been about bringing it together.”

In addition to the point production, which leads the Big West conference, Hawkins is averaging 5.4 boards, 3.7 assists and 1.4 steals. Last season, he led Davis in points, assists and steals. Says Les, “Obviously, he came into college with the aura of a great scorer, but he worked really hard to become a complete player. Our staff continues to challenge him, and he’s stuffing the stat sheet now. He’s a better defender and rebounder, he gets assists. And when your best player’s in the weight room, conditioning the way he does, it makes your team better.”

Hawkins should come within a whisker of Audwin Thomas’s all-time program record of 1,821 points — and that’s in just three seasons, following his transfer. So far in ’14-15, he’s 52-of-102 from three, a 51% clip which as of Jan. 21 ranked third in the country. As a team, the Aggies are hitting 44.1% of their treys, tops in DI. Their 50.1% overall field goal accuracy ranks fourth.

“I’ve always been able to shoot, so I don’t know why I had a label as a driver in my first years here,” says Hawkins.

On Jan. 10, the Aggies took down Long Beach State 73-67 in an OT thriller. Hawkins, fending off a tender hamstring, finished with 28 points and 10 rebounds. The Pavilion, as their home gym is known, was packed and rocking. It was a crystallization of Les’s vision four years ago.

Two years ago, the Aggies had come within a last-second shot of beating the 49ers at home. Invoking total recall, blessing and curse of every coach, Les vividly remembers that encounter, and the frustration he’d felt with the final result. But as he traveled home after this season’s win over the Beach, he had a revelation. This team needed that loss two years ago. It helped us grow.

“There are some setbacks you have to have,” says Les. “Last season, we dealt with injuries. Corey was a marked guy, dealing with double- and triple-teams every night. It helped him grow as a player, and we continued to grow as a team. Good programs with character will survive and prosper.”

This season, Davis is doing it at a school-record rate.

(Photo Credit: Wayne Tilcock, Aggiephoto.com) 

The post Like Father, Like Son: Corey Hawkins is a Scorer appeared first on SLAM.

“I really liked the opening anthem,” Lo says of the mystery game. “I thought, basketball is cool.”

He got a hoop in his room and joined a local team. He couldn’t get enough of this sport, and he quickly discovered he had a knack for it. He could see himself pursuing it long-term.

At 18, Lo graduated from high school, and chose to spend a year at prep school in America. This would allow him to become eligible for college basketball. “I could have stayed in Europe and taken the pro route, but I wanted to study. I wanted to acquire knowledge,” Lo says. “Basketball stops at some point, and you have to have a Plan B. That’s the main reason I came to the States: to study and play basketball.”

Wilbraham & Monson (Mass.) Academy is located in a quintessentially quaint swath of New England. Forest and greenery, stretching for miles. It’s nearly 80 miles from Boston. For Lo, accustomed to Berlin’s hustle and bustle, it was the epitome of culture shock. He struggled to adapt.

It was at this juncture, with the 2011-12 basketball season looming large, that Columbia University entered the picture as a possible destination. Kyle Smith had taken the head coaching position in Morningside Heights the season before, and set about rebuilding the once-proud program.

A friend of Smith’s, who’d coached in the NBA and gone on to cover the European game, told him about Lo. Rumor was, the kid was headed to Dayton next year. Smith kept tabs anyway. When he went to watch Lo play on a Sunday morning — must’ve been 9 o’clock — Smith remembers thinking of the 6-3, 190-pound guard, “Hmm…this guy’s good.”

Lo was intrigued about Columbia, and decided to take a visit to Manhattan. He took the train to Penn Station, bucolic woods of Massachusetts slowly transforming into that iconic metal latticework of New York City. Inherent opportunity. When he stepped out of the station, he remembers thinking, Now, I’m in America. “I felt comfortable right away,” says Lo. “The campus was beautiful, I loved Manhattan. There’s a connotation that the Ivy League’s all about academics, but the basketball here is no joke. I realized that, and immediately committed.”

Lo has been a perfect fit for the Lions. Great student, great person, great leader. “We’re about basketball, but we’re also one of the best schools in the world,” says Smith. “Maodo’s a perfect example that you can be great at both.”

With 21 wins in ’13-14, Columbia enjoyed its most successful season in 46 years. Lo averaged 14.7 points, hit 76 threes at a 44.7% clip and kicked his impact into overdrive during the Lions’ run to the College Insider tournament quarterfinals. He hit a game-winner to take down Valparaiso in the first round, and dropped 22 in a loss to Yale in the quarters.

This past summer, he received an invite to train with the German men’s national team ahead of the FIBA World Championships. It was Lo’s first time at the international level. He made the experience count.

One of the biggest differences he found in FIBA play was the 24-second shot clock. It forced him to quicken his decision-making. “It also allows you to read the game differently,” says Lo. “I learned a lot from playing with professional players. It gives you a new perspective.”

Columbia entered ’14-15 with aspirations of contending for an Ivy League title and earning the automatic NCAA tournament bid that comes with it. The reasoning was sound. They returned 100% of their scoring. They had postseason experience. With the exception of Lo, and he could hardly be called idle, the entire team had stayed on campus through summer, putting in work.

Then, hardship hit. In late October, Alex Rosenberg, a senior forward whom Smith believes will go down as one of the best in program history, suffered a fracture. He won’t return until ’15-16. Grant Mullins has missed every game to date. After suffering from mononucleosis, Luke Petrasek has played in just eight. Three starters from ’13-14, who’d provided a combined 33 points per game: poof.

“We’re old school, though,” says Smith. “We gotta find a way. We study guys like Belichick, how coaches press on in these kinds of situations. You’ve got to dig deeper. Other teams have injuries, too.”

With Columbia adjusting on the fly, Lo’s contributions as a junior have proved a saving grace. Through 15 games, he’s posted 16.1 points, 4.7 boards, 2.2 assists and 1.9 steals while hitting 47% of his field goals (40% from three). The Lions are 9-6.

“Maodo’s been thrust into our leading scorer role,” says Smith. “It’s a tall task, but he’s got an unbelievable personality. Really even-keeled, and he’s so talented. He knows he’s capable of doing more. He’s the rare case where you tell him, You need to score more, be more assertive. He’s had to do it, and he’s done it on the big stage.”

There are few venues greater than Rupp Arena. Before 22,112 roaring fans on Dec. 10, Lo and the Lions went toe to toe with No. 1-ranked Kentucky. The Wildcats had trailed for just 36 minutes through their first nine games: it took them 26 minutes to grab a lead against the Lions. In the 56-46 loss, Lo finished with 16 points, seven boards and three steals.

“We call him a six-tool athlete,” says Smith. “He’s the focal point for us.”

UConn coach Kevin Ollie certainly took notice of that performance against UK. “He’s the Ace of Spades,” said Ollie, ahead of the teams’ Dec. 22 matchup in Bridgeport, Conn. Lo dropped 24 on the defending national champs. It was another loss, however, and part of a performance dip following that excellent showing at Rupp.

Lo helped the Lions maintain their footing through that brief slide. “He’s provided a confidence and a belief,” says Smith.

Even with the injuries, there is still serious talent on hand. Kyle Castlin, a freshman guard, has started 15 games alongside Lo, and ranks second on the team with 9.8 points. Columbia won its Ivy League opener over Cornell, and now begins the charge toward another postseason berth.

With Lo saddled with foul trouble in the Ivy opener, Castlin provided 12 key points. Frankoski had 10 off the bench. As is their habit, the Lions assisted on 61% of their field goals against the Big Red.

“We preach attitude and work ethic, and it resonates with certain guys who’d rather be part of a team than focused on more individual stuff,” says Smith.

Says Lo, “Having that type of selfless attitude is a big part of our program. We’re close to each other, and it definitely translates onto the court. It’s a big part of growing as a player: consistently improving and gaining confidence. Columbia has allowed me to evolve.”

When Lo began at Columbia, he had no idea what he wanted to study. After setting out upon several tracks, he settled upon sociology and business. He enjoys heading to Chelsea, just a half hour away from campus on the 1 train, grabbing food and walking around. Something’s always unfolding in this city.

He’ll throw on his headphones, press Play and listen to some Nas. “He’s one of my favorites, big-time,” says Lo. “I think I’m his biggest fan in Germany.”

Dude’s got New York on lock.

(Photo Credit: Columbia University Athletics) 

The post Maodo Lo: From Berlin to Ivy League Hoops Star appeared first on SLAM.

“Becca’s great,” Riggs says, her trademark ebullience evident even over the phone.

‘Great’ would be an apt descriptor for Greenwell’s well-versed game (her head coach calls her special), but Riggs digs past that. With Greenwell, you start with the intangibles. The demeanor, the hustle, the insatiable desire to improve. Success, with so many roots embedded beneath it.

Riggs goes with the word humble. “Becca’s one of the hardest-working girls on this team. She’s always in the gym. She stays after practice, she works on off-days,” Riggs says. “Some players are great, and they like to tell people how great they are. But she’s not like that at all. She’s someone who values hard work.”

Greenwell alternates between three perimeter positions for Duke, and spends considerable time running point. Since Riggs arrived on campus as a junior college transfer this summer, Greenwell has been floored by her teammate’s handle, and the myriad drills she does to improve it.

So, she asks Riggs for help. After practice, on off days, doesn’t matter—they’re in the gym getting better. One dribbles, the other pushes and prods in approximation of a defender. Then, two-handed dribbling: bouncing one ball forcefully, the other a pitter-patter like spring rain. They haven’t yet cycled through cones together, says Riggs, before noting that Greenwell frequently solicits coaches to run her through them.

Since July, two of Duke’s best ballhandlers have transferred. First Alexis Jones, then Sierra Calhoun. The Blue Devils are effectively down to three guards, which means Greenwell and Riggs must take on even greater roles. “That puts a lot of pressure on us,” says Greenwell, “but I think we’ve done a good job.”

“Teams will guard [Becca] tight, because she’s a great scorer, but she’s approaching it the right way,” says Riggs. “Even though she’s had so many double-doubles (four) and points (14.8 per through 17 games) this season, she won’t settle.”

Greenwell never understood players who threw up three goggles or swaggered back after putting the ball through the hoop. She patterned her approach after those who, upon scoring, simply ran back on defense. “Hard-working people who get the job done. I think that’s always something I’ve tried to create with my own game,” Greenwell says.

Greenwell received a note from Pat Summitt the summer before sixth grade. Within a year, North Carolina’s Sylvia Hatchell had offered a scholarship. She represented Team USA at the U16 and U17 levels, and was a McDonald’s All-American.

A throwback, devoid of ego. Greenwell would rather talk about what she can do better. For instance, she feels she’s committed too many turnovers of late. Though she does feel more comfortable initiating certain sets, “I don’t see myself as a good point guard at all,” Greenwell says. “I’m just trying my best. I need all the help I can get.”

Hence, the drill sessions with Riggs.

Riggs, the kid from Utah who never in her wildest dreams believed she might one day suit up for showdowns on Coach K Court. Who didn’t play AAU. Who, as a high school senior, was rated a ’40’ by ESPN’s far-sighted recruiting service. Too bad you can’t chart intangibles. Riggs has gone on to become an indispensable component of one of the country’s best teams.

“Mercedes and Becca are fighters,” says Duke head coach Joanne P. McCallie. “They have a desire to compete and represent. It doesn’t matter that Becca was a star in high school, and Mercedes came with a different level of recognition. Their hearts are the same.”

McCallie has referenced sports as a metaphor for life, and that theme applies quite resoundingly to this team, this season. When faced with adversity, one must adapt. In this case, a group—and Duke, a very young group at that, is learning to do just that. McCallie sees resiliency, and a constant search for consistency.

Senior center Elizabeth Williams dropped 26 and 20 against Oklahoma in December, but Greenwell says you’d never know it from watching her work. The same goes for 6-5 frosh wünderkind Azurá Stevens.

“It definitely sets this team apart,” says Greenwell, of ego not entering into the equation. “Everyone has that sense of humbleness, and it makes it special. On other teams, you might have conflict, but we all have one goal. We just want to win.”

***

Growing up in Owensboro, KY, Greenwell was always the tallest player on the court. She remembers games where she might score 20 points, all off layups.

The sort of early success that can lead to stagnation. Peers catch up in height, eventually surpass in skill. But Greenwell always sought to stay ahead of the curve; she expanded her skill set fastidiously. She went to every camp she could. Worked, worked, worked.

There were endless shooting and skill sessions in the yard at home with her older sister, Rachel. “If we weren’t in school or doing chores for mom, we were outside playing,” says Rachel, who played at Bellarmine University. “Early morning or 11 at night, didn’t matter. We just loved it, and I know it helped us develop.”

Greenwell didn’t become known for her shooting range until high school, when she starred for Owensboro Catholic and Tennessee Flight, a premier AAU team. She’d moved from the post to the wing, and pyrotechnics were soon seen, aided by that hair-trigger release. As a senior at Owensboro Catholic, Greenwell hit 17 threes in a game, a national record. She finished her career as one of the most prolific prep players in recent memory.

Riggs starred at Timpanogos (UT) High, but following her senior season, she hadn’t received the offers she’d hoped for. So she enrolled at Salt Lake Community College, and set about expanding her game.

Betsy Spedecker, SLCC’s head coach, hails Riggs as the junior college dream, epitomized. Didn’t get the looks she’d hoped for out of high school. Put her head down and worked and worked and worked ’til her dream came true.

Of the patented intensity and resolve, seen so thrillingly in blue and black this season, Riggs can’t remember not having it. And yet, at times growing up, it came pouring out in untoward ways. In fifth grade, she began Taekwando. Suddenly, she’d found a way to channel all that excess energy. She found the process transformed her approach in basketball, academics and life.

Specketer remembers coming to the gym during summers, knowing Riggs would be there each day hoisting jumpers, honing her handle. “She’s a 100-percenter,” Specketer says. “Every single minute of every day. Her level of commitment is so high that people naturally want to follow her. She elevates your team’s play because she refuses to settle for anything less than the absolute best. People will play hard for that.”

Duke’s coaching staff had been in contact with Spedecker for several months, but Riggs didn’t learn of the interest until the national junior college tournament wrapped last March. Following Jones’s injury last February, McCallie knew it would be imperative to recruit a guard. Late signees are tricky, especially for a university with such stringent academic specifications, but Riggs quickly emerged as the perfect fit. “We were so fortunate to be able to recruit her,” says McCallie. “She had great grades, she interviewed well. We were thrilled she’d leave Utah. It’s really worked out for us.”

For Riggs, Duke ticked all the boxes. Top-10 basketball program, the opportunity to expand her game under superb direction. A degree that packs serious weight in the working world. Riggs aspires to be a sports psychologist, focusing upon college athletes. She wants to work toward a master’s and a PhD.

“In talking with Duke’s coaches, they described exactly what they were looking for, and it fit Mercedes perfectly,” Specketer says. “She’s the type of person that will look a challenge right in the eye.”

***

In summer 2013, Greenwell underwent surgery to repair meniscus damage in her right knee. It was her third procedure on that knee in two years. That first offseason on Duke’s campus, while her new teammates participated in grueling max-out tests, the most exertion Greenwell was allowed were pushups. She recuperated and convalesced until January, when she was cleared to resume practice. She redshirted the 2013-14 season.

Greenwell had first torn her anterior cruciate ligament before her junior year of high school. She’d thrown herself into rehab, working fastidiously so she could return at the six-month minimum recommended for recovery. On that very day, Greenwell was in a car with Rachel, heading for pick-up ball at Bellarmine. As a high school senior, her knee was never quite right. So, when she arrived in Durham, Duke doctors performed surgery, and she began once more the climb back.

“The biggest part of rehab is mental,” says Rachel, who suffered an ACL tear as a high school senior. She’d played as a true freshman at Bellarmine, but she felt off-key. She regretted not taking a redshirt to get right. “So I stayed on Becca about her knee,” Rachel says. “It took me forever to get back, so I stayed on her to get over that hump, where you’ve got to overcome it. One day, it just clicks. But it just takes time.”

Greenwell focused her energy into anything positive. She watched and she learned from a veteran bunch of high-performers. When she was cleared to practice, McCallie raved about her performance. This summer, Greenwell kicked that momentum into overdrive. The 1.5-mile timed test, standard for most collegiate teams? She wanted the program record of nine minutes. “It meant a lot to me,” Greenwell says. “I made it a personal goal.”

During a test run, Greenwell clocked in at 8 minutes, 46 seconds. On the official day, she crossed the line at 8:59 — and that was with a slow start. “At that point, I knew I was healthy,” she says.

This season’s Duke team could point to its youth, or the fact that players are filtering into new roles. Williams, the senior post, is the only returning starter from last season. But McCallie demands nothing less than excellence. And she knows this team is capable of so much. So it went during the post-game press conference following a disheartening 83-52 defeat to UConn in late December. McCallie was furious about the lack of fight her team had shown. But there was no question they would learn from the experience.

“This team is learning to push each other,” McCallie says, “to be passionate about defense and rebounding, to learn from losses and from wins. It’s about the way you play, the process you undertake. We’re proud of that.”

To wit: after a disappointing loss at Florida State on January 11, Duke responded four days later with a 65-40 dismantling of Virginia Tech at home. Greenwell scored 21 points, and added a block and a steal. Riggs dropped 5 dimes and 0 turnovers.

Riggs might have put it best in a recent tweet: “Success is where passion meets dedication.” Each of her attributes: skill, work ethic, coachability and maturity, melding into that equation. McCallie has paid her an ultimate compliment: she’s the only player she’s ever had to turn down, in terms of energy level.

“My role for this team is not to score 20 point or get 10 rebounds,” Riggs says. “I have to bring energy and defensive poise and leadership and get our team into offense and be consistent. That’s been my mindset from the beginning of preseason. Doing the little things that other players aren’t necessarily doing.”

When Riggs decided to attend Duke, Specketer let out a Hell Yes. This was Riggs’s chance to show she belonged on the national stage, and Specketer knew she’d seize it. “How could anyone ever doubt this girl? That word isn’t part of her vocabulary,” Specketer says. “It’s not one she’ll ever use.”

There’s another player dead-set upon banishing doubt. Each time Greenwell blows past her defender or steps back for a three, she moves a bit further from those difficult days of rehab. The knee feels good. She’s starting to cook again from deep. But, as is always the case when one of her shots has sunk, she puts her head down and sprints back on D. This has never been about Becca.

“That’s one of the big things that sticks out about her,” Rachel says of little sis. “Becca is not a selfish person. She gives credit where it’s due. She knows she wouldn’t be where she is on her own.”

The post Banished Doubt appeared first on SLAM.

“How did we not get rattled [against Northwestern]? I’ve got to give the credit to Chris Fowler,” Davis told CMU’s official athletics website.

Let’s save the ESPN college football analyst-related jokes for later. The Fowler who’s run point with aplomb in Mount Pleasant since his freshman season is a 6-1, 191-pound dynamo who has propelled CMU to its best start in some 45 years. As of January 15, the Chippewas were 12-2. They’d already surpassed their win total from a season ago.

Fowler has been a team captain since his freshman season, which coincided with Davis’s first year on the job. Dude set the program record for assists by a freshman, with 176. Did he feel pressure, being counted upon to lead at such an early stage? Not really. Fowler’s taken on that yoke since he started playing. It’s something his dad instilled in him, continued by the coaches who helped hone his game.

So, yes, adversity. When you’ve endured what Fowler has endured, it’s hard to get rattled.

“I’ve had six surgeries,” Fowler says, but only when pressed. The last of them came when he was 17, an operation that righted an anterior cruciate ligament that had hounded him since he was 10. Surgery, rehab, repeat.

But there’s no set protocol for the mental aspect of that process, especially when you’ve gone under the knife that many times before you’ve reached voting age. Fowler learned to banish despair, that ever-loitering fiend. Melding the mental and physical recuperation the point that, when you’re back on the court and you make that cut, planting your knee at dizzying speed, it’s with full confidence.

Fowler is uncanny in many ways (he’s a theater major), but resilience might be the defining characteristic.

Like any coach who’s been in the biz, Davis is accustomed to the noise that inevitably accompanies a prospective recruit. He’s always in the gym. He leads his team. He takes care of his academics. Sales, sales, sales. How often does it turn out to be true?

But when Fowler came on board to Davis’ project, it all turned out true. “But with Chris, those accolades didn’t come close to telling the whole story,” Davis says. “He stepped up as a freshman. He took control of putting guys in the right position, getting them in the gym and making sure they were mentally focused and prepared for each game. It’s unique to have that in a freshman.”

Fowler had spent the 2011-12 season at IMG Academy, a private institute in Bradenton, FL. Away from home, meeting new people, becoming part of a new team. He made sure he emerged from the experience a better leader.

Jeff Smith, who was then an assistant at UC Riverside, scouted Fowler at IMG and told him he liked him as a player. Problem was, Riverside didn’t need a point guard. Nevertheless, Smith called around and let coaches know that if they needed a floor general, they’d do well not to miss Fowler. None of those coaches came calling.

Davis took the CMU job on April 3, 2012, a day after that season’s NCAA Tournament wrapped. Fifteen days later, he’d hired Smith as an assistant. The coaching staff looked at their threadbare roster for the upcoming season. There were three players returning, all of whom would be reserves. They needed a point guard. Better yet, they needed a lightning rod.

Well, Smith said, there’s this kid down in Florida…Davis hustled down and met with Fowler. Within a month, Fowler had visited CMU’s campus and signed on for the 2012-13 season.

“We were really fortunate to be able to recruit him,” Davis says. “We sold him on how we were going to build the program, the type of character and the style of play we’d have. How we’d need a point guard to handle the ball and lead the team through growing pains.”

Those first two seasons, with a cumulative win percentage of .328, were taxing. But thanks to terrific recruiting—this season, the Chippewas go 10 deep, sometimes 11—things are beginning to bloom. “The core group has played some 60 games together now,” Fowler says. “We know how to keep our composure in tough situations and grind out wins.”

At 13.4 points per game, Fowler is the Chippewas’ leading scorer, an amount which comprises just 16.1 percent of the team’s total output. Ergo, balance—along with a testament to CMU’s margin of victory, which to this point has been considerable. Perhaps his 6.0 assists are more revealing of Fowler’s impact.

Davis believes that Fowler’s numbers will increase as the conference season wears on. In college basketball, the inverse is often the case. “At the end of the year, he’ll be one of the better scorers in our league (the Mid-American Conference) as well as in assists,” Davis says.

A day after Davis spoke to SLAM, Central Michigan took down Toledo 65-62. Huge upset. Testament to a program’s growth. Four days later, they were smacked 83-65 by Ball State. The growing pains of a program on the rise. Heave and ho, ebb and flow. Don’t think Fowler and Co. will be deterred by that latest setback.

Think of those surgeries. Think of the first two seasons at CMU. Dude learned a long time ago it’s best to get better, not bitter. It’s what allows his head coach to say:

“He’s one of the best leaders anywhere in the country.”

Coming from Keno Davis, that ain’t just noise.

The post Fire Up appeared first on SLAM.

On a morning in May almost four years ago now, Lynne Roberts took a break from poring over depth chart projections and recruiting lists and headed out for some coffee. Just days before, a heralded freshman had decided to transfer from Pacific. Roberts, the Tigers’ head coach, suddenly had a scholarship available.

Serendipity at a Starbucks. When Roberts walked into one near the UoP campus in Stockton, CA, she ran into George Kenyon, father of Kendall, a 6-2 forward weeks away from graduating St. Mary’s High, the private school down the road with a powerhouse girls basketball team. Kenyon was committed to Cal State East Bay, a Division II program. Few DI schools had come calling.

Growing up, soccer was Kenyon’s main sport. She played goalie, and one can imagine the frustration strikers must have endured trying to coax shots past her considerable wingspan. At St. Mary’s, she played volleyball, basketball and soccer before deciding to concentrate exclusively upon hoops. She credits Tom Gonsalves and his varsity staff with helping build her confidence and convincing her she had a future in the game. “I wasn’t that experienced coming in, but the coaches really worked with me,” Kenyon says.

Roberts was well-versed with St. Mary’s, but when she’d head to Rams games, Kenyon failed to stick out. This had as much to do with the serious talent around her as it did with her demeanor. “Skinny, kind of quiet,” Roberts thought. She figured she’d pass.

That was then. After catching up with George Kenyon, Roberts headed back to her car. Realization crystallized quickly. Kendall Kenyon was the perfect fit for that open schollie.

Guess where Kenyon wanted to go.

She began her UoP career as a little-used substitute, though she did grab a double-double (10 points, 10 rebounds, along with 2 blocks and a steal) in 12 minutes against Air Force. That was her sixth appearance in DI play.

In the conference opener her freshman year, Pacific lost a nail-biter to UC Irvine. “And our two centers, the starter and backup, went like 2-22 and had 3 rebounds. They were horrible,” Roberts says. “So I said, Screw it. When we play UC Riverside two days later, we’re starting the freshman. I wanted to send a message to my upperclassmen.”

Against Riverside, Kenyon finished with 15 points and 10 rebounds in 20 minutes. Pacific won by 21. She’s started every game since.

As a sophomore, she finished just shy of averaging a double-double (10.5 points, 9.7 rebounds). As a junior, she became the program’s all-time blocks leader…and averaged a double-double of 15.9 points and 10.2 rebounds. More than a third of those boards came on the offensive end.

She’s currently four rebounds shy of Pacific’s all-time record, which she should get on Saturday against Saint Mary’s, a local rival. Her 41 career double-doubles are just three shy of UoP’s all-time lead. Despite only recently returning to full fitness, Kenyon is averaging a double-double through 13 games in 2014-15—15.0 points and 11.2 rebounds in just 26.5 minutes. The Tigers are 12-3 and off to a perfect 4-0 start in West Coast Conference play.

Says Roberts, who’d wanted to redshirt Kenyon as a freshman and now considers her belated scholarship offer to be one of her greatest coaching errors, “I’m either dense or dumb. She’s proved everyone wrong along the way.”

***

The coach speaks to SLAM after the Tigers’ 92-54 demolition of USF on December 27, which christened conference play. Roberts peeks at her team’s field-goal percentage: 53 percent, including 57 percent from three. She knows if they hit at those rates, they’ll be doggone tough to beat.

As Roberts turns her focus to Kenyon, she keeps glancing back at that stat sheet. Each time she passes over her senior forward’s 27 points, 15 boards and 6 blocks, Holy Cow and Wow are the descriptors of choice. Against the Dons, Kenyon hit her first seven shots. Her first two misses came during a sequence in which she mopped up with two offensive rebounds. She finished with a player efficiency rating of 39. Thirty-nine!

“I’m spoiled,” Roberts says. “I’ve had her for four years, and it’s just not that shocking to see those numbers. And it should be shocking.”

A masterclass in minimalism. Instead of wasted movement and over-dribbling, racing upcourt on the break, catching a lobbed pass over her shoulder, laying in without breaking stride. Blocking a shot, recovering the ball, getting it to a guard to initiate offense.

This season, Kenyon is averaging 4.7 offensive rebounds, along with 1.5 steals and 2.0 blocks. A “contributing to possession” statistic should be introduced in honor of the number of times she tips wayward shots out to teammates on either end.

In the Tigers’ four-out offense, guards have license to drive and create, and they do so to great effect. Kenyon, often positioned on the weak side of the low post, benefits from their distributive ingenuity with lay-ins. Though she has taken just one three-pointer this season (the Tigers average 22.2 attempts per contest), and does the brunt of her work from the free-throw line in, Kenyon is anything but an aberration. “She’s perfect within the system,” says Roberts.

Against the Dons, nine of her 11 field goals came off assists, the other two resulting from terrific individual moves. Kenyon has a blistering first step for a forward which allows her to get past defenders to the rim. “You wouldn’t necessarily know it from looking at her, but she’s a natural athlete. She can finish off either foot, with either hand,” Roberts says, before noting that Kenyon can dunk a volleyball.

Kenyon’s been known as “Sticks” since that fateful freshman season, when Kendall Rodriguez, then a Tigers junior forward, put her foot down and said, good-naturedly, that there was only room for one Kendall on the team. So, Sticks. And it stuck. Now, Kenyon’s family uses it. It’s part of her Twitter handle.

Despite her slight frame, Kenyon doesn’t get moved off the block on either end of the court. “She’s really tough,” says Roberts. “She’ll fall down seven, eight times during a game and get right back up. She’s not throwing 225 on the bench press or anything, but she’s strong. And our weight staff has done a great job of making her effectively strong.”

Speaking of effective, and stats that don’t show up on a sheet. Two nights after the USF win, Pacific nursed a one-point lead at Santa Clara. With less than a minute to go, the Broncos got the ball to forward Maddison Allen in the low post. Kenyon promptly rejected her shot. Then, with less than 10 seconds, the Tigers inbounded under their own basket. The pass was botched, a mad scramble ensued. Kenyon raced to the scene and forced the ball off a Santa Clara player.

Pacific retained possession and won by two.

***

Just before Halloween, Kenyon was bed-ridden with a sore throat, flu-like symptoms and a fever of 102. The training staff figured it for strep throat, but a blood test revealed Kenyon had contracted Mononucleosis. Her spleen was enlarged. She’d have to sit out an extended period.

Kenyon missed a closed-door scrimmage, an exhibition and the first two games of the season, including a showdown at home against Cal. In her first game back, a 62-50 Pacific win over Montana on November 21, Kenyon posted 7 points, 11 rebounds, a steal and a block in 21 minutes. She felt “pretty tired.”

“I was pretty much 100 percent after mono,” Kenyon says, “but it was the whole getting back in shape and getting endurance and strength back in sync. Now, I feel more like myself. I’m able to get up and down the court and do what I do.”

In last season’s game against Cal, then ranked No. 21, Kenyon dropped 29 and 16. What separates her, Bears coach Lindsay Gottlieb told reporters, is her speed. Kenyon concurs with this assessment. That’s what made her convalescence so trying. The most exertion Kenyon was allowed, other than hoisting jumpers, was walking.

“She doesn’t have the build where, if she doesn’t do anything for a month, she’s fine, because she’s already so slight,” Roberts says. “So it’s taken her awhile to get back. But I think she’s coming back healthy at the right time.”

To the tune of three double-doubles in her last four games. The latest proof Kenyon has become one of the preeminent low-post forces in America. Opponents attempt to negate Pacific’s dribble drives with zone defenses. They throw double teams at Kenyon in the low post. It works in stages, but eventually, Kenyon’s patience wills out. Her endurance, pace and skill take over. She always seems to post prodigious numbers in the end.

“She gets such attention from other teams, but she’s hard to match up against,” says Roberts. “She’s capable of going off in any game.”

Roberts still remembers her first impressions of Kenyon. What she soon learned was that beneath the mellow appearance burned an indomitable will. It was so nearly one of her biggest coaching errors, Roberts says with a chuckle.

“She’s a low-key kid, but she’s passionate about basketball,” says Roberts. “So she’s worked on her game. As a freshman, she was raw. She could catch, finish and rebound, because she has this motor that never stops. But she’s improved to where she can stop and take people off the bounce. She can even shoot the three, but she doesn’t need to in our system.

“I think she’ll continue to get better and better. I don’t think she’s come close to her ceiling.”

Toward the end of her interview with SLAM, Kenyon became obscured for a moment as a friend engulfed her in a hug.Good to see you. Welcome back. We missed you!

Kenyon was laughing as she returned to the conversation. These were indications of why UoP is so special to her: in addition to the gorgeous campus and great coaches, a family atmosphere follows you everywhere. A true home away from home. She went on to reveal one of her final goals: making the Big Dance as a senior. A feat she hasn’t yet fêted.

That’d be dope. Fun thing is, her teammates and fans already know they’ve got something special in Sticks.

The post Sticks Rocks appeared first on SLAM.

This was in evidence at the customary end-of-year player evaluations, held last spring. Though Georgia had once again gone dancing in 2013-14, Landers quickly tempered the “four starters returning theory” bandied about by prognosticators looking ahead to 2014-15.

“The first thing anybody says is that we have four starters coming back,” Landers said in Georgia’s media guide. “Why? How is that important? We told them at the end of last year that we don’t have any starters coming back. We have people returning from a team that didn’t achieve at the highest level. So, let’s start over. Let’s put together a team that can achieve at the highest level.”

Landers reaffirmed this, in quintessential measured tone, during a phone conversation with SLAM last week. “I didn’t want people who had started last season to come back thinking they’d accomplished what needed to be accomplished the year before, and that they had some sense of entitlement to playing time. We sent that message very clearly. If the same people end up in starting positions, so be it. If it’s the opposite, so be it. We wanted to put a team on the floor that better reflected what Georgia basketball has stood for in the past.”

Bulldogs junior Shacobia Barbee, a 5-10 guard from Murfreesborough, TN, didn’t need any extra motivation. That 10-point loss to St. Joseph’s in the Big Dance’s first round? Stung, quite deeply.

Barbee’s been contributing since she was named a starter for her very first game as a Bulldog. There’s a throwback nature to her demeanor, but her game is all 21st-century full-freighted impact. Ever-improving consistency from deep, a mixture of deft and power when she finishes at the rim.

Or spotlight, as Barbee proved quite emphatically during the most crucial moments of her freshman season.

The Bulldogs’ senior trio of Jasmine James, Jasmine Hassell and Anne-Marie Armstrong grabbed headlines during a run to the 2013 NCAA Tournament Elite Eight, and rightly so, but it was Barbee who surprised with some scintillating performances. She became the first Georgia freshman since Theresa Edwards in ’83 to be named to an All-Region team.

In Georgia’s season-ending defeat to Cal, Barbee grabbed a double-double. She played 41 minutes in the OT thriller. She recognizes now how much that run meant for her. How much those three seniors showed her how to conduct herself, how to interpret advice. Flush out any perceived negativity, listen to the message.

“They taught me how to be a better leader,” Barbee says.

“Here’s what you need to know about Shacobia: She listens as well as any player I’ve ever coached,” says Landers. “Not only does she have that gift, but she has a discipline about her. She hears you, she understands you, and she processes what she’s heard.”

Landers calls Barbee a playmaker at both ends of the floor, and lauds her ability to effectively contribute to the flow of the game. “There are very few players in college basketball who do that,” Landers says. “And the cool thing about ‘Cobi’ is, after making a play, she can anticipate exactly what should come next. She turns defense into instantaneous offense.”

There’s always an accompanying statistic to Barbee—something that further stamps her effectiveness. In ’13-14, she led Georgia with 12.2 points—but she became the first player in program history to lead the team in points rebounds (7.9), assists (3.6) and steals (2.6).

Through the first 12 games of this season, all wins for Georgia, Barbee has averaged a team-best 13.9 points on 50 percent shooting. The scoring is great, but Landers points to other parts of her game. And it is exactly that which explains why she is one of the country’s best.

She’s grabbing 7.1 rebounds per game. A third of her boards come on the offensive end. She’s contributing 3 assists, against just 1.4 turnovers. Her 2.9 steals help key Georgia’s stifling pressure defense, which many opposing coaches have labeled “rattling.”

“Our defense is the heart of our team,” says Barbee. “We focused on that from the first couple days of practice. We disrupt teams, and it gets our offense going.”

Landers lauds her leadership, and notes how its helped contribute to a dynamic among the group that’s “clear as a glass of water.” Since summer, he can’t remember hearing a single negative thing said. In August, the team took a tour of Italy. The camaraderie developed during those weeks abroad has yet to dissipate. If anything, it’s been bolstered.

“We come to the gym, and we’re in good moods,” Landers says. “We go to work, we get work done—we work extremely hard—and then we leave in a good mood. There’s nothing going on to muddy the water.”

After that 850th win, which came in his home state against his alma mater, Tennessee Tech, Landers told reporters, “Let’s make sure we get the record straight. These aren’t my wins. They belong to a lot of people. I’ve been at Georgia for 36 years so, yeah, that piece is mine. But the wins, the first one in 1979 all the way through tonight, those belong to a lot of people other than me.”

Players like Barbee. Though she suffered a slight injury in Georgia’s December 10 win over Michigan State, and did not participate in the next few practices, she was by no means idle. Minds like hers stay humming.

Landers remembers running through a play for Barbee’s fellow junior, Tiaria Griffin. The ball would swing around the perimeter for Griffin, who’d step into a three. But as they ran it in practice, Landers had a thought about some possible tinkering. He mentioned to Barbee that she would need to make the key cut in the play. He saw the eyes flutter, the recognition registering immediately.

So you want me to pop out and be the shooter.

“I’m constantly reevaluating everything that we do to see if there’s some way I can ease her into a scenario where she touches the ball on offense,” Landers says. “The second piece about that play I designed: I told her if there’s no shot open, she’d have to make a play.”

Two years ago, Barbee might have shied away from that responsibility. Now, she turned toward Landers, and nodded her head. She got it.

In Georgia’s next game, a 58-51 win over Furman on December 20, Barbee had 5 steals by halftime. She poured in 19 points after the break to finish with 25, in addition to 12 boards, seven of which were offensive.

During her freshman season, Barbee participated with her teammates in a series of history assignments, handed out by Landers. She researched Georgia’s records against certain teams, learned why rivalries had developed with others.

It didn’t take long for Barbee to understand the reasoning behind the task, how Landers was trying to give her a better sense of the program she represented. She channeled those frissons of insight on to the court.

She went out and dominated in that all-purpose way.

The post Spread The Red appeared first on SLAM.

She started for three seasons, and helped lead the Big Green to consecutive Ivy League titles. In two NCAA tournament games, she averaged 19.5 points. She finished with 273 three-pointers for her career, and made at least one in 58 consecutive contests.

After graduation, she served as the athletic director at Episcopal (VA) High, and coached girls varsity basketball and cross country. She returned to Dartmouth in ’03 to take an assistant coaching position for the women’s basketball team, and began work on a thesis for a graduate program on writing and leadership development.

Banghart has always been fascinated by the philosophy of coaching, the myriad ways in which leadership manifests itself. She decided to pursue an oral history of the profession for her thesis.

She met with Anson Dorrance of North Carolina soccer, Geno Auriemma of UConn, the late Kay Yow, formerly of North Carolina State. Through the course of these discussions, a common thread crystallized. Then, an epiphany.

“The successful leaders I interviewed were true to who they were,” Banghart says on the phone on an early Monday afternoon, 10 days before Christmas. “So, it wasn’t about trying to be more similar to Geno, or (Hall of Fame Tennessee coach) Pat Summitt or Kay Yow, it’s about being true to me. That’s who you know best. I learned I wanted to be the best version of myself.”

Since taking the helm of the Princeton women’s basketball team in ’07, Banghart has done just that, while winning at an astounding rate. Before her arrival, the Tigers hadn’t been to the NCAA Tournament. In 2010, ’11, ’12 and ’13, they won Ivy League titles and went dancing. Last season, they were 9-3 in league—a strong showing, before you consider that in the previous four campaigns, they lost a total of two league games.

“We’ve gotten really good players, who choose Princeton over other high-major opportunities,” Banghart says. “I think it’s because I’ve been able to articulate exactly what Princeton offers. Being an Ivy League athlete myself, I recognize the value of this particular collegiate environment. It’s not a professionalized sport environment; it’s an environment where you get a combination of athletics, academics and social experiences. And I think a lot of college kids want that.”

Banghart is a discerning evaluator when recruiting. She always ticks off three boxes for a prospect. Miss one, no dice.

They come from winning pedigrees (“You don’t want to be teaching kids how to win,” Banghart says), they are relentless competitors (“Those are the ones that rise to the top”) and they have a certain “it” about them.

“These kids are the type of people you build your professional career around, and they’re a part of your life forever,” Banghart says. “So for me, they have to have a genuine enthusiasm for life. That’s just who I surround myself with, those are the kinds of people I want to be around. People genuinely enthusiastic about everything, even practice on Christmas Day.”

There’s one more box, something that Niveen Rasheed (Princeton ’13), arguably the greatest player in Ivy League women’s basketball history, describes in another phone interview.

When recruits come on official visits to Princeton, Banghart will meet with her current players after the weekend wraps. She wants to get their consensus on the kid. Because when you’re 17 years old and meeting a coach in person for the first time, explains Rasheed, you’re not going to showcase your true personality.

“So [Banghart] trusts our insight,” Rasheed says. “And if that recruit doesn’t fit in with the team, she won’t even consider her. Team dynamic is such a huge part of who we are. If you see a women’s player walking on campus, there’s always a teammate within two feet. We’re a family, and we care about the future.”

When she first took the job, Banghart sold recruits, Rasheed included, on her vision. She wanted to win Ivy League titles, she wanted to make runs in the NCAA Tournament. But most importantly, she wanted her players to enjoy the unique atmosphere provided at Princeton.

This season, it has kicked into high gear. Princeton is 13-0, the second-best start in Ivy League basketball history, behind the 1970-71 Penn men’s team, which began 28-0. The Tigers win consummately. Exacting defense, offensive efficiency.

Funny, how that leads to good things.

***

Blake Dietrick is an English major with a GPA that’s downright gaudy. She can expound upon Geoffrey Chaucer, whose tales were recorded in Middle English, that fantastic linguistic melange of English and German and French. Shakespeare is another personal favorite.

Dietrick plays for the Princeton women’s lacrosse team. The 5-10 senior guard is also currently leading Princeton in scoring and assists.

When Dietrick was 10, she went with her family on a trip to Florida. Along the way from their Wellesley, MA, home, her dad decided to take tours of colleges. When they came to Princeton, Dietrick felt that strange magnetism associated with special places in our lives. She played in Freedom Fountain, walked through campus and developed, as she puts it, “this idealized version of what Princeton was.”

“So when basketball recruiting picked up, Princeton was my dream school. It was the perfect combination of academics and basketball,” Dietrick says.

Dietrick told Banghart that she was interested in Princeton. Banghart extended an invitation to the elite camp, where she would evaluate Dietrick with her staff.

She was nervous as the camp began. Would she be good enough? The Princeton dynamic quickly assuaged any fears. During scrimmages, Dietrick played on a team with then-incoming Tigers freshman Nicole Hung. Dietrick quickly felt at home. All that nervous energy? Dietrick channeled it into effort, and it made a big impression.

“Here’s what’s great about Blake,” says Banghart. “When she came to our elite camp, she never stopped. And this is a camp where there’s 50 people, and nobody knows anybody else. She emerged by far, far and away as the best motor and the most competitive, with the willingness to say, ‘I don’t care who’s on my team, what time we’re playing, who we’re playing against, or if I don’t even know the names of my teammates’. She didn’t care if it was a shooting drill. She was just a winner.”

Dietrick entered Princeton seriously sufficient on offense, but she quickly took to the Tigers’ staple. “Coach Banghart says if you can defend, you can play. So I knew that’s what I needed to do to be on the court and help that team,” Dietrick says.

Now she is a reigning Ivy League first-teamer, and one of the most dynamic guards in college basketball. A warrior, who just wants to win.

“She’s a perfect example of our program,” says Banghart. “If you’re willing to commit to it, you can become really good. And she’s become a really good basketball player. As much as I would like to take credit for her development, you gotta give it to the kid. She didn’t waste one minute, and she’s reaping the benefits now.”

***

Princeton’s dream of a fifth consecutive Ivy League title was dashed by Penn on this past season’s final day. Though they made another postseason appearance, reaching the second round of the NIT and finishing with 21 wins, they weren’t satisfied.

Banghart laid it out for her returning players. She knew this team was supremely talented on the offensive end; she wanted to learn whether they were willing to become great on defense. That was the path back to Ivy League glory.She needn’t have worried. The players were on board before school let out for summer.

“There’s a tremendous amount of trust within our organization,” says Banghart, “and that’s not just the kids trusting me — it’s me trusting them. We communicate openly about everything. They trusted that my emphasis on the defensive end would help us win.”

Due to NCAA guidelines, which restrict coaches’ access during the offseason, most of the work had to be completed individually. And Princeton summers, with 90-degree heat and humidity, reveal character quickly. But Dietrick had made a commitment, and she dutifully applied herself. She did the slides, threw her arms up on closeouts, tapped her toes in rapid staccato for footwork.

“It all comes back to trust,” Dietrick says. “You trust that your teammates are working as hard. If you slack off, you’re not upholding your end of the bargain.”

As proof of how far things have come, Dietrick brings up an anecdote from Monday morning’s practice. She’d made a good play in help defense, which drew a strange compliment from her coach.You were barely in help last season!

Translation: “I was in help defense at the right time, and when Coach told me that, I figured, well, I’m definitely improving,” Dietrick says, chuckling. “It’s about watching film, focusing upon everything, making each defensive possession as good as possible.”

Rasheed remembers practices when Dietrick, then an underclassman, would go up against Lauren Polansky. She’d watch Dietrick pick up Polansky in the backcourt, shadowing her as she dribbled and attempted to initiate the offense. Then, Dietrick would handle the ball against the three-time Ivy League Defensive Player of the Year.

All that work, all that experience gained in this considerable crucible, has now come full circle. “Blake is crushing it,” Rasheed says. “Even during her recruiting visit when she was a senior in high school, you could tell she was out to dominate.”

***

In an 85-55 win over previously unbeaten Michigan in Ann Arbor, the Tigers held Wolverines leading scorer Shannon Smith to two points.

Rasheed had watched the game (Ivy League mashing on the Big 10!) and texted Banghart to congratulate her. Within seconds, her phone pinged with a response: How was our defense? Rasheed chuckles as she recounts this. Coach being Coach.

It’s not as if the Tigers have regressed into a grind-it-out format to fuel this surge, either. Indeed, for the past several seasons, Banghart has employed a freewheeling offense. “Pressure on defense, push in transition” is a common refrain.

Three Tigers are hitting better than 45 percent from three; the team clocks in at 45.6 percent  from deep. Dietrick posts 14.6 points and 5.9 assists, but she’d rather talk about the four juniors who accompany her in the starting lineup, including 6-0 Annie Tarakchian, who’s listed as a guard/forward in testament to her all-around nous. In addition to her team-leading 9.1 rebounds per game, Tarakchian averages 11.0 points and 2.4 assists. She’s hitting 57 percent of her threes.

Through the first 13 games, the Tigers are hitting 49 percent of their field goals. They’re assisting on 61 percent of them. They maintain a +9.7 advantage on the boards, and rank in the top 20 nationally in scoring (51.5), field-goal (33.7 percent) and three-point percentage (24.8 percent) defense.

“This team doesn’t have that one bona-fide star, but it’s as good defensively as some of my elite teams, and it has more weapons on the offensive end,” says Banghart. “It’s a really good combination: defending, accountability, and playing fearlessly on offense. It’s turning into a very special group.”

Over Thanksgiving weekend, Princeton participated in the Cancun Challenge, in Mexico. During a game against Montana, Dietrick approached Banghart at the second half’s under-12 media timeout. The Tigers were up 15, but Grizzlies guard Kellie Rubel had scored 10 points since the break. “I want to guard her,” Dietrick told Banghart.”I was frustrated,” Dietrick says, when asked about the initiative. “[Rubel] was going off, and that exact ability of hers had been on our scouting report. So I wanted to be the one to stop her, to shut her down, to make a statement.”

Banghart OK’d the switch. Dietrick held Rubel scoreless the rest of the way. The Tigers won by 25.

She does the same thing in practice. Say Tigers junior guard Michelle Miller starts heating up during a scrimmage—Dietrick will slide over to guard her. “I want to be a leader as much defensively as offensively,” she says.

And after each game, Dietrick heads to the locker room white board. She writes down the name of the latest conference the Tigers have taken down. It’s a lengthening list.

“We’ve got a combination of confidence and a chip on our shoulder,” says Dietrick. “We’ve learned what it is to lose, and we have this desire to get that championship back. We hate to lose. You see it in every practice. Even if it’s just a drill where the loser runs, we’ll do anything not to.”

As her interview with SLAM wrapped, Dietrick was already raring to get back on to the court. Princeton had a road game against Delaware the following night. In an 87-59 win over the Blue Hens, Dietrick posted a double double (12 points, 10 assists with 0 turnovers).

In an interview with the Ivy League Network afterward, Banghart said, “What I love about this team is that we don’t talk about being undefeated. We talk about getting better.”

***

At halftime of a road game against American University (located in Washington, DC) last month, the Tigers had just gathered in the locker room when a polite rapping was heard at the door.

The First Lady of the United States wondered if she might say a few words to the team.

An agent quickly canvassed the room. Once the all-clear was given, the Tigers stared, awestruck, as Michelle Obama (Princeton, ’85) walked in.

“She told us we were doing a great job, and to make sure we kept pressuring American on defense,” Dietrick says. “It was amazing. She recognized us for what we were doing on the court, and she’d analyzed the game. She could tell us exactly what coach Banghart had just told us to do in the second half!”

When it comes to this Princeton team, however, Mrs. Obama’s brother might have the greatest take. Craig Robinson (Princeton ’83), a former forward for the Tigers men’s basketball team and most recently a Division I head coach, is the proud father of Leslie Robinson, a 6-0 freshman forward on Banghart’s team.

After a game this season, Robinson couldn’t hide his excitement. He told Banghart, “I don’t want to coach this team. I want to be on this team.”

After that 63-56 win over American, the Tigers won their next nine games by an average of 29 points. On Monday, Princeton appeared in the AP and Coaches polls for the first time since the ’11-12 season. The First Lady is a fan. Most of America will soon be along for the ride.

Says Dietrick, “I’m so humbled. We want to keep it going. We want to see how far we can go.”

The post Nothing But The Truth appeared first on SLAM.

Adding to that strain of uniqueness, Simon Fraser’s leader in scoring, assists and steals so far this season is a kid who attended three high schools in Southern California. Each time, he was told he wasn’t good enough. Wasn’t tall enough.

Sango Niang, who checks in a cool 6-0, 170 pounds these days, lays it out. As a freshman at Serrano High: “Didn’t get playing time.” Sophomore year at Etiwanda: “Didn’t even make the team.” Summit, for his last two years: “Spent junior year on JV. As a senior, I was a backup.”

Niang only began playing basketball competitively at age 13. He arrived in America when he was 6. His father, Babacar, was a three-time Olympic participant in the 800 meters, and he trained in Paris, France, where Niang was born. All he remembers of that city were early mornings in motion, heading to training with dad.

His parents wanted him to pursue track, but Niang felt listless when he’d participate. It was so different with hoops. He lived for games on the hardwood. Hell, he lived for practice.

Heading into the 2012-13 season, Blake looked at his upcoming depth chart for Simon Fraser. He needed a point guard.

So he tapped into his considerable network in California, built during stints spent coaching in the state. Jeff Klein, head coach at Chaffey Junior College, was one of several sources to pinpoint Sangone “Sango” Niang as a can’t-miss kid. The kid was an undersized point, but he played like a DI guy.

Klein had looked past the wayward prep route, and seen the coiled power and distributive nous. This kid could be special. He gave him a shot at Chaffey. As a 17-year-old freshman, Niang figured he would redshirt, but after scoring 25 points in the season opener, there wasn’t really a chance of that happening. “Klein believed in me,” Niang says. “Every time I have a bad game now, I talk to him.”

Blake had recruited another player at Summit High when Niang played there. Casting his mind back, he remembered Niang as a “backup’s backup.” The re-tooled Chaffey edition took Blake’s breath away.

“The first thing that caught my eye, he’s a tremendous athlete,” says Blake. “He played in a showcase event in Southern California, and he had three dunks in a row. One in transition, one on a fast break, and another on a lob where he cranked it. I’m looking around thinking, Who’s watching this kid? But no one did because of his height.”

Blake put on the full-court press, and Niang was quickly sold. Though he signed early with Simon Fraser, Blake began to feel pangs of worry as his prized recruit’s sophomore year progressed. Dude was blowing up for Chaffey.

In the JC state tournament Final Four, Niang hit the game winner to take down high-powered City College of San Francisco, which was led by current Utah star Delon Wright. But Niang wasn’t going to trade in his commitment. “We’d been on him so long, he was loyal to us,” Blake says.

It keeps coming in waves for him now. This summer, Niang did work back home in the Drew League. He faced off against James Harden, Bobby Brown and Gabe York. “I wasn’t planning on playing, but I went to an open gym about a week after I started watching, and I got asked to play. I said I’d love to. First game, I was nervous—and had 18 points. I was working hard. I had to prove my point, doing it against NBA players.”

Simon Fraser has adopted a new Run n’ Gun system this season. (They’re averaging 130 points through nine games, and have a 6-3 record.) “We get a good shot within seven seconds, play fast, make good decisions,” says Niang. He’s been sensational leading the charge.

In just 26.8 minutes, Niang posts 21.8 points, 7.9 assists and 3.4 steals. He’s hitting 47 percent of his shots and 83 percent of his free throws. In the preseason, he was ranked as the second best player in the GNAC conference. Consider him to have a good chance to take top billing. “He’s got incredible courage,” says Blake. “He just doesn’t back down.”

Like Klein before him, Blake has become a mentor.

“Me and coach Blake are close,” Niang says. “I’m away from home, so we talk about personal things. I’m glad I made the decision to come here.”

Says Blake, “Getting players of Niang’s caliber is why we are successful. And with his French background (Niang is a dual citizen of France and the US), he’s helping us recruit internationally. He’s enticed guys to come here.”

Last year, as he prepared for his Simon Fraser debut, Niang felt the familiar pang of invisibility. Now, Blake says, “He’s put his stamp on the Northwest.”

The post Full Potential appeared first on SLAM.

It’s hard to get excited about the weather in Cheney, WA, during basketball season.

But when Venky Jois, a kid from the Melbourne suburb of Boronia, in the Australian state of Victoria, was deciding upon a college, something resonated about the atmosphere Jim Hayford was fostering at Eastern Washington. With uncanny camaraderie, Jois could do without much sunlight from October to March.

“A lot of schools can offer you things, but it’s often the same thing,” Jois says. “One thing that does stand out to you is the character of the coach and the character of the team. When you’re playing away from home, you want a family.”

And so, this 6-8 bearded bull of a junior forward, named after his grandfather Venkatesha, who comes from a family of biologists and is on a pre-med track of his own (he loves biology and basketball) became an Eagle.

When he spoke to SLAM, Jois was minutes removed from helping Eastern Washington to a gritty 81-76 road win over the University of San Francisco. He’d finished with 15 points, 11 rebounds, 2 assists and 2 blocks.

Jois is the Eagles’ tallest starter. He’s already the program leader in blocked shots, with 139. While his range extends to 18 feet, he is at his best offensively taking his man off the bounce. A shoulder shimmy here, a spin move there, and Jois is finishing at the rim. Damned uncanny. And a big reason why he’s hitting 67 percent of his shots so far this season.

When he took the job in 2011, Hayford had recipe for building up Eastern: recruit overachievers. Kids well-versed in pushing themselves to their limits, undaunted by the fact that the groundwork will be laid in the dark.

Embracing the process: funny how it makes success taste that much sweeter.

At 8-1, Eastern Washington is off to its best start in 38 years. Jois has had a line on that number of late. Entering the USF game, he’d posted back-to-back 38-point games, playing his trademark brand of basketball.

“I’m an energy player. I just love the game,” says Jois.

He’s a living testament to Newton’s third law. In fact, he’s a perfect Eastern Washingtonian twist on it. For every action dude takes on the court, his reaction produces a reaction that’s even more awesome. Take the end of the game against USF.

With just 3 minutes, 10 seconds remaining, the game was tied at 67. Here’s what Jois did, when play resumed:

– coupled with Eagles forward Ognjen Miljkovic to deny a shot attempt by Dons forward Kruize Pinkins
– converted a three-point play over Pinkins,
– fired an assist for teammate Parker Kelly’s three-pointer
– emphatically blocked a shot from Dons guard Tim Derksen

Unsurprisingly, after this whirlwind of impact, Eastern Washington had emerged with a lead it would not relinquish. And each play was followed by Jois-ian exhortation.

Let’s GOOO!! THAT’S what I’m talking about!! WHOOO!!!

Jois’s output is such that he doesn’t even need to be on the court to provide energy. “When I’m on the bench, I’m the first one cheering,” he says. “We just have so much chemistry that this season, it really feels like it’s special.”

In 2013-14, the Eagles were the winningest team in 26 years not to make the Big Sky conference tournament. But Jois and his teammates felt they ended the season playing better basketball than they had at the start.

It’s helped explain this 2014-15 beginning, which includes three true road victories—one of which was particularly special.

All you needed was Indiana coach Tom Crean telling reporters, after a certain upset in Bloomington, “That’s what attack basketball looks like.”

An 88-86 win that will long live in Eastern lore. Hoosier faithful, stunned into submission, couldn’t wait to see the back of Jois, who’d poured in 20 points, 14 rebounds and 5 blocks. The collective feeling after snapping IU’s 43-game non-conference home win streak?

Before the question is even finished, Jois responds, “Crazy.”

“I can’t even describe it,” Jois says. “It was definitely surreal. You have 11,000 people, or something like that (the final attendance was 11,636) and it feels like the stands go on forever, and when the ball dropped and the siren went, and the place has gone from deafening roar to complete silence, and all you can hear is your teammates, who’d been cheering you on the whole way, and now you’re the ones making all the noise? That’s a pretty cool feeling. It seemed like it was us against everybody, and to come out on top…you gotta love it. You gotta love it!”

Hayford calls this team “the little engine that can.” He made a point of telling the Eagles that the Indiana win represented everything they had worked for these past few years.

So, in these upcoming cold winter months in Cheney, Eastern Washington’s brand of “attack basketball” will forge on.

You might have thought Jois and company might enjoy a brief respite in San Francisco’s historically temperate winter climate. But no—the worst storm seen in three years greeted the Eagles ahead of their USF win.

No matter. Eastern Washington will be back down to the Bay to face Cal on December 19. Better weather may yet await them.

Jois’ favorite part about Cheney? Definitely not the weather. But when the team is mentioned, he warms immediately. Hayford has assembled a roster where a 7-1 redshirt center from Germany (Frederik Jörg) becomes fast friends with a 6-1 redshirt freshman from Las Vegas (Sir Washington). Coaches talk as much about star guard Tyler Harvey’s 3.8 GPA as his 20.4 points per game.

You often hear of camaraderie when covering a team. Then you see Jois, currently averaging 21.1 points, leaping to greet his teammates in a huddle on the rare occasion he finds himself on the bench.

Hayford has referred to this non-conference flourishing as the moment when “the flower comes out of the ground.” The biologist in Jois can certainly enjoy that metaphor.

And the best part about this 8-1 start?

“It’s really, really fun,” says Jois. That goes for viewers, too.

The post New Heights appeared first on SLAM.

Bears head coach Bob Hoffman always schedules tough, and the personnel he has amassed in his six seasons more than often allows the Bears to remain competitive. In 2013-14, they tripped to Oklahoma and Ohio. Though they lost both games, Hoffman wasn’t deterred. “We might not have been as athletic as them, but we had all the other pieces that give us a chance to be successful,” Hoffman said last March.

March. That quote came from a press conference the day before Mercer’s NCAA tournament Round of 64 game against Duke. They were playing in Raleigh, the Blue Devils’ backyard, as a 14-seed. They’d face forwards Jabari Parker and Rodney Hood, both bandied about as NBA draft picks.

But why worry?

The Bears started five seniors, who’d come through the ringer together. Forward Jakob Gollon, after fighting injuries, was in his sixth year. He’d come in with Hoffman, and watched this thing bloom.

We all know how the script ended. Perhaps the most thrilling game of the 2014 Tournament, ending in a 78-71 Bears win. The team’s poise was impeccable. So were seriously sensational post-game dance moves from Kevin Canevari.

Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski told reporters, “I want to wish Mercer the very best. I love the game, when the game’s played really well. I hope it’s us that’s playing it. But when it’s the other team, you applaud it. I applaud Mercer. They were absolutely terrific today.”

Coach K had also stopped by the Bears locker room to personally express his congratulations. Canevari recognized it as a “class act.” Teammate Daniel Coursey reiterated the sentiment.

Krzyzewski has won National Championships, and twice taken the podium to receive Olympic Gold. That he recognized something special in Mercer said something quite forceful. There was a way this team had been constructed, and a classy comportment that exuded.

One of the best coaches in history wanted to show his appreciation for the fact that, last season, Mercer represented the very best in college basketball.

***

The most thrilling run in program history. So, what’s percolating in terms of an encore?

Though eight Mercer players graduated last spring—Hoffman said watching those seniors walk across the stage was his proudest moment—the expectations haven’t dimmed in Macon, GA.

Rather, they’ve been enhanced.

So, after the Round of 32 to Tennessee that ended the NCAA run, the Bears took two weeks off. Then, they got back in the gym.

“We want to transcend what we did,” says Ike Nwamu, a 6-5 senior. “Our goal isn’t to get back to the third round; it’s to win the National Championship. We’ve worked extremely hard to allow ourselves the opportunity to continue to grow.”

Says Hoffman, “Guys are buying in to what they specifically need to do for us to be successful. They’ve all been intricate parts of what transpired in the past several years. They understand what they’re inheriting.”

A trip that took Nwamu thousands of miles away from Georgia gave him a much clearer view. Hoffman had seen former players Langston Hall and Daniel Coursey—both integral members of last season’s team—participate in Athletes in Action.

Nwamu decided to attend. After training camp in Colorado, the team went on a seven-day tour of Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia in early August. They played against local professional teams, as well as the Qatar national team.

The typical day began with readings from scripture, which Nwamu says pertained particularly to the games they’d play that day. Afterward, they’d eat, then go sightseeing. The Hill of Crosses, a Lithuanian landmark that, as of 2006, was filled with over 400,000 of them, resonated deeply.

“Ike was already grounded, but he got completely focused on what he wanted to be, and how he needed to go about getting it done,” says Hoffman. “There was a different sense of purpose about him when he came back. It’s been refreshing to watch.'”

Nwamu worked with his fellow veterans to instruct a very talented incoming class. “We knew what we had to put in, the all-out work, and the younger guys began to get on the same page,” he says. “It started in the summer, with having to teach so much about how we run certain things, how we carry ourselves on and off the court. I found myself echoing the coaches, letting the newcomers know that you have to build good habits—not just sometimes—in order to be consistent.

“And that’s where I’ve grown up,” Nwamu continued. “I remember Langston [Hall] doing the same thing for me. Now, guys like Darious [Moten] and Jibri [Bryan] are taking leadership roles. We have the blueprint. Now, it’s about expressing it.”

In the first two games of this season, we saw the high-flying dunks Nwamu is known for—along with a bevy of threes, many of which came from the corner, his favorite shooting spot. After averaging 8.3 points in 18.8 minutes per game last season, Nwamu has nearly doubled his scoring average through the first four games.

“Last season, my game was predicated upon attacking—getting to the rim and getting to the line,” says Nwamu, who hit 83-111 free throws (75 percent) in 2013-14. “This year, I’ve tried to work on mid- and long-range shooting. I knew that could really help us out. I wasn’t thinking of it as shouldering the scoring load; I just want to do whatever we need to win.”

Hoffman raves the way Nwamu is seizing upon his considerable potential, and helping the new pieces find their fit in this puzzle. Nwamu’s two fellow seniors are also enjoying increased roles. Moten, a first-year starter, is a great athlete who excels at making plays on both ends. Hoffman calls TJ Hallice the best post defender he’s coached.

During last season’s tournament run, it was revealed that Hoffman has cultivated some 150 different offensive plays. When his teams become comfortable with the magnitude, you begin to see it hum. Hoffman encourages freedom within the framework. An ability to improvise.

“Historically, the best teams I’ve been able to coach, by the time we get to the end of the year in conference play, they figured out a lot of things you’d never have guessed at the beginning,” says Hoffman.

The coach readily admits the current edition has a long ways to go. They’ve split the first four games this season—winning two at home, dropping two on the road. Understandable for a team with so many new pieces, still finding its feet. But there’s a sense that Mercer might surprise some people as the campaign wears on. For Nwamu, it all boils down to the culture.

“Mercer’s a tight-knit community,” says the senior. “Once you’ve been here awhile, it feels like home. “The cohesiveness between coaches and players makes it feel like one big family. You can see that everyone genuinely cares about each other.

“And that carries over to the court.”

The post Bear Rising appeared first on SLAM.

On one team was Frankie Ferrari, a highly touted freshman point guard and local product, listed at 5-11, 160 pounds. On this occasion, he was tasked with guarding Matt Glover, a senior, known across the Hilltop as ‘Jumbo’, as much a reference to his 6-5, 212-pound frame as it is to his ability to muscle into the lane at will.

Which Glover wasted no time in doing. And Ferrari, trying to stay in step, was sent flying to the floor.

On a subsequent defensive possession, the frosh point guard switched onto Tim Derksen, a 6-3 bull of a shooting guard. Derksen soon used a hand-check on the right wing that sent Ferrari sprawling and allowed Derksen to step back for three.

Ferrari didn’t howl for a foul. Both times, he got up and headed down court. Before you’d blinked, he’d knocked down back-to-back threes. Then, once the scrimmage ended, the Dons shot free throws to close out practice—the kind where, if you miss, the whole team runs. Ferrari volunteered to take two, and made both.

This ability to hang fit the bill of a kid that Walters lauded as “hard-nosed” when Ferrari signed last November. It all factored into what Dons redshirt junior swingman Mark Tollefsen would say, minutes later, about this four-man freshman group—Ferrari included.

“Coach will say, Go at the younger guys, dominate them, but then, after you’ve kicked their butt, tell them how you did it, so they understand what we want to do here, what we want to accomplish, what we’re all about,” Tollefsen says.

Added Glover, “It’s not just the coaches trying to explain everything. We might see one of the younger guys doing something we know isn’t the way we do things. So, we pull them aside and show them the right way to do it.”

Tollefsen knows, as did Glover, that if the Dons are to realize their considerable potential this season, they’ll need the newcomers to contribute. Heavily.

When Tollefsen was a freshman, along with current seniors Chris Adams and Gavin Hoffman (Tollefsen is a redshirt-junior), he experienced dysfunction within the team. “Now, they could have taken one of two approaches,” says Walters. “They could say, ‘Well, this is the norm, that’s what you do.’

“But instead, they said, ‘No, this isn’t right, and we need to build from that.'”

So, Tollefsen talks to the freshmen. One of the lessons: “Coach is pretty intense,” Tollefsen says. “And if you’re in high school, and you don’t have an intense coach, and you run the show, you’re the main guy, you’re not used to it.

“So, if guys get upset that he’s getting on them, you just pull them aside and tell them, Hey, it’s OK. Coach is trying to get you better. If he’s not talking to you—that’s when you should be worried.”

Hence, the nuance in their hard-nosed approach. Always explain Why, and make them know they’re included in the fabric.

***

USF ended last season as one of the hottest teams in the country, winning nine of 11 and streaking into the conference tournament, where they fell to BYU, in overtime. They were within a whisker of a shot at Gonzaga in the final.

Despite the loss, Walters kept his team in Las Vegas to take in the final. He wanted them to see that stage, to see what it felt like to play for a conference title. He wanted it to hurt. He wanted them to use that as fuel.

“It really affected guys,” says Glover. “We all talked about it, the way you feel until you can get that off your back. We felt BYU should’ve been our game. That was one of the things we took into the summer, and into preseason—trying to show everyone that we are as good as we say we are.”

That added a kick to the intensity of this summer’s workouts. Walters noticed a level of ownership developing. “They stick their chest out about that,” says Walters. “These guys play hard, work hard, and get after it.”

Walters called it the most competitive summer he’d seen in his seven years on the Hilltop. So much depth and so much talent meant that no spot was safe. Miss a boxout, you’ll give up a dunk. Slide over a sliver late on a defensive rotation, your man nails a three. It helps that, when Walters points to the leaders among his core group of veterans, he can say things like: “They’re off-the-charts, in terms of work ethic,” Walters says of Glover and Derksen. Add in Tollefsen and 6-7 all-conference forward Kruize Pinkins, and you’ve got four players who start—and set the tone in that regard.

For Ferrari, it was a manifestation of the reasons he wanted to come here. When he spoke after a recent practice, the words came a mile a minute. You could see the pistons firing in his mind, like they do when he’s on the court during games. When he’s not practicing, or playing, Ferrari is working. Ever since he committed to USF, the summer before his senior year, he took every opportunity to get to the Hilltop. He got to know his future teammates. He began to understand what would be expected of him.

“Half the battle is guys like Frankie, that have the talent and the effort, and are willing to learn. They have that thirst for knowledge,” Glover says. “It helps when you get guys like that.”

One of those signed late, this summer. Devin Watson was one of the top performers in the San Diego area, and had been in contact with Dons assistant Dave Rebibo all of last season. When a scholarship opened up in April, following Avry Holmes’s transfer to Clemson, Watson kept thinking USF. He liked the offensive style. He could stay close to home. “It felt like a good situation, so I committed,” Watson says.

Upon his signing, in the first days of June, Walters hailed Watson as a guard that “could score in many ways.” While Watson is a good shooter, he is at his best when putting the ball on the deck and getting to the tin. During that aforementioned intrasquad scrimmage, Ferrari and Watson, both on the same team, provided a punch/counter-punch approach. While Ferrari nailed threes, Watson ghosted to the rim, finishing with aplomb.

“When we’re able to play together in practice, we do some damage,” says Ferrari. “We’re hard to guard. Devin brings a different element, I bring a different element. I can shoot, he can shoot, I can stretch the floor, and he can make plays in the paint.”

When both are asked what they need to work on, they immediately respond: defense.” Coming in, I knew the culture was going to be hard,” says Watson. “That’s the type of atmosphere I wanted.”

***

In the season opener, a 91-52 shellacking of South Carolina State, we got a glimpse of how much fun this thing will be when it’s humming. “We flowed, we had chemistry, and we defended really well,” says Ferrari.

The high-octane, Let it Rip offense. Incessant movement, quick passing and paint touches. The smothering defense, seen toward the end of last season, only enhanced by the additions of rim protectors Montray Clemons and Derrell Robertson—”get-it guys,” as Walters calls them, before adding of the entire group, “The on-ball defense is better, the team defense is better, the contesting of shots is better.”

Glover is the primary ballhandler, but the additions of Watson and Ferrari allow Walters to throw different looks at opponents. When the freshmen are facilitating, the 6-5 Glover can swing to another guard spot, and look to score in different ways. Few point guards will be able to hang with him in the post. Should opposing coaches opt to counter him with size, Glover can head back out to the perimeter and take them off the bounce.

As the second half started against SC State, Ferrari scored his first official points. Then came the moxie and flow. When the Bulldogs showed zone, Ferrari, based in the right corner, received a pass, faked and fired a bounce pass across the base line to Tollefsen. It ended up as a hockey assist for an Adams three. Later, Ferrari took an inbounds, caught SC State sleeping, and picked out Derksen for an alley-oop. Two minutes later came his best pass of the night, another alley-oop, this time from the left baseline a vintage dunk from the high-flying Tollefsen.

There’s confidence and a headiness to these two freshmen that, at times, belies their age. In the first half of that SC State game, Watson went for the sensational, lobbing a 50-foot alley-oop for a streaking Tollefsen. The pass caromed off the backboard, and into the Bulldogs’ hands.

Watson raced back to the defensive key, stood up an onrushing SC State guard, and calmly snatched a steal out of the air. He pushed upcourt, and picked out Tollefsen with a more measured pass, which the 6-9 swingman sank for a three.

“Both (Ferrari and Watson) are going to make plays out of the offense,” Walters says. “What they’ve got to get better at is running, and understanding, our offense. Once they do that, it’s going to be really scary.”

Ferrari, a kid from Burlingame, just a short drive from San Francisco, remembers the excitement that USF’s success generated last spring. “People saw what they did last year,” he says. “There was hype around them. That made me excited to join this team, and keep doing the same thing.”

Ferrari and Watson understood the extent to which work factored into that success. So, their interviews concluded on a Tuesday afternoon, they headed back to the War Memorial Gymnasium court.

Time to put up some more jumpers.

The post Let It Rip appeared first on SLAM.

The reference fits—well, at least in part. Harvey shares a similar prep route with Lillard—lightly recruited, ended up at a Big Sky Conference school (Lillard starred for Weber State before becoming one of the NBA’s brightest young stars). Both are scoring guards with a habit of filling up the rest of the stat sheet.

And yet.

As an interview wound down last Wednesday morning, Eagles assistant coach Shantay Legans had a request.

See, Harvey is a huge fan of a certain sweet-shooting, all-everything NBA guard. Only, it isn’t Lillard.

“If you could get Steph Curry to give him a shoutout, I think Tyler would pass out. It’s literally fandom,” Legans said, with levity.

Harvey has parsed every particle of Curry’s extraordinary rise, from out-of-nowhere NCAA Tournament savior at Davidson to current NBA superstar. For Harvey, it’s the well-roundedness of Curry’s game, more than dude’s current fame, that intrigues the most. Like many players—well, in this case, a bit more than most—he is amazed by Curry’s ability to exploit the merest sliver of space.

Eastern Washington subscribes to Synergy, the statistical mavens who have amassed video clips of every play made by nearly every player. There’s a rumor circulating that Harvey may have cycled through the entire Curry catalog. He’ll watch Steph dribble. He’ll watch Steph shoot. He’ll watch Steph drop 30 (along with 15 assists) on the Lakers, in just three quarters.

“He actually texted me about that,” says Legans of the November 16 game, a 136-115 Dubs win. “He’s a big Lakers fan, so he didn’t know how to feel about that.”

That affinity with the Purple and Gold stems from Harvey’s Southern California roots. The allegiance to Steph arises from empathy with his journey.

Last season, Harvey led the Big Sky Conference with 21.8 points, and ranked among the nation’s best in both three-point field goals per game (3.52) and three-point percentage (43.3 percent). He sank 90 percent of his free throws. This is the same kid who couldn’t catch a whiff of a DI scholarship coming out of Bishop Montgomery High, in Torrance, CA.

That had to do partly with an uncommon growth rate. Harvey entered high school as a 5-2 beanpole, before growing 11 inches by his senior year (he’s currently 6-4). The acceleration became so rapid that he had to sit out part of one season, to allow his body to catch up.

Thankfully, fate extended a hand. Jim Hayford, who’d created a dynasty at DIII Whitworth, in Spokane, WA (see: .792 win percentage over 10 seasons), knew Harvey’s father, a collegiate referee. Hayford recruited Harvey to Whitworth, but in April of Harvey’s senior year in high school, Hayford was named the head coach at Eastern Washington.

He asked Harvey if he’d like to come along as a walk-on with a promised scholarship at a Division I school.

“I was like, wherever I go, I’ll work,” says Harvey.

So it went during his first year at Eastern, which he redshirted. Still just 150 pounds, he worked with the Eagles’ strength and conditioning coach to add muscle. He hoisted jumpers on repeat, looking to quicken his release.

“My recipe is to recruit overachievers,” says Hayford. “Guys who aren’t satisfied with the status quo, and push themselves to be the best. With Tyler, there’s no quit in him, anywhere. You go all-in with a kid like that.”

Legans’s office became a haven of sorts. They talked about the chip on his shoulder, how Harvey kept track of the players he’d gone up against in high school. They were getting love, while he was working in radio silence. “He got looked over, and he remembers that,” says Legans.

Harvey found solace in work. Most afternoons, or evenings, or wee small hours of the morning, when Harvey isn’t bolstering his 3.8 GPA, he can be found in the gym. If he’s too sick to play, he’ll be in Legans’s office, watching film. And when Harvey watches film, he sees everything. When I drove into the lane on that last play, I missed an open teammate on the perimeter. The next game, he’ll make that pass.

Back to film. When I came off that screen, I rushed my shot. Next time out, he’ll create separation from his defender, then rise up. “He’s one of those guys that can pick any thing up he sees, and implement it the next day,” says Harvey.

On quick turnarounds: In Eastern’s exhibition game, Harvey finished with 7 assists. But he also had 7 turnovers. “I was making boneheaded mistakes, stuff I shouldn’t have done,” he says. So, he went to the tape. He watched each turnover with Legans, “at least 100 times,” to the assistant’s reckoning. The bad habits that led to mistakes were quickly excised.

In the next two games, Harvey committed just one turnover in 75 minutes. He’s more than doubled his assists from a season ago. And after each game, he’ll head to the weight room. “He’s wiry strong now,” says Legans of Harvey, who clocks in at 185 pounds. “He’s not gonna get pushed off his spot on the court.”

The increased strength is part and parcel of Harvey’s astounding start to this season. Through the first three games, he was better from beyond the arc (15-26, 58 percent), than he was from the field (57 percent). In a November 23 road game at No. 22 SMU, the Mustangs, fully aware of Harvey’s shooting prowess, ran him off the perimeter. So, Harvey got going with some tough finishes off the bounce, in traffic. Hayford’s offense blurs the guard positions, with relentless movement and dribble-weave action, so Harvey is known around Cheney as a “1.5 guard.” He can run point or work off the ball.

The tough thing about guarding a shooter like Harvey, explains Legans, is having to chase him off screens. “But,” Legans notes, stipulating one of the things that separates Harvey from the typical top collegiate shooter, “Tyler can handle the ball. When he comes off screens, he can facilitate or shoot the three at a high percentage.”

In the second half against the Mustangs, he found his space and hit 4 threes—including a pair in quick succession that brought the Eagles within five points with just a minute, 20 seconds to play. In the eventual 77-68 loss, Harvey finished with 24 points, 4 rebounds and 4 assists.

“The neat thing,” says Hayford, “is Tyler’s mindset, as he’s starting his junior year, having led the Big Sky in scoring, is just as hungry as that desire he had three years ago, when he wanted to prove he was a DI player.”

Ergo: the 10 missed threes, and those three missed free throws, and those three turnovers against SMU will be addressed—likely, as soon as Harvey got on the flight to Indiana, where Harvey dropped 25 points in the Eagles’ 88-86 upset over the Hoosiers on Monday night.

“I have really high expectations for Tyler,” says Hayford. “After he finished his freshman season so strongly, I coached him to be the best guard in the Big Sky. Now the challenge is to have him considered as the best mid-major guard in the country.”

Those expectations coincide with increased ones for Eastern. The Eagles finished ’13-14 as the winningest team in 26 years not to make the Big Sky conference tournament. (The Eagles finished eighth; only the top seven teams go, and that seventh-place team, Sacramento State, which finished with a matching 10-10 conference record, got in thanks to a tiebreaker on the final day of the regular season.)

This past offseason, Harvey says the entire team stayed on campus to prepare for a run at a first NCAA Tournament bid since ’04. “We knew our goals, how we’d felt at the end of last season,” he says. “We’re older and more mature, but we have to prove it.”

A final note toward Steph Curry. Legans will sift through NBA rosters and marvel at the number of players with similar paths to the Golden State guard. Guys who didn’t have renown given to them. How that made them work harder than hell to get it.

In an age where hype comes cheap, maybe that ain’t such a bad thing.

The post Recipe For Success appeared first on SLAM.

And yet, as the recruiting process wound down, an unexpected source stepped up.

Eva and Jesper Gilling own a dental practice, and though neither played basketball, they quickly became fans of the sport due to their childrens’ interest and aptitude. Each of the four children was born in Liechtenstein, but they grew up in Rungsted, a neighborhood in the Danish city of Hørsholm, north of Copenhagen.

Sophie was the first of the Gillings to show interest in the sport. Then came Jonathan. Soon, the entire family was heading to games, even Caroline, who watched her older siblings with awe.

Jesper served on the board of Hørsholm 79ers, the local club the kids played for. Eva helped organize the team’s summer camps.

“They’re so engaged,” says Caroline. “My dad knows everything about the sport now; my mom knows even more.”

And so it was Eva who scoured the web, researching players and coaches from the programs that Caroline was considering. “It got to the point where I was like, Mom, no, please stop,” Caroline says, chuckling.

Last winter, Caroline visited Los Angeles and loved it. She knew she wanted to play in California, so Eva sent highlight tapes to Big West schools. Jason Flowers, the coach at Cal State Northridge, responded immediately—Caroline clocked his return e-mail within five minutes of Eva having hit ‘Send’ on their end.

“I knew that school was right, because of him,” says Caroline, who also happens to be a big fan of Kobe and Ryan Gosling. She’s majoring in cinema and television arts. Ergo, CSUN, a snapshot away from Tinseltown, stood a solid chance. “And when I visited,” Caroline says, “all the coaches were so nice. I met most of the girls, and I knew that this was the right fit.”

Caroline arrived in Northridge in mid-August, and quickly fell into the rigors of collegiate training. The individual workouts and weights. By the time official practice started in October, it felt like she’d been here years. This is part of the adjustment her older siblings had encountered as well. Though a proficient English speaker (in fact, he speaks four languages), when Jonathan arrived at Arizona State three years ago, it was overwhelming to use it as his primary tongue. The same went for Mathilde at U-Dub.

So, both Jonathan and Mathilde made it a priority to help their youngest sister, when she made her own move. In October, Mathilde visited Northridge. Jonathan peeled his 6-8 frame into his car and trekked out from Tempe earlier this fall. On one of those days, Jonathan and Caroline headed to Santa Monica. During a day by the pier, Jonathan gave away some of his old team shoes, which he’d brought along, to some people who looked down on their luck. “They were so happy,” Caroline says.

Like Jonathan and Mathilde, Caroline, at 6-1, is a forward, and a highly skilled one at that. She remembers her first days with Hørsholm. “When they figured out I could shoot, they let me shoot,” she says. “They didn’t just make me play in the post because I was tall.” Mathilde echoes that aspect of development. “In Denmark, it’s not as specific as over here,” she says. “It’s about knowing each spot on the floor, and trying to play different positions.”

For Caroline, it helped to have siblings she could study. “With Jonathan, we play almost the same position, and I really admire the way he plays. He’s not the type to give quotes, but he’ll give me advice if I need it, or ask for it. When we talk on the phone, it’s not so much about what’s going on the court; it’s more about how we’re doing.”

Jonathan just so happens to bear the double distinction of being the Pac-12’s most versatile, and funniest, player.

For a sense of the dynamic, Jonathan was once asked by the Arizona State student newspaper to describe his relationship with his head coach, Herb Sendek. “I always try to make fun of him,” Gilling said. “He likes it, so I’m going to keep doing it.” Jonathan was a freshman at this point.

Flash forward to last month’s Pac-12 Media Day, where Gilling, now a senior, and Sendek fielded 10 minutes’ worth of questions from a roomful of reporters. “So, you’re from Denver…” began one. Sensing the honest mistake, Gilling leaned in, feigning offense: “Wait, did you ask if I’m from Denver?” The room erupted.

Later, Sendek was reminded that he’d called Jonathan “the most cerebral player he’d ever coached.” Sendek waited a beat, then said with a grin, “One of them.” To which Jonathan, correcting the obvious slip, informed the room that Sendek had, in fact, meant “ever.”

“I misspoke, I apologize,” Sendek said.

That’s the way Caroline always remembers big brother. “He doesn’t like to take everything so seriously,” she says. “I like that about him. He’s so funny.”

In some of his most stirring fits of verbosity, Sendek has likened Jonathan to everything from a symphony conductor to Peyton Manning—the latter a reference to his ability to direct traffic on offense before even touching the ball. Jonathan started 53 of 65 games in his first two seasons in Tempe, until Sendek found that he was the perfect sixth man. Jonathan accepted and has thrived in that role.

All three have now started their respective seasons. Caroline is already showcasing the kind of versatility now becoming synonymous with the Gilling name. Not bad for college basketball’s first family. As Jonathan puts it, “We’re kind of taking over the West Coast.”

And next month, more of them will make the trip. The reunion begins in San Diego, when Washington plays at San Diego State on December 18. Then, Cal State Northridge faces the Aztecs on the 20th. (Talk about serendipitous scheduling.)

From there, the family will head out to Tempe in time for Arizona State’s home game against Detroit on the 23rd. Then, Christmas in Arizona. Has a nice ring to it.

The final leg of the trip ends in the place Jonathan calls home away from home. The Gilling family will sit in the stands at Wells Fargo Arena. Calls of “Jon!” will ring out.

See, Caroline explains, they’ve kind of taken to calling him by his American nickname.

The post Family Practice appeared first on SLAM.

And there’s a beige band-aid obscuring part of her left eyebrow.

“Oh,” Proctor says with a quick laugh, when asked about it. “Yeah, that’s from Columbia.”

During the Dons’ season opener against the Lions, Proctor had driven into the lane. Standard stuff for the multi-faceted 6-0 junior forward, who loves to face up on the perimeter.

Only, on this particular foray, Proctor was met by an elbow that sent her reeling out of bounds. She didn’t even know she was bleeding until the refs told her to head to the bench and clean up the gash that had opened above her eye. Ten minutes later, the bleeding finally stanched, Proctor was back on the court. Want tough? She finished with 15 points, 14 rebounds, 2 assists and a block in a 70-65 win.

That ability to mix it up in the low post (if Proctor’s in the vicinity, good luck getting the rebound), as well as step out for a different angle of attack. Versatility has been second-nature for Proctor since she attended Sand Creek (CO) High, in Colorado Springs. In addition to her exploits on the hardwood for the Scorpions, which were considerable, Proctor played goalkeeper for the soccer team. Oh, and she played handball. For Team USA.

Yes, there was Proctor, helping the national team qualify for the 2011 Pan American Games, just two years after she’d picked up the sport.

Jennifer Azzi, USF’s head coach, remembers watching film—handball tape included—of this force of a forward. Before she’d even seen Proctor play in person, Azzi knew she wanted her on the Hilltop. “Certain people have a special way about them,” says Azzi, pointing at Proctor. “It’s about what she brings in different areas, other than scoring. Toughness, defense, rebounding. In my mind, those are way more valuable than scoring.” It didn’t take long for Proctor to land upon USF. Like so many of her current teammates, she wanted to play for Azzi, who’s put together a dynamic staff, as well as a vision. There’s a narrative thread that runs throughout this roster. These players want to build something special.

As a sophomore, Proctor led the Dons in points (14.0) and rebounding (7.3), despite missing much of the preseason due to a fracture in one knee. (She’d missed her senior season in high school after tearing the anterior cruciate ligament and the medial and lateral meniscus in the other knee.)

Rather than stew over the time missed to injury, Proctor raves about the ways the time spent convalescing allowed her to burnish her overall game. Which fits. Azzi has said you can usually find her in the gym. She’d work on whatever the training staff had cleared her to do.

“I mean, coming out of high school, I didn’t have range on my shot,” Proctor says, casting a glance and chuckling while Azzi nods knowingly. “So I worked on my shot, my handle, and overall feel for the game. When you’re out, you see so much more about the game, like what your teammates are doing. You get to know their tendencies.”

When she was cleared to resume playing, Proctor says that she seized upon it. That impressive sophomore season was capped with 28 points dropped on Gonzaga in the West Coast Conference quarterfinals. Despite the 81-68 loss, Proctor emerged defiant.

The 13 points that separated them from the Zags? This offseason, the Dons turned it into a mantra. The points were a window into what it takes to become a post-season team.

There’s plenty of reason to feel excited about the Dons this season. This is the deepest group Azzi has fielded in her five years at USF, as well as the most veteran—and they still start just one senior.

Add in a strong recruiting class, which was on show during this first weekend of action. Michaela Rakova, a 6-3 post from Slovakia, has already chalked up a double-double. Anna Seilund, a skilled 5-9 Danish guard, punctuated two good games with some serious flash in her fast-break finishing. Tiara Tucker, a roadrunner of a 5-3 guard (Azzi calls her a one-person press break), gets into the lane at will.

But this Dons team will only go as far as its veteran core can lead it. Proctor and fellow junior Zhané Dikes have started together since they were freshmen. Taj Winston has been filling up stat sheets for four years now. No opponent is safe when she starts applying her vaunted defensive pressure.

After combining for 53 starts as freshmen, sophomores Rachel Howard and Claudia Price once again round out the starting rotation. “Their trust and their chemistry makes such a big difference,” says Azzi. “And I think the team that ultimately plays the best together will win the conference. It’s almost that simple.”

In the season’s second game, USF obliterated Sonoma State 83-42. Proctor played just 23 minutes, but she compiled 6 points, 7 rebounds, 0 additional gashes and four assists—one of which was a sublime bounce pass from the top of the key to Price for an easy layup.

Many forwards share the same skill set. Few have Proctor’s tenacity and drive. “She’s perfect in our offense,” says Azzi. “To have a post like her that can pull bigger players away from the basket, is huge. And we can post her up on the block, or have her face up for her mid-range game. It’s really a unique skill set.”

The post Thirteen Points appeared first on SLAM.

Closed door scrimmages, long a staple of the college basketball preseason, are notorious for being top-secret stuff. In this instance, however, Arizona State coach Charli Turner Thorne was willing to make an exception.

“Katie Hempen took four charges in our first scrimmage,” Turner Thorne says on the phone, a week and a half away from the Sun Devils’ opener. She can’t help but marvel at the statistic—and this from a coach known for telling reporters that Hempen, a sweet-shooting 5-9 junior guard, is just as likely to sink a three as she is to sacrifice her body by stepping in front of a driving offensive player.

In 2013-14, Hempen’s first season with ASU, she didn’t lead the team in scoring. (Well, she did finish tied for second, with 8.3 points.) Most of her statistical contributions don’t pop off the page. But you can’t chart sheer force of will, the desire that can help change a program. Hempen is the type of player who fully embodies Turner Thorne’s vision for re-establishing Arizona State among the nation’s elite.

Turner Thorne spoke recently with Jim Pitman, who doubles as executive vice president of the Phoenix Suns and general manager of the Mercury. Through the course of conversation, they came to Mercury superstar Diana Taurasi, perhaps the greatest women’s basketball player of all time. “There are players who hate losing more than they love to win,” says Turner Thorne. “Diana Taurasi is one of those people. Katie is, too. She’s very joyful, but she also has this great competitiveness.”

This is Turner Thorne’s 18th season in charge of ASU—and the third since a sabbatical that spanned the 2011-12 season. When she came back, she felt refreshed and refocused, ready to re-ignite a program that had made two Elite Eight appearances in the late aughts. Waiting for her was this hard-charging guard, who’d just transferred. It didn’t take long for Hempen to have an effect on her new head coach.

“Katie is really, really huge to our team,” Turner Thorne says. “I’ve never seen her not compete. She brings it every day.”

***

Growing up in Highland, IL, Hempen’s parents were a reservoir of positivity and support. Her father, Troy, would find the bright side of any performance. Lisa, her mom, who’d taken statistics of hoops teams when she was in high school, provided priceless analytical nous. But let’s start with the older brothers. Hempen began playing basketball with Mark and Eric when she was in the third or fourth grade. “Honestly,” she says now, “they were the ones that made me the way I am.”

Cut to endless games on the blacktop in Highland, with little to no mercy shown on little sis. “They’d steal the ball from me when I dribbled, they’d block all my shots,” says Hempen.

Rather than stalk off frustrated, Hempen approached these games with analytical bent. She noticed that she could get past Mark, the eldest, off the dribble, only to be taken out by Eric, a football player, before she could get to the rim. So Hempen developed a 15-foot pull-up jumper. Swish.

Her brothers quickly made note of this savvy. When the three siblings would play against other kids in games of five-on-five, Mark and Eric always picked Katie for their team.

Like so many siblings as they grow, the three Hempens have become inseparable. When she calls home now, Mark and Eric give her…let’s say, “constructive criticism”—older-brother style. “To say a positive about us, there’s never a dull moment,” Hempen says, chuckling.

Hempen began playing basketball competitively in middle school, and she credits a coach during those years with not only teaching her the fundamentals, but also how to channel her boundless reserves of energy.” And when I got to high school,” Hempen says, “I was pushed. [Matt Elledge] knew how good I could be. Even though I was playing varsity as a freshman, he didn’t coach me as a freshman. He really tested my mentality and the way I played the game, and I loved that. I love a challenge.”

There are markers for the future, one of which is revealed when Hempen, asked about her path through basketball, says, “Honestly, I’ve been extremely blessed to be around great coaches all my life.”

***

They were both Illinois natives, fearless when it came to the court.

Amanda Levens was named the head coach at Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville in 2008. “They took a chance on me,” Levens has said of the hire. Ahead of that 2008-09 season, SIU-E was transitioning into Division I. Talk about welcoming a challenge.

Under Levens, SIU-E improved each season. Yet when she began recruiting this do-everything guard from Highland High, Levens encountered resistance—at first. “Amanda was one of the last ones I actually looked to go to,” Hempen says.

Hempen felt that SIU-E, some 20 miles away, was too close to home. Her mom worked there, and Hempen felt certain for a long time that her future lay elsewhere. But Levens hung in. While evaluating Hempen, she couldn’t get enough of this kid taking charges at every occasion—especially during AAU games. She marveled at the work ethic shown in practice. “She competed in every drill like it was the biggest game of the year,” says Levens. “You want to recruit that.”

A self-professed “stubborn kid,” in reference of where she was looking for college, Hempen finally met with Levens. “And she laid it all out, flat,” Hempen says. She soon realized there was nowhere else she’d rather go than Edwardsville. Turning a program into a winner, testing herself to the limit, just seemed like too much fun.

When Hempen signed, Levens called her a “winner.” “Her skill set is very good,” Levens said in a release on SIU-E’s website. “She can play point guard and off-guard, and score from both positions. She is tough and competitive. She will do whatever it takes to win, whether it’s setting the screen, making the pass, or making the shot. She just wants to win.”

Hempen’s freshman season coincided with SIU-E entering the Ohio Valley Conference. They were picked to finish eighth, and finished third. Levens was named OVC Coach of the Year; after four conference freshman of the week honors, Hempen was named Frosh of the Year.

Hempen revels in the camaraderie of the team that season, of the way that everything Levens had promised on the recruiting trail turned out to be true. There was then-senior Raven Berry, the SIU-E’s leader. “She taught me how to talk the way I talk now on and off the court,” says Hempen.

There was a press conference toward the end of that 2011-12 season when Levens told reporters that she could think of only five bad practices from the team. She said that defense is a reflection of how mentally tuned in a player is to the game. Hempen factored fully into both those assessments.

***

Levens ranks as one of the best players in Arizona State women’s basketball history. Or, as Hempen puts it, Levens was “absolutely amazing” during her time in Tempe.

A two-time member of the (then) Pac-10 First-Team, Levens took the Sun Devils to consecutive NCAA tournament berths, and helped capture the inaugural conference tournament championship, in 2002. She also set the program’s single-season mark for three-pointers, with 60.

After that 2011-12 season, Levens decided to join Turner Thorne’s staff as the associate head coach. Turner Thorne had just returned from her sabbatical. She’d spent the year away with her family, first unwinding and then re-charging. She came back with five notebooks filled with ideas, concerning leadership and the ways in which she could re-define the culture within the program. Her return just so happened to coincide with the arrival of a certain combo guard. When Turner Thorne had first taken the ASU job, in 1996, she’d moved on from Northern Arizona, and she vividly remembers then-Sun Devils athletic director Kevin White asking her not to bring players with her. Levens followed the same advice in her switch from Edwardsville.

But Hempen’s mom had left her job at SIU-E, and Hempen began thinking about a move of her own. “It was one of the hardest decisions I’ve made,” she says. “I loved my teammates at SIU-E. I couldn’t have asked for better teammates. They had my back; we were a true family.”

Hempen finally decided to go for the challenge. She wanted to prove herself at the Pac-12 level, and she decided to transfer to ASU. Upon signing, Turner Thorne echoed Levens’s old assessment. “Katie Hempen is tough,” she said in a release. When she arrived in Tempe, Hempen marveled at the way the team took her in. “It was the same culture I’d seen at SIU-E,” Hempen says. “Levens had brought the ASU culture there. We made a huge impact in my first year at SIU-E, and we both got the opportunity to come to ASU and make another big impact,” Hempen says.

She’d met Turner Thorne, but quickly got to know her better. In Hempen’s first practice at ASU, she’d sprained her ankle. Turner Thorne was in attendance, “and she couldn’t even see me play,” Hempen says. But after she’d packed on ice and returned to the stands, she had the chance to speak at length with her new head coach. “I’m talking to her, and I’m just like, My goodness gracious, you’re just like coach Levens,” Hempen says, laughing. “You could see they bring that same positive vibe. They have the same values, and that’s made a huge impact on me. I’m so in love with the culture of who we are, and what we do at ASU.”

“She’s pretty easy to get to know,” Turner Thorne says of Hempen. “She’s just very personable.”

***

Hempen makes no bones about her redshirt season in 2012-13, mandated by the NCAA after a transfer to another DI program. A year away from games ain’t never easy.

But she had the perfect teacher to help her.

Levens had begun her own collegiate career at Old Dominion, and upon transferring to Arizona State after her sophomore year had served a redshirt of her own. “I had a unique perspective of how to use that year,” Levens says.

Asked about how she used her own redshirt season, Hempen quips and flips the question: “What didn’t I do. I did it all, man.”

Levens and Hempen worked together every day. When Hempen risked hitting the proverbial wall, Levens would remind her of a mantra. Blink, and your redshirt season’s over. Hempen would always come back and work even harder. She hoisted jumpers from deep. Then, she’d change it up, adding in mid-range jumpers and runners, finishing at the rim. Levens wanted Hempen to develop a diverse skill set. When opponents tried to take away her long-range shot, how could she remain effective?

After work on the court was complete, Hempen would concentrate on footwork and quickness, making that first step razor-sharp.

At least four times a week, she’d dissect film. Of practice. She’d keep asking herself, What can I do to help this team out, to make it better? She could do that through working as hard as she could during practice. In addition to her perimeter pyrotechnics, Levens was known as a tremendous defensive player.

“She did the little things,” Hempen says, “and on defense, every little thing matters. She understands that, and I’m a lot like that, too.” As they watched film, Hempen would figure out when and where she could stop an offensive player. She kept finding additional ways she could take charges. Turner Thorne would check in, sometimes having to ask Hempen to ease up. She’d tell people she’d never seen a redshirt player work harder. “I was just, go, go, go, go, go,” Hempen says.

Hempen took more charges during practice that season than the entire team did during games. She was named the team’s most improved player.

“Credit Katie,” Levens says. “She did all the work.”

“It was tough,” says Hempen. “Not gonna lie, it was one of the harder things I’ve been through. But I pushed through. You find the right grind, and you keep going.”

***

Levens had spoken with Hempen at length about the rigors of a transition to BCS basketball. Longer defenders, more athleticism, more physicality. Gaps closing quickly.

When she took the court to start ’13-14, Hempen got off to a slow start. “She was a little bit rusty,” says Levens, “but we knew her preparation. We knew it was just a matter of time.”

Turner Thorne remembers the turn coming in conference. “I think she hit four threes in the second Pac-12 game, against Washington,” Turner Thorne says. (Hempen finished 4-6 from deep.) “From then on, she relaxed. And then, she peaked in the postseason.”

Levens and Turner Thorne knew there would come a game when Hempen would go off. During film, they’d tell the team, “When Katie shoots, go rebound!”

She did just that at the most opportune time. In the span of two games, a narrow Pac-12 tournament quarterfinal loss to USC and an NCAA tournament Round of 64 win over Vanderbilt, Hempen scored a combined 28 points on 8-11 shooting from deep. The Tournament win was vintage ASU. Speaking afterward, Commodores coach Melanie Balcomb addressed the Sun Devils’ smothering approach thusly: “When you’re pressured and work so hard on offense, you end up paying for that on defense.”

“It’s always been a part of our program to ‘control the controllables,'” says Turner Thorne. “You can control how hard you work. We’ve won a lot of basketball games where we haven’t shot the ball well, because we battled and battled and found a way. Last year’s team did that; it was reminiscent of the culture we’d had for a number of years.”

When Levens had played at Arizona State, she’d felt pride in knowing she was part of something bigger. Tradition. Pageantry. “It was a privilege to play for ASU,” Levens says. “When Charli came back to the program, she wanted to re-identify that culture, to where we wanted it to be.

Says Turner Thorne, “Katie helped re-identify that culture. And that helped with how quickly we were able to turn the program around. She did it from a statistical standpoint, but also with stuff you can’t measure—all the practices and conditioning, who’s in there talking on the court.

“She really is special. She brings so much toughness and winning energy, and that’s a huge part of who we are.” Levens remembers speaking with coaching colleagues this past spring, how they couldn’t help but remark on the progress they’d seen. They’d watched Turner Thorne tell reporters, about ’13-14, “I was not happy with our defense. It was not championship caliber.”

They know the Sun Devils are back.

***

When diagnosing the Sun Devils’ chances this season, most people have pointed to the three players lost. Deja Mann, Adrienne Thomas and Joy Burke.

“We don’t have that much height, but we have quickness, and our team is gonna be strong,” says Hempen. “We’re going to be one of the toughest teams to beat. Most teams worry about that team that never gives up, the one that gets down 20 points, and still doesn’t give up. That’s us. And that’s going to be scary to other people.

“You won’t break us down, no matter what you do. We’re going to keep pushing back, keep punching back. I think that’s what’s most exciting. We have that grit and guts.” It’s with this short monologue in mind that you remember something Turner Thorne said. “There’s a lot of ‘coach’ in Katie.”

Hempen has it right about talent in the fold. Hempen included, Arizona State’s backcourt will be a force this season. The frontcourt is bolstered by standout sophomores Kelsey Moos, Quinn Dornstauder and Sophie Brunner. Four talented newcomers will play key roles.

There’s one more thing you should know about Hempen. As usual, it’s the response to the question that resonates.

One of the first things people notice about Hempen is the long sleeve compression shirt she wears underneath her jersey. It’s there for a reason.

In her sophomore year of high school, Hempen began experiencing strange symptoms. No matter how much she slept, she still felt tired. No matter how much she ate, she still felt hungry. She shrugged it off, telling herself, You play basketball for school and AAU, you run track (the 4×400 and 4×800 meter relays). Of course you’re tired.

But the fatigue and hunger didn’t abate. Seeking answers, Hempen went to her family physician, who soon discovered that Hempen’s thyroid, an endocrine gland which controls how quickly we use energy and process protein, was higher than normal.

The physician prescribed medication, which helped Hempen feel better. She learned to monitor her diet, making sure she ate the right amount and got the right ingredients. “It’s definitely not a struggle, by any means,” Hempen says. “It’s just part of the game. It’s what I have to do. I’m used to it now.”

When she plays, Hempen’s hands become “hard-to-move cold,” she says—a result of the thyroid condition. The long sleeves help with circulation, and when Hempen heads to the bench, she’ll thrust her hands into a towel in an effort to warm them. “It’s just something to help,” she says, before adding, “Maybe I’ll use a heating pad this season.”

At ASU, she has a great team of doctors who help regulate her thyroid. “I’m so blessed to have them,” she says. Then, she offers, “I might not wear the long sleeves this year.”

Levens first recruited Hempen because of her toughness, because when she watched this player work, she saw someone who could push a program over the top. It came from her upbringing—in the Hempen family, if you wanted something, you had to work hard for it. “She’s had great people in her life that have showed her what it takes to be successful,” Levens says.

It takes a village to make a great individual. To bring a program to prominence, it takes great players. No, more than that. It takes Katie Hempens.

The post Winning Energy appeared first on SLAM.

It’s hard to get much past Delon Wright. And no, that’s not a reference to the 6-6.5 wingspan possessed by the 6-5 Utah point guard. Well, actually, it kind of could be. But in this instance, it’s more an allusion to his considerable qualities of retention. Ask Wright about the last shot in a given game, and he’ll respond by breaking down each possession that brought it to that point. Dude’s constantly evaluating in his mind.

Tether that to an unassailable work ethic, and a willingness to do the dirty work, and you’ve got a kid with exponential upside. When Delon was growing up, he’d tag along with big brother Dorell (a 10-year NBA vet) for runs at the gym. He was able to play with NBA types because he’d pass and work on defense.

And he just didn’t make mistakes.

That background factored hugely into Wright’s blistering 2013-14 debut for Utah, during which the soft-spoken star led the Utes in five statistical categories (including blocks) and emerged as one of the country’s top performers.

But so did his two years at City College of San Francisco. Before he arrived, Wright had taken a circuitous path through the prep ranks. There were missed turns coated with smoke signals and false hope. He never obtained his GED. At CCSF, Rams coach Justin Labagh made sure he understood the value of hitting the books. You don’t graduate, you don’t play DI. So when Wright wasn’t in the gym, putting up extra jumpers, he was in study hall. He got that Associate of Arts degree. “I owe him a lot,” Wright says.

Utah coach Larry Krystkowiak has said that it often takes half a season before you notice a junior college player. Not so with Wright. Krystkowiak knew the type of talent he had from the start of last season. So did his teammates. “Playing with him through the summer, we knew he could be special,” said Utes junior forward Jordan Loveridge. For many, Wright came out of nowhere to earn First-Team All-Pac-12 honors, as well as a spot on the All-Defensive team. Leading the league in steals helps with that.

So, what can we expect for an encore, in a season in which Wright is being bandied about as a frontrunner for Pac-12 Player of the Year? Was there a chance any of this would go to his head? Nope.

This is a guy who, when he won Pac-12 Player of the Week last season, had to be informed by teammates. His standard response? It’s good for the team. “I think our team success will be better than any individual success, anyway,” Wright says.

This isn’t coach-speak, or a running-through-the-motions type deal. Wright excels at eliminating distraction, freeing his mind for what’s important. He assumed his jersey number, the unorthodox 55, because, as a freshman at City College of San Francisco, he told Rams head coach Justin Labagh he didn’t care what he wore. The same went for shoes and socks. Wright was too busy getting in the gym for early morning jumpers to fret about that kind of stuff.

This summer at Utah, Wright hit the weight room. After leading the conference in minutes (38.6!), he needed to get stronger. He hoisted jumpers just as he’d done a summer ago. He wants to improve upon last year’s 22 percent from three.

Krystkowiak’s take? He told KSL.com in October that Wright looks 10 times more aggressive in practice this year. “He was always ahead of the curve,” Krystkowiak told KSL, “but I think he still deferred. Late in games, we put the ball in his hands, and he wasn’t quite ready to make those plays. And this year, in our practice settings, he’s been very assertive with that kind of stuff.”

There was a point when it wasn’t certain if Wright would return for this season. But after he decided to bypass last summer’s NBA Draft, he set about maximizing his experience in Salt Lake City. He wanted to finish his Sociology degree on time. Even though by next spring, he’ll be jet-setting to pre-draft camps and workouts, Wright refused to tailor his academic schedule. He doesn’t want to have to return in future years to finish that degree.

The academic side doesn’t come easily to Wright, but you’ll be hard-pressed to find someone who works harder at it. Krystkowiak says that the academic service staff at the university rave about him. He’s their favorite. “And that’s not because of the way he plays out on the court,” Krystkowiak says. “It’s the way he comes into study hall and tries. He’s fulfilling the definition of student-athlete.”

“I give a lot of credit to my academic advisers,” Wright says. “They believed in me, that I could knock it out right now. They helped me as much as possible, to get that done. They gave me confidence.”

Buoyed by the knowledge that his star was coming back, Krystkowiak challenged Wright. What could the guard do to become even better? To start, the coach reflected upon the moments last season when he’d see his point guard make a play for the first time. OK, Krystkowiak said. Now, do it in practice. “I wanted him to be one of our hardest workers in practice,” Krystkowiak says. “Not that he was ever a ‘bad’ practice player. But, if you really want to accomplish your goals, you have to close the gap between practice and games. As you practice way harder, all of a sudden you realize you’re capable of doing some things that maybe you didn’t know you could do.”

Krystkowiak knows full well the rigors that await Wright at the next level. The former Montana star played 10 seasons in the NBA, and coached for three more, including the 2007-08 season at the helm of the Bucks. “He knows I’ve been in the NBA, and can help him out with a lot of things, but we don’t talk a lot about it,” says Krystkowiak. “His focus right now is figuring out a way to reach his full potential and lead our team. All that other stuff will come at the right time.”

Back to the shooting. “He’s not a bad shooter, but one of the little knocks on him is that he couldn’t hit shots,” Krystkowiak says. “Even when he missed last season, they weren’t bad misses. He’s an inch long, or an inch short. This summer, he put up thousands of reps, and he’s making a lot of shots in our practice right now. If people decide to play soft on him this season, he’s capable of hitting them.”

Wright used an app that records the amount of time it takes to release a shot upon catching a pass. The goal: 0.7 seconds.

Before, as he’d prepare to rise up, his feet were often trying to catch up with the shot. So, Wright worked on his base. Now, when he receives passes, his feet are in perfect triple-threat position. Previously one to watch the ball upon release, rather than zero in on the rim, Wright forced himself to focus upon the latter. Krystkowiak references darts players: their eyes never leave the target. Neither should a shooter’s.

It’s coalesced with a strong performance in fall practice. Those thousands of reps are paying off. “He’s making a lot of shots now,” says Krystkowiak.

Add that to Wright’s prodigious stat-sheet stuffing capacities (he averaged 6.8 rebounds and 5.3 assists in addition to his 15.5 points a season ago), and you’ve got a key ingredient for what could be a special season for Utah.

“He’s an easy guy to pull for, because he does a lot of things right,” says Krystkowiak. “He’s been an integral part of us turning the corner at Utah. Just the fact that people want to talk about it means that he’s doing something right.”

The post Ultimate Underdog appeared first on SLAM.

In late January of 1993, Delores Smith sped to the hospital, a baby on the way. She went into labor far earlier than she’d expected.

The result: She gave birth to her son Kenneth in the hallway.

A nickname was soon created, courtesy of Kenneth’s grandmother, who saw a boy who couldn’t wait to get going in this world. It just had to be Speedy.

So began a story that can’t help brushing up against the burnish of legend. Speedy Smith is years removed from his beginning, and has now emerged as one of college basketball’s best point guards. His coach at Louisiana Tech, Michael White, a former DI point guard himself, considers him the best passer in the country.

All of this converges upon Smith’s senior season. For the past two, the Bulldogs have won their conference’s regular-season championship, only to lose in the conference tournament title game, and thereby miss the NCAA Tournament. The program has not danced since ’91.

It’s been devastating, but White has fostered a resilient bunch. A four-year starter at Ole Miss, from ’95 to ’99, White led the Rebels to three consecutive NCAA Tournaments. Now, both he and Smith enter their fourth seasons in Ruston.

It’s Smith’s time. With a strong senior class, and a batch of talented newcomers, Louisiana Tech will be very good. NCAA Tournament-good?

We’ll see, but if there’s one thing you should know about Speedy, as gritty a competitor as can be found in the sporting scene, it’d behoove you not to bet against him reaching his goal.

***

This past March, Louisiana Tech suffered an immense disappointment at the hands of Tulsa. The Bulldogs had defeated the Golden Wave at home during the regular season, but it had resembled a root canal layered in some serious good fortune. White told reporters afterward that Tulsa would be a factor in the conference tournament.

In a big way. Tulsa beat Louisiana Tech 69-60 in the tournament final and punched its own ticket to the NCAA Tournament.

In the ensuing press conference, White graciously congratulated the victors. Moving to his own team, he expressed immense gratitude at having been able to coach such a group. These kids were special. He was only sorry that the four seniors wouldn’t be able to taste the NCAA Tournament.

Then, Smith was asked to describe how he felt. There was no way to explain it, he said.

The Bulldogs were gutted. But, as junior guard Alex Hamilton says, White has forged a resilient bunch. On Selection Sunday, their name was not called, but they did earn a bid to the National Invitational Tournament (NIT). In vintage fashion, they dusted themselves off and made a run. Take the opener, a home bout against a very talented Iona team. There was this way that it ended, that won’t soon be forgotten in Ruston. With just 12 seconds remaining and his team trailing 87-86, Gaels forward David Laury stepped to the line. He sank the first to tie it.

At that point, Smith made eye contact with White. Let’s get a push here, the coach said. Laury made the second. The Bulldogs now trailed by one. Smith did what his coach intended, and pushed. He used an on-ball screen at the top of the key and dished to Hamilton, who missed his 12-footer. No matter—all five Bulldogs crashed the glass. Smith rose above the rest for the decisive tip-in. Then, Smith had the presence of mind to step in front of the ball as Iona tried to push for a game-winner of their own. They missed.

As he watched that shot fall short, Smith wanted to tell anyone—everyone—that the Gaels were not done yet. He bounded after Raheem Appleby, his right-hand man, who scampered away for fear of tweaking his tender ankle. Smith caught him and told him anyway.

Louisiana Tech took down Georgia before falling at Florida State, 78-75, in the NIT quarterfinals. Smith finished with 16 points, 14 rebounds and 6 assists. Fourteen rebounds. He led the Bulldogs in all three of those single-game statistical categories.

Soon after the loss, he began preparing for the season at hand.

***

Growing up in St. Petersburg, FL, Smith always played against older kids. His dad, Kenneth, who’d started at point guard for Boca Ciega (FL) High in the mid-’80s, knew it would steel him as a competitor. So when Smith entered Boca Ciega, and was thrust into the starting point guard role on varsity by his second game as a freshman, there was no deer-in-the-headlights response. Yes, it was tough, but Smith’s biggest concern, in vintage fashion, came outside of himself. He wanted to help the seniors end their career on a fitting note. “And that’s one of the reasons I became a leader,” Smith says. “It was a pressure situation, but I had to get way more mature. It made me what I am today.”

Despite spearheading Boca Ciega coach Randy Shuman’s vaunted fast-paced attack, by late spring of his senior year, Smith had just two scholarship offers—and one was from a Division II school. Local DI programs, most notably South Florida, had shown interest, and Wofford, in South Carolina, had checked in, but nothing would come of either.

Then Michael White took his first head coaching job at Louisiana Tech on March 31, and he got to work looking for a point guard who could serve as the lightning rod in his frenzied pressing scheme. Shuman, who had been shaking his head ruefully at Smith’s lack of luck on the recruiting trail, told him, “If you want a point guard, he’s your guy.”

Speaking of which. For the past two seasons, Smith has been named to the First-Team all-conference and all-defensive teams. (Louisiana Tech moved from the WAC to Conference USA ahead of ’13-14.) He finished second in DI with 7.7 assists a season ago. His 3.25 assist-to-turnover ratio ranked ninth in the country. His 90 steals were fourth. This kid had just one DI offer?

Seems the height of injustice, the type of thing that could fuel a kid’s fire. But that’s not how Smith looks at it. “I think it’s just that God wanted me to be at [Louisiana Tech],” he says softly.

White has factored hugely into this perfect puzzle-piece fit in Ruston. He’ll sit down with Smith and talk. Life goals, how to lead, how to talk to players. Basketball stuff, too. White’s experience as an Ole Miss player means his message packs weight. “He knows what it takes,” Smith says. “He knows what has to be done in practices, film sessions, and the 40 minutes of a game. “He’s got the ingredients, and he puts us into positions where we can make things happen.”

How best to describe Speedy? His junior teammate Alex Hamilton goes with “heart.” Oh, and also, this: “He’s one of the top passers you’ll see. He’ll get to the rim and create, and he always finds somebody that’s open.”

There were things Smith needed to work on in college. Namely, his strength and his shooting. Rail-thin when he entered the program, Smith now checks in at 6-3, 180 pounds. In ’13-14, he shot 37 percent from beyond the arc, good for second on the team. He grabbed 3.8 boards, which ranked third.

Just give Smith a challenge. Watch him move mountains to complete it. Watch him do everything in his power to win.

***

When asked to describe Louisiana Tech, coaches often hit upon this: The Bulldogs are a very good team, but when they can get out and run, they become elite. White’s relentless full court press morphs seamlessly into blood-pressure-spiking half court man-to-man. Teams often can’t adjust. Last season, opponents coughed up the ball an average of 16.4 times per game. Louisiana Tech’s 339 steals ranked fourth in the country.

The Bulldogs are long, athletic and skilled. They come at you in waves. Eight players averaged over 20 minutes a game in ’13-14. Smith, who clocked a team-leading 30.4 minutes, makes that thing go, keying the press and the fast break.

They endure very few losing streaks—last season, they never lost back-to-back games. That included navigating through Appleby’s injury in mid-January, which could have scuppered the campaign. (Appleby returned for a February 27 game against Middle Tennessee.)

“Knowing my right-hand man wasn’t going to be there, I had to do more,” Smith says. “It made me better. Now, I know what I need to do to always be productive. And with [Appleby] back, it’ll be tougher for opposing teams.”

Smith did so while battling nagging hamstring and groin problems. Tendinitis gnawed at him the entire campaign. By midseason, he was coming out of games to give his aching knees a quick rest. Did it affect him? Smith classically demurs. “Mentally, I’m 100 percent at all times,” says Smith. “That’s really all that matters to me. As long as I want to win, I’m OK.”

You might say the team embodies that tough-minded ethos. In Smith’s sophomore season, they went on an 18-game winning streak, the longest in DI that term. Last season, in a game at Oklahoma, Louisiana Tech trailed by 14 in the first half. They rallied back to take the lead, only to find overtime foisted upon them by a last-second Sooners three. The Bulldogs picked themselves up and won in OT.

***

Smith speaks quietly, but thoughtfully. Every phrase is measured. There are themes that you can tell have been years in the making. Kid has very strong faith, and he believes wholeheartedly in this Louisiana Tech team and its potential.

This summer, Smith and his two fellow seniors, Appleby and Michale Kyser, met and brainstormed over the most effective way to lead this team. How would they go about their goal of making the NCAA Tournament: Would it be better to not talk about it, or come right out and express what they wanted to do? They decided upon the latter. The team word became Finish, referencing the Bulldogs’ desire to get past that doggone conference tournament title game and vault into the tournament. As White said in a press conference in October, those three seniors won’t let him not talk about the tournament. “It’s daily dialogue,” White told reporters. “It’s out there.”

White says the Bulldogs have a chance to be really good defensively this season, which is downright scary for opponents. Nine newcomers factor into the fold. They are raw, but they are talented. When Smith took his visit to the Louisiana Tech campus in Ruston, more than three years ago now, he remembers White telling him his vision. He wanted to play up-tempo, and he felt strongly that Smith could factor hugely into that. The past three years have been about building a program. Wouldn’t it be fun to watch it come good, now.

Despite so much youth, Smith can’t help rein in his excitement. They’ve been getting after it in practice. They played well during a pre-season tour of the Bahamas. With so much new talent, those 10 additional practices were vital. Oh, and on the tour, Smith finished with 36 assists over three games. Consider him ready to rock.

***

Here’s a couple of stories to close.

Smith remains in contact with Shuman, his high school coach. Every now and then, he’ll send Louisiana Tech game posters to Boca Ciega. Shuman tacks them to his office wall. As the coach spoke on the phone several weeks ago, he recounted some of his favorite Speedy memories.

“There was this one time, we had to play a game at 7 at night, and his dad called me at 6:15 and said, ‘Speedy’s got a temperature of 102, he’s not going to make it.’ He’s been dehydrated, retching all day. So we go out to warm up, come back in the locker room and there’s Speedy, getting dressed. I’m like, ‘What the hell?’ But his dad says it’s all right, they had him drink a lot of Gatorade. I said, ‘Well, we’ll keep an eye on you. If you can give us a couple minutes, great.'” Speedy went out and scored 35.

Afterward, he went to the hospital for an IV. “It just shows the tough-ass kid he is,” says Shuman. “That’s why I can say he doesn’t like to lose. He’ll sacrifice everything.”

Then there was Smith’s final game at Boca Ciega, in the state playoffs. “We had hopes of going deep, but it was just one of those bad nights,” says Shuman. “Afterward, we couldn’t get the uniform off him. He went outside, and he was so distraught that it took 45 minutes to get him settled down. He wore his uniform home that night. (Of course, he brought it back, cleaned, the next day.)

“He laid his heart out,” Shuman says, before adding, “Always did. You don’t run into kids like that anymore. You just don’t.”

The post Alpha Dog appeared first on SLAM.

Then, there was movement. Jarrett Jack, the nine-year NBA vet, sprang back up.

Oh, y’all done? I still got more to do.

Jack rolled right into his personal strain of ’21’, which consisted of a medley of threes, mid-range pull-up jumpers and layups, with Jack sprinting to half court and back after every shot.

When he’d finished, Jack did more sprints. “It was like he was on an energy drink or something,” says Brandon Clark, who can’t help but chuckle as he remembers, “He was the oldest in the group, and that was his second workout of the day!”

It made an impression upon Clark, a 6-0 guard who’s entering his senior season at Santa Clara University. “Here’s a guy who’s financially set, and he still wants to do more out of love for the game,” he says. “To see that strength, you can’t exchange that with anything. It was one of the highlights of my life, so far.”

That workout with Jack was one of a number Clark participated in during a six-day stint in Vegas this past summer. Usually, he was accompanied by CJ Watson, the Pacers point guard. Clark had been introduced to Watson the previous summer by Broncos head coach Kerry Keating. When Keating was an assistant at Tennessee in the early aughts, he’d recruited Watson, and the two have stayed in touch. Keating knew that Clark could learn from Watson, who has carved out an impressive NBA career. Undrafted in ’06, Watson headed to Europe, then the D-League. He caught on with the Warriors in ’08, and has been in the League ever since. Anthony Morrow was another workout partner of Clark’s.

It was exactly what Keating wanted for Clark, who will be one of those guys on the cusp of a 15-man roster next fall. Watson and Morrow weren’t guys who’ve had security handed to them on the first-round platter of draft night. They poured every ounce of sweat they had into a roster spot. They’ve carved out careers and become integral components of organizations.

“It was really beneficial for me to see people at the next level,” says Clark. “I got to see the stuff that I was good at, as well as the stuff I needed to work on. It’s all about taking that next step.”

This summer, Clark got in a certain type of mode. He woke up with one thing on his mind. He watched and he worked. He was fascinated with the way these NBA players communicated throughout their workouts. The level of professionalism and dedication they exuded. Never a moment wasted. Now, Clark says, he’s thinking like a pro. Always hungry, never satisfied as he heads into his final college season.

“[Watson] kept telling me to keep up what I’m doing, get more wins for my team,” says Clark. “He told me that’ll help with whatever I want to do after college.”

Nothing seizes America’s collective consciousness quite like a winner. Clark understands that. So, as Jack once did with Georgia Tech, and Watson with Tennessee, he’d like to wax ambitious in his final year of college. He knows some critics will say it ain’t possible. Others will scoff at the absurdity of a West Coast Conference team dethroning Gonzaga.

But why not prove them wrong. Never underestimate the power of a baller with some serious inspiration and talent on his side.

Clark wants to lead Santa Clara to a conference title. He wants to get to the NCAA Tournament. And if the Broncos play this season the way they ended the last, they just might get there.

***

For Clark, the upcoming season began minutes after the last one had ended.

If you’re unfamiliar with WCC basketball, here’s a foray into heartbreak. Santa Clara’s ’13-14 campaign, difficult, dashed and daunting, finished in the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas, in the quarterfinals of the conference tournament, thanks to a last-second runner from Gonzaga redshirt-senior point guard David Stockton. (The son of…well, y’know.)

A month before, another Zags fifth-year senior, forward Sam Dower, had knocked down a last-second three to beat the Broncos at home. That was part of a seven-game losing streak in conference play.

But those two losses sandwiched a Santa Clara revival. By the time Vegas had rolled ’round, Keating had tinkered with his lineup and playing style. The Broncos were playing some of their best basketball, and they pushed Gonzaga to the brink.

But no dice. The Broncos ended a disappointing season 14-19, 7-9 in conference.

Clark recounted these episodes in the Santa Clara media offices, a few steps away from his home court. He’s kept the mohawk he rocked last season, one of the most distinguishable ‘dos in DI.

He was months removed, but he could return in an instant to that moment, in Vegas. There’s the way you usually feel after a loss, he explains. The frustration, the angst and the bitterness welling up like a storm. But after that final loss to GU, Clark just felt numb. Not that he was indifferent—he’d just felt so strongly that they had that one.

The Broncos cycled back to the locker room. For almost two minutes, there was silence. Then, the returning players got up and thanked the three seniors for their work.

“After Stockton hit that layup, it just took your heart away from you, like it snapped,” Clark says. “Nobody thought we’d be in that game as long as we were. But we kept playing for each other. We blocked out the noise. That was a high-status game, but we were in our zone, playing together.”

Eventually, Keating entered the locker room. He looked around at his players, then told them how proud he was of the way they’d battled through that tumultuous season. He stressed the fact that each and every day of practice, each and every game, is important. That’s the next step for a team. Clark emerged energized, and he flew back to California spurred by a single thought.

“I knew I had one more year,” he says.

***

Clark signed for Santa Clara in April of his senior year of high school—late, by many standards.

He featured prominently for Merrillville (IN) High—Gregg Popovich is an alum—for a team that, Keating recalls, was ranked No. 1 in the state that season. At the AAU level, Clark ran with SYF Players, a high-profile side that has featured the likes of current NBA players E’Twaun Moore (coincidentally, Clark’s god-brother) and Robbie Hummel.

A scholarship had opened up for Keating that spring after guard Beau Gamble transferred. Keating needed a replacement, and Clark was still available.

Due to the timing, Keating wasn’t able to get a live look at his newest recruit, but his assistants did their due diligence. Sam Scholl, now the Broncos associate coach, remembers meeting a kid with a chip on his shoulder. Valparaiso had sniffed around, but there was no serious interest. And this was in the heart of Big Ten country. “He wasn’t heavily recruited,” said Scholl. “We didn’t have to win some huge recruiting battle to get him. There’s no doubt that he steps out on to the court wanting to show that everybody missed him. That chip, that’s part of what makes him so good.”

Looking back on it now, Keating marvels that the career Clark has carved. Last season, he passed 1,000 points for his career. “I hated the way he shot the ball when I saw it on film,” Keating says, “but he’s not as much of a shooter as he is a shot-maker. I’ve coached guys like that before, and you learn pretty quick you’ve just got to let them go at it.”

That fearlessness manifested itself during a tour of Canada in the ’11-12 preseason, when Clark, an incoming freshman, led Santa Clara in scoring. “He kind of sneaks up on you,” says Keating. “With his length and his speed, he can get the ball past bigger guys.” Said Scholl, “He’s fearless. He’s never been afraid to take risks. His mentality has always been, ‘What do I have to do for our team to have a chance to win?'”

That took on greater import during Clark’s freshman season, which followed Santa Clara’s victorious turn in the 2011 CIT tournament. Marc Trasolini, poised to star as a senior, tore his left anterior cruciate ligament during the Canadian tour. Then Kevin Foster, the MVP of the CIT, was suspended for the final 12 games of the season. “I was going to those guys for advice,” he says. “It made me step up as a leader, earlier, rather than be fostered in that role.”

As a sophomore, Clark played major minutes for a veteran Broncos team that captured the CBI championship. In ’13-14, he led the Broncos in assists. His assist-to-turnover ratio was a shade shy of 2:1.”He’s still really wide-eyed and open to learning,” says Keating. “Since he’s a senior, now, the next challenge is making sacrifices for a team that’s looking to hold itself to a certain standard.”

***

At the start of last season, Clark felt overwhelmed. There was a burden of responsibility placed firmly upon his shoulders similar to what he’d felt as a freshman. Foster, Trasolini, Raymond Cowels and Niyi Harrison were gone, taking some 6,000 career points and that CBI title along with them. Then, Evan Roquemore, the de-facto returning point guard, and a senior, got hurt.

During pre-season practice, Clark struggled to rein in his mistakes. He was so accustomed to his departed teammates’ consummate sense of spacing. Now, there were multiple freshmen to factor into the fold. It took awhile to gel, and during that span, Clark pressed.

Keating remembers a game when Clark’s shooting became so erratic, his shot selection so poor, it threatened to put Santa Clara under. “He was trying to do too much, and trying to take on the burden too much,” says Keating. “Then he settled down, and he had a good year for himself.”

Slowly, Clark began to understand the pace and the rhythm. He found the balance between scoring and setting up teammates.

Even when the games began slipping away in conference, Clark remained steady. “I seen how it was, I know the point where we broke off,” says Clark. “That’ll be big for me this year. Knowing when to bring the team together in a huddle, or during a dead ball, and saying we need to dig in—right here.”

Each season, the Santa Clara players pick a word that defines their approach. Clark picked Focus ahead of ’13-14, and kept it for the campaign. “In the games when my focus was high, I felt like it was a direct correlation to the team and the type of energy we had,” he says. “It’s a long season, but focusing every day, and taking it a day at a time, respecting the process and living for the process…that could do wonders for us.” The day-to-day grind might be the most important insight. Last season, Santa Clara showed it could get up for the big games. There were those two games against Gonzaga. They took down rival Saint Mary’s on the road.

But Keating let the team know in that Vegas locker room that the game nobody knows about in November matters just as much in the grand scheme. Every game, every win, adds up to the Tournament, and that’s where Clark wants to go.

“I look around the country, at other schools, I talk to friends from my AAU team, and I talk to them about how they go about their business,” says Clark. “And I feel like, Why not us? We have nice facilities, we have good players, we have great coaches. It’s a chip on our shoulder.”

***

The morning after games, Santa Clara players head to film session, where they are presented a 10-clip series, all of which concern errant moments from the night before. But instead of admonishment, the emphasis is on finding the ways in which those mistakes can be fixed.

The approach extends to individual relationships. Clark was in constant contact with the coaching staff this summer. Sometimes, he’d send Scholl, who coaches the Santa Clara guards, clips of YouTube videos he found particularly inspiring. There was one of Damian Lillard putting in work, to which Scholl replied with a question.

See anything you want to work on?

“That’s one thing I took from this summer,” says Clark. “To focus on one thing in a 30-minute span. I remember [Scholl] sent me a Kobe clip once, and it talked about how Kobe devotes an entire day toward working on one thing—it might be one of his crazy turn-around one-footers. People think that’s a lucky shot, but it’s rep after rep after rep after…”

Scholl applauds Clark’s inquisitive approach. “In the early part of his career, Brandon came to practice, but he didn’t really understand the purpose of being at each and every practice. Now he’s seeing how each practice builds into something more. He took ownership. He realized it wasn’t just about playing well in games, but in being consistent with his practice habits and looking to improve.” Every day after practice for the past year and a half, Clark has stayed behind and put up extra shots. He won’t leave until he’s gone 8-of-10 from five spots on the floor. Sometimes, he challenges himself with making five threes and five free throws in a row. You get the sense he might soon begin taking a page out of Jack’s book, and adding some sprints in at the end.

Keating isn’t big on the word ‘culture,’ but he is excited about the direction this program is taking, and the way it has been bolstered by the work these kids have put in. When he meets people curious about the upcoming season, he informs them that they’ll see a different brand of Santa Clara basketball. “I know exactly where we’re going,” Keating says. Clark sees it as well. “This is the first team I’ve been on where everybody connects,” he says. “The chemistry is at an all-time high. That might be a cliche, but I trust these guys. It’s the same with the coaches. They listen to your opinions and insights, and vice versa. That’s one thing I really like.”

You couldn’t quite call it a deficiency, but outside of 6-9 senior Yannick Atanga, the Broncos lack size and experience in the frontcourt. That means they’ll play up-tempo, looking to harry teams the way they did Gonzaga in the WCC tournament. Before the Zags fell to Arizona in the NCAA Tournament Round of 32, no team turned them over more than did the Broncos in Vegas.

Santa Clara will do major damage by way of its backcourt, which is loaded. In addition to Clark and super-soph Jared Brownridge (17.2 points last season), Keating raves about younsters Jalen Richard and Jarvis Pugh. True freshmen Stephen Edwards and Kai Healy pack even more scoring punch.

“We can mix and match at guard,” says Scholl. “None of our guys have the ego of needing the ball in their hands. They recognize each other’s strengths. Instead of set positions, we have playmakers, and Brandon leads the charge in that.” Never one to fan flames, Keating will reserve judgment on this young team until they’ve come through a relative wringer of a non-conference slate. A road swing through Utah State, Michigan State and Tennessee over the course of eight days in mid-November beckons. That’s followed by the ever-potent field at the Orlando (formerly Old Spice) Classic over Thanksgiving.

But Keating is sure of one thing. Should the Broncos acquit themselves well in these games, there’s a bit of long-awaited renown that could come Clark’s way.

“For people who haven’t really paid attention,” says Keating,” Brandon’s got a chance to come out of nowhere.”

***

It’s difficult to fathom, given that he finished fourth in the WCC in scoring (16.9 points) last season, but yes, Clark is a player few in America know about.

Take Santa Clara’s final press conference Santa Clara of this past season, after that conference tournament loss to Gonzaga. As Keating, Brownridge and Clark trudged toward the press conference table in the media room, Broncos sports information director Michelle Young informed the assembled media that Clark had scored in double figures for the 23rd consecutive game.

Barely a ripple among the crowd, for a pretty doggone good feat. But that’s the thing about steady, as opposed to flash, or pomp, or circumstance. It gets passed over.

Clark realized long ago it wasn’t worth worrying about notoriety. It’s ephemeral. Surround yourself instead with people who believe in you. His coach, his team and his family know his worth, and that’s enough. This summer, Clark could often found in the weight room. With nine freshmen and sophomores—and no juniors—on this season’s team, he knows he needs to be a leader, and he wants to be at his absolute peak.

Keating took the seniors out to lunch in early October, and told them straight up: “This thing can go as far as you want it to go.” He knows the Broncos will likely be picked to finish in the bottom half of the league standings this season. (They were picked to finish seventh.) Should Clark help the Broncos nab a fair number of wins, his stock will rise in the eyes of future employers, whether NBA or overseas. “He’ll be the perfect guy to have in a pre-draft workout,” says Keating. “Some of those guys are gonna watch him and say, ‘He can put the ball in the basket. He’s fast. He’s deceptive. He can guard the ball and shoot it.'”

Adds Scholl, “Brandon has goals and aspirations to play for money one day. We talked a lot this summer about developing habits to get him ready for that. Us winning is a very important part of it. He took mental notes of what he saw this offseason, the level of professionalism and self-discipline. That’s the sort of character and value system that’s required for someone to invest money in.”

As he enters his final season, Clark can still remember his recruitment vividly, all those schools that overlooked him. Maybe it was his style of play; maybe it was the fact that he didn’t hit his current height of 6-feet until he was a senior in high school.

He remembers how Purdue wasn’t interested in his services. So, as a sophomore, when Clark helped Santa Clara beat the Boilermakers, on the road, in that CBI tournament: “To win at a Big Ten school that didn’t recruit me…”

Dude doesn’t even need to finish that sentence.

They may have slept on him ’til now, but as many teams have learned, you look past this kid at your own risk.

The post Tunnel Vision appeared first on SLAM.

So 49ers coach Dan Monson challenged him. Do you want to be the best point guard in program history never to make the NCAA Tournament?

The star point guard responded with aplomb. To describe the dedication shown during that final summer, Monson created an appropriate descriptor. It was a “Casper Ware offseason.” As a senior, Ware once again took home Big West Player of the Year honors. He became a national sensation when he torched Pitt, at Pitt, to the tune of a then career-high 28 points. It was just the third time the Panthers had lost a non-conference home game. Even LeBron took note of the feat, tweeting, Casper Ware a problem out there!

Game recognize game. But plaudits be damned, the most important thing for Ware remained that, once March had rolled around, he got the 49ers into the NCAA Tournament.

Legacy: sealed.

Now, there was another guard on that ’11-12 Beach team—this one a freshman blur with a work ethic to match. Mike Caffey became a key player for Monson that season, and started the final four games after Larry Anderson, a 6-5 senior guard, suffered an injury to his right knee.

During his recruitment, Monson had told Caffey, a coveted prospect from Centennial High, in nearby Corona, that he could be a three-year starter. As a freshman, however, he’d come into a team with some serious seniors on hand—most notably Ware.

Caffey didn’t bristle at that. He found Monson’s no-frills approach refreshing. When he came for his visit, Ware was one of his hosts. So was Anderson, who ended up as one of the program’s leaders in steals. Caffey picked Long Beach State. “I knew I’d be behind big-time guards,” he says, “and I knew I could learn from them.”

Now, Caffey approaches his own senior season, and like Ware before him, there are some splinters in his mind’s eye he’s dead set about mending. If you want personal accolades, here’s a few records within Caffey’s grasp. He could become:

– The fourth Beach player to earn three first-team all-conference selections.
– The fourth Beach player with 1,000 points, 500 rebounds and 300 assists.
– The third Beach Player with 1,000 points (he passed that mark last February 15) and 400 assists.

The 5-11 guard has a penchant for the clutch moment, too, hitting game-winners with startling frequency. And all that’s great. But just like Ware, Caffey knows there’s legacy at stake.

Since that freshman season with Ware leading the way, Caffey hasn’t been back to the NCAA Tournament. In ’14-15, he wants to take the 49ers back.

“We’re at the level where every year we’re expected to win the league and get to the NCAA Tournament, or it’s not a good season,” says Monson. “Two years ago, we won the league, but didn’t get to the Tournament. Last year wasn’t a disaster, but we didn’t win league; we didn’t get to the NCAA Tournament. To our minds, we didn’t accomplish anything.”

Speaking of last season. After winning their opener, the 49ers lost their next nine games. But just before Christmas, they began a surge, thanks to some serious reinforcements, in the form of UCLA transfer guard Tyler Lamb and freshman swingman Travis Hammonds. Both players officially joined Long Beach State on December 19, after the end of the fall semester.

But it wasn’t enough. The 49ers lost to Cal State Northridge in the conference tournament semifinals, finishing 15-17 for the season.

Caffey didn’t take long to begin preparing for ’14-15. He knew he’d have to make this summer count. So he rented an apartment with fellow senior teammates Lamb and AJ Spencer, and set about working. (Spencer will miss the ’14-15 season after suffering a torn anterior cruciate ligament.)

Those three could most often be found in the gym, putting up jumpers until their arms felt sure to fall off.

“We’ve got a chip on our shoulder,” says Lamb, who averaged 15.4 points last season and was named Second-Team Big West. “Our goal every year is to get to the NCAA Tournament. So, many nights, when we were shooting, we’d talk about what we have to do. The Tournament is what we want to achieve.”

“They have that chip as a group,” says Monson. “And for us to get back to where we want to be, Mike needs to have a better year.”

Monson cites Caffey’s shooting percentages: chiefly, the 29 percent from three and 66 percent from the foul line.

Considering that Caffey led the 49ers in scoring (16.2 points), assists (4.3), steals (45) and 34.5 minutes per game on the way to earning First Team All-Big West honors for the second consecutive season, Monson’s verdict might sound harsh.

But then you hear Caffey’s own take.

This summer, it was hard to find Caffey outside of that gym. Ware and Anderson even came back to campus and worked out with him.

He made alterations to his shot, getting it, as Caffey puts it, “into a good groove.”

He keeps in frequent contact with Ware, and has studied the way his former mentor has carved out an NBA career. (Ware signed a three-year deal with the Sixers this summer.) “I try to match up my game with him,” Caffey says. “Seeing how he can score and do his thing, it gives me confidence.”

That includes leadership.

Caffey readily admits to being quiet, but he knows the 49ers’ hopes rest upon his ability to take the wheel. “I’m still learning about that,” he says, “but the coaches preach on me to become more of a vocal leader. They talk to me every day about getting guys on the same page.”

Caffey has always felt more comfortable leading by example, and Monson pointed to a practice in which Caffey, as is his habit, finished first in conditioning. In the weight room, he’s the strongest guy. “But he’s still too quiet on the court,” says Monson. “Ware was quiet too, but he got out of it and emerged into a very good leader. I challenged Casper as a senior, that his legacy was going to depend on getting to the NCAA Tournament, and he stepped up. Now, it’s Mike’s turn to get us to the NCAAs.”

It’s already taking hold. Asked about Caffey’s body of work this summer, Monson offers this description: He had a ‘Casper Ware’ offseason.”He worked really hard,” says Monson of Caffey. “He got in the gym and got shots up. It’ll pay dividends.”

Ware understood that for a point guard, stats come second. What you’re judged upon, in the end, is wins. So Ware became a master at taking the pulse of a game, figuring out what his team needed him to provide, and when.

Caffey’s taken note. Now, he’ll need to be at his best during Long Beach’s latest challenging non-conference slate. Consider a 10-day stretch in December that includes four true road games against Texas, St. John’s, Syracuse and Louisville. But Caffey’s used to that. He knows that come Big West play, Long Beach State will be battle-tested and ready to rock. Given the last time the Big West last received multiple bids in 2005, it’s a sound policy from Monson. Hopefully the experience builds into something damned resolute. Then, you make your run during conference.

“We feel like this is the deepest team we’ve had and one of the most skilled teams,” says Monson, who like Caffey hails the arrival of a very good freshman class. There are legacies at stake. As was once the case with Ware’s senior year. Lamb thinks we’ll see the best of Caffey.

“Mike’s played with and competed against the highest level of guards,” says Lamb. “He’s continued to show he’s one of the best point guards out there.”

Pretty soon, the country will take heed as well.

The post Dream Chaser appeared first on SLAM.

Like say, about those all-black Jordan XIs, with a splash of turquoise in the logo.

“Had to bust ’em out,” Randle said, laughing.

He was asked about the toughest player he’d guarded last season. (Jahii Carson.) Was it weird not having Dwight Powell and Josh Huestis around? (Yes, but the freshmen have been stepping up to fill that void.) He moved on to the way he’d spent his summer. There was an invite to Chris Paul’s elite camp in mid-August. There were the months spent fortifying his already-prodigious offensive arsenal and defensive approach.

Considerable buzz follows him now. Randle was fresh off a spring in which he’d sprung onto the national scene with Stanford, who’d shocked the nation with a run to the Sweet 16, taking down No. 2-seeded Kansas along the way. There was that press conference that had gone viral, when two guffawing Jayhawks (Wayne Selden Jr and Andrew Wiggins) had been asked about Randle.

Q: What about Randle, and his impact on the game?

 

Wiggins: I am not sure right now. What about you, Wayne?

 

Selden: I am along with you.

Whoops. Thirteen points, 6 steals and one victory later, Randle was a media darling, the Jayhawks the latest victims of social media-abetted foot-in-mouth disease. It was one of the prime performances in a sensational junior campaign during which Randle averaged 18.8 points and shot 44 percent—from the field and from three.

Stanford would lose to Dayton in the Sweet 16, but a hurdle had been breached. They were on the verge of something special. The season finished, Randle headed back home.

He had work to do.

***

At Rock Island (IL) High, Randle never received less than an A. He was the class valedictorian. When people talk about him, it usually takes about 10 minutes before they breach the subject of basketball. Kid is special in that rare kind of all-around way. But still. Finishing his degree in African and American Studies, at Stanford, in three years, while maintaining a 3.3 GPA? That takes some doing. As Cardinal coach Johnny Dawkins puts it, “He’s had to take extra courses throughout the school year, and in summer. To balance that with basketball says a lot about him.”

This summer, Randle began work on his thesis for Stanford’s master’s program in Psychology.

That meant numerous trips to Scott County Correctional Facility, in Davenport, IA, just a short drive across the Mississippi River from Rock Island. Randle has volunteered at the facility since the summer before his junior year in high school.

He interacts with the kids housed there, tells them what he’s done with his life, what’s helped him get to where he is today. “I try to give them motivation and some hope for when they’re ready to leave and re-enter schools,” Randle says.

Those experiences served as the springboard for his master’s thesis. “We’re looking at perceptions of juvenile youth who are re-entering schools and how they’re received by their peers and teachers,” Randle explained. “What we’re really trying to do is help their transition in getting back into society and schools. Randle recounts all this in vintage matter-of-fact manner. You begin to see why Dawkins calls him a special kid, and why the first descriptor often attached to him is “extremely driven and incredibly humble.”

So, who better than to lead Stanford as they enter a ’14-15 season intent upon solidifying their foothold on the national scene? Randle has always felt more comfortable leading by example, but this fall, he’s been trying to improve vocally. “I think I’m growing in that area,” he says, “and getting that respect from my teammates.”

Randle once credited his AAU team, the heralded Illinois Wolves, with “bringing out the animal in him.” His commitment certainly couldn’t be questioned: Randle would make a five-hour round trip to practices.

At Stanford, Randle credits Dawkins with taking that on-court aggressiveness to “a whole ‘nother level.”

There’s reason for this, most notably in the two’s shared path as basketball players. Dawkins was a heralded recruit in Washington, DC, who in the mid-’80s became Duke’s (then) all-time leading scorer, keying the program’s rise. During his time in Durham, Dawkins transitioned from off guard to running point. To watch Randle do the same, the coach attests, is pretty cool. “We’re able to talk about certain things I don’t think he could talk about with a big man or a wing. That’s something that’s really special,” says Randle. “I’ve leaned on him a lot, on and off the court.”

The transition hasn’t always been seamless. After an excellent freshman season on The Farm, Randle struggled as a sophomore. Defenses were attuned to him, and his shooting percentages and production dipped accordingly. But Randle flipped the script last season. There were times he was simply unguardable. Like any great teacher, Dawkins knows Randle can give more. He knows this is the type of player that becomes the benchmark of a program.

“He’s kind of quiet,” says Dawkins, “so one of my jobs is to teach him how to lead. He has to continue to be vocal, and he’s really embraced that. He’s learning to be really proactive—not just with his play, which is always proactive, but also with his voice. He has a great voice, and people believe in him.”

***

It seems strange to talk about failure when it comes to Randle, but when the roster for the 2013 World University Games was announced, Randle wasn’t on it. He felt he deserved a spot, and it stung. But, in quintessential fashion, Randle rebounded quickly. He looks back philosophically. “I’ve failed a lot in my life, at basketball and off the court, but I’m driven by those things I’m not able to accomplish—the things that have, in my mind, gone wrong,” he says. “I’ve always been told, once things don’t go right for you, don’t be mad about it, don’t cry about it, turn that energy into working toward what you want to accomplish.”

Randle used the snub as motivation. Dawkins helped him harness it. “We used that disappointment of not being a part of the team and turned it into a positive, an opportunity to get better and show people, ‘Hey, maybe you made a mistake,'” Dawkins says. “I think that last year, he did that. He had one of the best seasons of any guard in the country.”

This season, Randle won’t be sneaking up on anybody. He has a shot at passing Todd Lichti for the program’s all-time points record. (He’s currently 686 points shy.) He’ll run point, and be a leader. Randle likes what he sees from a talented freshman class, which includes the likes of 6-8 forward Travis Reid and 6-2 point guard Robert Cartwright. Cartwright told Stanford’s official website he’s “lucky to learn from Randle.”

That’s music to Randle’s ears. “They’ve seen where we’ve been from afar, and they understand,” he says. “That’s special. They want to win, they want to compete, and they’ve been great at every single practice. They’ve brought a certain level of energy and intensity.”

The post Leading The Charge appeared first on SLAM.

Wait. Whoa.

Everybody?

Uh huh.

Kyle Smith enters his fifth year at the helm of the Lions well aware of the reasons that year of 1968 resonates so resoundingly. Way back when, Columbia had clout. There were top-10 finishes and post-season appearances. Big games and an energized fan base. The CIT run last spring really got it buzzing again.

That the 45-year-old Smith has Columbia back on track for perennial post-season bids shouldn’t come as a surprise, though. After he was hired by Columbia in 2010, Randy Bennett, the head coach at Saint Mary’s, where Smith had been an assistant for the previous nine years, said “[Smith] will be very successful. He has been a huge part of what we’ve done at Saint Mary’s. It’s been he and I together—it’s been like having a co-coach.”

Now, the Lions return a very talented core, led by 6-7 senior forward Alex Rosenberg (16.0 points) and 6-3 junior Maodo Lo (14.7 points). Like the rest of the roster, both have been busy this summer. Rosenberg plied his trade with the Uptowners in the Nike Pro City League. Lo…well, he trained with the German national team. Both reflect the type of player Smith recruits to Columbia. Smart, versatile—and man, can they make it rain. The Lions hit 278 three-pointers last season (Rosenberg and Lo combined for 127 of them), smashing the previous program record. They tethered that with a blistering effort on the opposite end, finishing in the top 30 nationally in scoring defense.

That well-rounded approach led to a third place finish in the Ivy League standings. Now, they want a title. It’s more than just lip service, too. Columbia ticks all the boxes you look for in a contender. They put in work this summer. They’re deep, they’re talented, they’re hungry.

They might just get that conference crown. Smith knows expectations will be raised—now, it’s a matter of handling them and putting in the consistent performances that lead to sustained success. Smith took time recently to speak with SLAM. Here’s the transcript:

SLAM: This summer, you attended the Saint Mary’s basketball alumni event. (Smith was a Gaels assistant from 2001-10). You even presided over the three-point contest. (Seems fitting—as a senior at Hamilton College, Smith hit 51 percent of his threes, which still stands as the program record.) How much fun was it to go back to Moraga?

Kyle Smith: It was awesome. I was really grateful. It was probably the best nine years of my life there, so I’m always happy and thankful they include me in those things. Anyone who’s ever been up on that campus, or around the program, understands that it’s a family atmosphere. I met my wife there, she went to Saint Mary’s. So we’re usually watching those games up late at night on the East Coast, now.

Randy [Bennett] and I are really good friends, and we’ve followed each other’s programs. Then, to see all the guys who came back was a testament to the wonderful job Randy has done, building the community there and the culture. The basketball program fits the culture of the community. It’s unique. There’s not many places like that. It’s something we’re trying to build at Columbia.

SLAM: You finished last season with a strong run to the CIT quarterfinals. What has it been like to witness the growth of this program, in conjunction with the elevated play throughout the Ivy League?

KS: We’re definitely getting involved with better guys, and that’s more a product of our recent success, and the league’s success. The league is doing a great job recruiting; there’s really good players here. From the get-go, and I told Randy Bennett this when I got the job—this job is pretty good. The feedback, the response you get…you don’t know until you call as the coach at Columbia, but there’s certain people that really resonates with. Obviously good students are always going to be interested, but even more so…and some of the people I wasn’t familiar with.

Columbia hasn’t been great for awhile, but when it was…and John Feinstein, who wrote a Washington Post article on that CIT quarterfinal game (against Yale), he grew up here, and this place is precious to him. And guys who were following those Columbia teams in the ’60s and early ’70s, those guys are like 65, 68 years old, and they’re still…some of them are still in the area, and they still want to see us do well.

So there’s an international flavor, there’s a national flavor. Then there’s the local people in the neighborhood—and the island (Manhattan) itself has three million people, so it’s a good little spot. We drew well when I first got here, and it’s only getting better. It’s a surprisingly fun place to coach, and it’s only getting better.

SLAM: You were picked to finish eighth in the Ivy League last season. You finished tied for third. Was there an edge within this team, that you were better than predicted?

KS: It’s a little odd. The year before, ’12-13, we were picked to do well (the Lions were picked to finish third in the pre-season poll), and we got hurt and banged up, lost a lot of tight games. That’s all part of building a program. I told our guys at the end of that season, the year before, you won’t hear it from the media coverage, or from your administrators, your teachers, your peers, but you guys are close. We’re close. Only us in this locker room will believe it, but I felt good about it. The guys in this program…we’d beat Villanova, we beat Harvard—those were both NCAA Tournament teams in ’12-13.

We had two bouts of the flu during league, we lost some close games, and we were still pretty good. But the team attitude and the work ethic were good, the pieces there to have a program were good, the buy-in, despite those tough losses, was still there. Because nothing brings out the worst in people like losing. They stayed with it. I thought we had a chance, because of that.Now, this is my first year where the seniors are the guys I recruited. That takes time. And the guys we inherited were good kids, and good players, too, but there’s something a little more special when you’re playing for the guy that recruited you. I’m sitting in their living room, saying, Hey, this is what I see for our program; this is our vision for you. It’s going to be hard work, you need to have a great attitude, it’s not going to be easy.

But now, it’s their program. It’s not about coming to play for Kyle Smith at Columbia. It’s, This is Columbia Basketball. This is how we do things. That’s been fun. Hopefully, we match expectations. It’ll be tougher. We’ll have a little higher expectations this year.

SLAM: You look down the roster, and everybody’s back. After the success of last season, does that create a singular atmosphere, and a challenge during the offseason—to continue to build?

KS: Yeah. Now, it’s about handling success, and having internal motivation to be better, and knowing that you’re the hunted. It’s always easier to be the hunter, to be the underdog. We have to deal with that, being expected to win games that Columbia hasn’t been expected to win in the past.

We return 100 percent of our points and minutes, everything’s back. We’ve got two really good freshmen coming in, too (a pair of 6-4 guards, Kyle Castlin and Nate Hickman)—they’re the right character, the right talent, and they’re going to be good players. So that’s going to change things a little bit.

We’re playing UConn and Kentucky in non-conference. It’s all about giving our best shot in January and February, when the league begins.

These guys deserve it. We’ve raised the bar. Our non-conference schedule is a little bit more competitive—obviously, when you have the national champ and the national runner-up—that can humble you. You find out where you are. So we’ll see how we compete.

SLAM: Last season, you played Michigan State in East Lansing, when they were ranked (second) in the nation, and you gave them all they could handle…

KS: They’d just beat Kentucky, and if they beat us, they’d be No. 1 in the nation. We gave them a good scare, we were tied with four minutes to go, we were up in the second half, but down the stretch, their veterans made some plays. They had some pretty good pieces.

SLAM: There seems to be a theme of self-motivation among the players on the roster. For example, last February, Meiko Lyles gets a rare start against Brown, and responds with 21 points.

KS: That’s your vision and your hope for a team. We talk a lot about being a team, how everyone has a role, that our attitudes are right. We had Grant Mullins, who was a good starter for us, and he went down with a concussion and missed the last half of the league season. That forced Meiko Lyles and Steve Frankowski to step up, and Meiko has been a good contributor before, and it would be easy for guys…Meiko used to start—so for him to never hang his head about it, and then, he got us a big win, his 21 points were huge. He’s tough. We’ve got a good thing, through the team.

SLAM: The goal among the players this season is to win an Ivy League title. Everyone was on campus this summer, save Maodo Lo—and he was playing with the German national team. Did you like what you saw in the offseason?

KS: It comes from them. I always tell the guys—and the professors don’t want to hear this—but this is going to be the most challenging class you take, to have a winning program and contend for Ivy League championships. Regardless, you’re going to make memories of this experience. It takes hard work to make the best memories. They’ve handled it. We have good leadership, with (senior 6-2 guard) Steve Frankoski…some of these guys will probably be coaches some day. When we were picked eighth ahead of last season, I did some self-evaluating, just to dig in a little deeper in some areas. I had to do some self-evaluating, to see where we could do a better job as a staff. But I said, if it’s always coming from the coaching staff, coming from me…we won’t be good until it goes from the guys having discipline to having self-discipline.

Understanding, Maodo has a chance to play on the German national team, and that’s great. That’s a great opportunity, that he’s willing to do that. Some guys do both—they have a good summer here, and they do an internship. But some guys just passed on the internship, and Alex Rosenberg’s a good case in point. He’s a first-team all league guy, and he did an internship for three-and-a-half weeks at the start of this summer, and that was enough. For the second half of June, then through July and August, he was just working on his game. He wants to have the best…he wants this to be the best team in Columbia history, or one of them, and he’s already going to go down as one of the better players, certainly in the last 20 years. And if he does what we think he’s capable of doing, this year, he’ll be one of the best players in Columbia history. You root for them. It hasn’t been easy, but these guys are invested, and they want to see this thing through.

SLAM: You mention discipline, and the commitment it takes to bring a program to the level where you’re contending for a post-season berth year in, year out. Is that a marker, for you that these guys are bought in—that it’ll take concentration on both sides of the court to be really good?

KS: Absolutely. It’s the start of Year 5, and anyone that’s coached…nothing happens overnight, but I knew we were decent in some areas. But I thought that if we were ever going to contend, and I’m looking at some of the teams that win the league, you’re obviously going to have to play both sides of the floor. When I first got here, to Columbia, we scored the ball pretty well, and we made some commitments to change and get our defense better. We got more size around the rim. From a recruiting standpoint, what we do offensively takes such a certain skill set, so it’s tough to find. Sometimes, the guys we get are going to be skinny types—they’ve got length, and size, and skill, but if they were strong, long and big, they’d be really hard to get. So we’ve had guys like Alex Rosenberg. He was probably 195 pounds when he came here; now, he’s 220. Luke Petrasek, he’s 6-10, 200 coming in, now he’s 215 as a sophomore—and we want to get him to 220.

We’re trying to concentrate on areas in which we can better. This year, we’re one of the best defensive rebounding teams in the country; now, we want to become a better offensive rebounding team. And that comes in Year 5. Year 1, we’re saying we’ve just got to compete, the goals are a little more modest, a little more general. Now, we’re getting more specific. Certain areas we want to get better. That’s going to be a big concentration. This summer, we sat down with the coaching staff of Wisconsin…and if you watch them, they never foul anybody. We’ve improved, and made a big jump there last year, and now we’re going to do the same thing, we want to make another jump—it’ll be one possession a game, and it might be one play per game, but a one-point difference might be two wins. Especially in this league. So, trying to change to where we defend, and can’t put people on the line. We’ve got to be disciplined in doing that. I got lucky enough, I was with an assistant with Wisconsin, and I asked him, What do you guys do? And he gave me some good things, and I said, Yeah, we can improve that.

SLAM: You’ve spoken about your coaching staff, and how success permeates it. This offseason, you added Derrick Phelps, who was a member of the ’93 North Carolina team that won the National Championship. How much do they help with what you’re trying to accomplish?

KS: They help every day. Some of it is sales, and we’re good in that area, but it means so much more when the guy sitting in your living room has done it—Phelps was at the highest level, and he won. He understands winning. I’d like to think the same about myself—I mean, I played Division III, but we were really good. I’ve coached at Saint Mary’s. I know what it’s like to build something. We went from two wins the year before we got there, and got it to where we won 25 in four years. (In Smith’s final season, ’09-10, the Gaels went to the Sweet 16.) And we sustained it. That’s the goal here.

Kevin Hovde played at Richmond. He was with Chris Mooney, and they won nine games, but then they went to the Sweet 16. They won the Atlantic-10 championship. Adam Hood might be the most impressive one. He won 84 games over four years at Air Force. I understand there’s different ways to skin a cat, there’s different ways to win, but the bottom line is, we’ve got some studs at this level. I value that. I look to my left in my office, and I’ve got Derrick here, and it’s thinking, he had four years of Dean Smith, one of the greatest coaches, ever. Carolina culture. He’s made of the right stuff. And he’s a New Yorker. He wants to be here. He played in Europe, and one of our best players is from Germany. One of his former teammates was coaching Maodo Lo on the German national team.

There’s a lot of tie-ins there. I think everything, kind of like the culture and community at Saint Mary’s…Derrick is a perfect fit. North Carolina graduate, Christ the King High School, great player, great person, smart guy. All those things. Check, check, check. It’s a shot in the arm for anyone who follows basketball. We’ve got a Carolina guy on our staff. That’s awesome. He’s very humble, and like you’d expect a Carolina guy to be. Shoot, he’s been in the big game! We’ve got a picture of him trapping Chris Webber—the kids don’t even know what it is. It’s for the parents. We always talk about it, but Derrick never brings it up.

SLAM: You mentioned those games against Kentucky (December 10) and UConn (December 22), on the road in two of the toughest places to play in the country. They come within a 12-day span. Is that a way to test yourself, to see what you learn ahead of the Ivy League?

KS: It’s funny. If you get a chance to play those teams, it’s not so much about timing—you take it whenever it happens. You’re a super-underdog in those situations. It’s a good experience, no matter what happens. If you win, then it’s about handling success; if you get drilled, then you know you’re not where you need to be. Then, there’s a whole different pressure once Ivy League starts. All bets are off. Everything goes back to zero, because everyone’s feeling the same pressure. Our goal, last year, was to come in Monday, after every weekend, and see where we were at, to see if we were still alive for the conference title. In Game 12, at Harvard, we were still alive. If we win that game, they’ve got to go two on the road, then two at home. It would’ve been tough for them. And well, they taught us a lesson. In the five previous games we played them, we’d lost two double-overtime games. But that game last season, it was their senior night, and with those guys, and their experience, they brought it. I thought we were ready to play, that we would compete—and we got drilled. So it’s a process. As a coach, you have no idea what to expect in Ivy League play.

Coming in, you think you do. In the West Coast Conference, with Saint Mary’s, we played back-to-back games. But to do it six weeks straight, and have some emotion available in the tank…that’s why it’s so important to have veterans in this league, guys who’ve been through the wars. That’s where Harvard excels…and even they struggled a little at the start of the league last season. They lost to Yale, and that next game against us, it could’ve really turned the league a little bit. We had a shot waved off for a charge that would have won the game, and had we won, that would have put us one game behind them, and they were a game behind Yale—we would have been two behind Yale. If we’d won, maybe by the last weekend, we would’ve still been alive in the conference race. So you learn from all these things. We knew we had everybody coming back, so it was about keeping it going, and keeping it together mentally. We did a good job. Now, it’s about handling expectations. We were pretty good last year. Now, how do you become great?

The post Raised Expectations appeared first on SLAM.

It might have been after a made basket, when Korver developed the habit of giving every one of her teammates seated alongside her a hearty high-five.

But it more likely came after a Bruin played great help defense, leading to a steal. Often, Korver didn’t need a reason to leap to her feet and cheer on her teammates.

As a freshman, Korver played in all 34 games and made eight starts for the Bruins team that advanced to the NCAA Tournament round of 32. She hit 1.5 threes per game. That was 2012-13.

She missed all of 2013-14 after tearing the anterior cruciate ligament and lateral meniscus in her right knee.

By midseason, three starters were out with ACL tears. By the middle of the season, two other starters were so banged up, they couldn’t practice, somehow rousing themselves for the conference games on the weekend.

By the Pac-12 tournament, senior Thea Lemberger, so often the closer throughout her career, was ruled out with concussion. The Bruins still took Colorado to the edge before falling.

There’s a reason for this backstory. Last season meant so much more than a mere prelude to something better. Because when Cori Close had barely taken her seat in the conference room at last year’s Pac-12 media day, she was met with The question.

So, how about next year’s freshman class?

Monique Billings, Recee’ Caldwell, Jordin Canada, Lajahna Drummer, Kelli Hayes. The first No. 1 class in the women’s program history.

When pundits looked at UCLA, they inevitably pointed toward 2014-15. When the talent arrived, they figured, the expectations would follow.

But even as Close fielded those questions, she’d already decided something. She was going to remain steadfastly devoted to this team, the 2013-14 one. To have done otherwise would have been a disservice.

So after a bitter loss at Cal last January, Close was her demanding self. She wasn’t going to mail it in, even as the losses began to pile up. She wanted to see more toughness, she needed to witness an uptick in mental focus. She wasn’t going to stop coaching her team. She was going to devote every ounce of herself to making this bunch the best it could possibly be.

Because without this past season, UCLA wouldn’t be on the verge of greatness. Paradoxical though it might seem in this age, where immediate gratification reigns, there’s something to be said about a strong foundation put in place.

Consider the returners: junior Nirra Fields (17.6 points in ’13-14) is playing for Canada at the FIBA World Championships. In just 17 minutes in the qualifier for the quarterfinals, against the Czech Republic, she poured in 15 points. Soon she’ll be noted as one of the best players in women’s college basketball.

Consider the newcomers, and the way they want to fit in. How they were fully aware of what their future teammates were doing. By winter of last season, they were already raring to get going. Over Christmas break, Close assigned a book for her team to read. The incoming freshmen wanted to read it, too. When Caldwell, one of the heralded freshmen, returned to Westwood after helping the US win Gold at the FIBA Americas U18 tournament, she told the UCLA official website that the next item on her agenda was getting back to campus, and getting back to work.

She knew the Bruins had a strenuous non-conference schedule, and she wanted to get ready for it.

Last season, UCLA kept getting back up. You could hear the pride in Close’s voice when she spoke about that team. As she said, once, “I’ve asked them every day, ‘Are you willing to grow, and are you willing to be a great teammate today?’ If you do those two things, I’ll be happy.”

And, as Close said, “I’ve been happy most of the year.”

SLAM: The way that the ’13-14 UCLA women’s basketball team handled adversity was inspiring. How do you even begin to describe that season?

Cori Close: [Laughs] In my 21 years of coaching, that was probably the year of the biggest dichotomy. On the one hand, it was really difficult, and hard and disappointing—culminating the night before we faced Colorado in the Pac-12 tournament, and I had to tell our team that Thea [Lemberger] was done playing for her UCLA career. She’d had a concussion against Colorado the week before, that we didn’t even know was actually a concussion. But she wasn’t going to be able to play. It was very difficult and very emotional. On the one hand, we had all these hard things going on; it seemed like one disappointment after another after another. Then, on the other hand, I think it was the year that turned our program into a healthy culture that I feel reflects our philosophy.

I got this email from Brad Smith, who’s one of the most successful girl’s basketball coaches, and won several National Championships. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame this past June. He said, “I’ve been watching your team play a lot, and I really think you’re going to be on the Final Four stand one day soon. And you’re going to think back to this team as your ‘bricks and mortar’ team in your own Pyramid of Success.” I’ll never forget that, and I think he’s absolutely right.

After our banquet, Kari Korver’s dad came up to me and said, “Did I miss something? Did we win a National Championship—because that’s what it felt like today.” And then he got in his parent, pastoral voice with me and said, “Now your trick is to go win it all—and maintain this same vibe.”

It’s really hard to put into words. There was such a dichotomy. So many really cool things of growth and perseverance that will never show up in a win/loss or stats sheet. But I remember writing our incoming freshman class a letter, right after the season, and I said, You need to come in here with great humility, and you need to have an awareness that our team is healthy and ready to receive you because of the work of this (’13-14) team. You need to know that. When you come in, you’ll be ready to soar. There’s going to be great momentum, and it’s going to be so fun, and you’re not going to know how much sacrifice has gone in to creating this as a healthy culture, and a healthy environment that knows what it means to live by a champion.

I wrote our incoming freshmen, that are so highly touted, and have all this buzz, and I challenged their humility. That was really based on last year’s team, and their sacrifice.

I think I’ll be forever grateful for that team. I don’t think that’ll be a team I forget any time soon. It’s interesting; last year at UCLA, we had the highest attendance figures in over a decade. And we lost the most amount of games we’d lost in over a decade. And I’m like, Why are people coming? Why are they coming, when they could go to a Lakers game or a Clippers game?

They’re coming because they’re connected to the players’ journey, and the players are absolutely giving everything they have to each other on the court. In addition to that, they’re serving their community in a way I’ve never been around with a team.

People were coming not to be entertained, but to participate in the growth journey of spectacular young women. I think that’s a great illustration. Here we lose more games than we’ve lost in 10 years, and yet we have these higher attendance numbers. That’s the only explanation I can give.

SLAM: You’d assigned your team a book to read over Christmas break last season. The incoming freshman class wanted to read that book. Even then, they were looking for ways to participate in the group dynamic. Did that give you confidence that they could mesh once they’d arrived in Westwood?

CC: Yeah, absolutely. As spectacular as it is, we never called them the No. 1 class in the country. That really was never our goal. We never were after that title. What we were after was a group of young women who were passionate about doing something special, and who were equally passionate about growing as people, and growing a program, as they were with accomplishing things as a basketball team.

You don’t get that very often. In fact, I remember an interview I saw with [Diana] Taurasi, about why was Sandy [Brondello] was so successful when she took over the Phoenix Mercury this season. What was it about her, why was she able to make such dramatic changes and grow that franchise so quickly? (The Mercury won the 2014 WNBA title.) Taurasi said that there was an interesting balance. There was a veteran group that was open to change, and was willing to grow. And usually, when you have a very veteran group, they’re a little stuck in their ways. The way that really resonated with me was, I feel like we have, now, a group of young women who are really talented, and a good mix of older and younger, and we have a lot more pieces and ways in which we can attack basketball games.

They’re really excited about change, and they are embracing hard challenges. They are open to be taught; they have a teachable spirit. That’s what makes me excited about that freshman class. They’re really talented, and they bring so much on the court, in terms of abilities, and the giftedness they bring. At the same time, they’re teachable, humble and willing to serve each other and sacrifice their own agendas for the greater whole.

You just don’t find that at such a youthful stage. That’s what gets me excited. Today (Monday, September 29) we had a fitness test, and the freshmen did a spectacular job. Four of them passed on their first try. To watch them step into hard challenges…it’s inspiring. Everyone’s always talking to me—I was just out on the road recruiting, and people say, “Oh, you have the cavalry now!” And I can honestly look them in the eye and say, I like them more now, after 12 weeks of working with them, than when I was recruiting them. You don’t say that very often.

SLAM: Talk of that No. 1 recruiting class seemed to seep into everything last season. All eyes seemed turned toward 2014-15. Was it difficult to manage the season at hand?

CC: I’m not going to sugarcoat it. It wasn’t always easy. But I always say love is not a feeling, it’s a commitment. I really loved my seniors last year. I loved Lemberger, I loved Atonye Nyingifa. I never wanted them to look back, and think there was one moment I looked past their senior year to the next year.

We as a staff sat down after we signed that class, and I literally came in and I said thank you—the only kid I went after, we lost—so I mean, my assistants did an awesome job. I’m really the only one who screwed up a recruiting job! I came in and congratulated them. I said, Thank you, you worked your tails off. No one would’ve guessed in our third year, we’d be able to sign a class like that. I thanked them profusely. Right after that, I said, This will be the last time we talk about them. And that was in October.

Even before we had some of the injuries, we just said, we were never going to refer to them. We wanted to invest in them, we wanted to enjoy those freshmen, just like we would any other class, but never was our team going to hear us talk about “next year,” or “that class.” We never once referred to that. That’s a commitment we made, primarily to our two seniors, but also our entire team, that we were first of all not going to speak about that to each other as a staff, and we sure as heck were not going to let the players hear us talk to us about that.

So it was a very short-lived congratulations, and then, “Let’s get to work.” It was interesting. I can’t remember what point it was, but I was talking to a colleague at another university, in April, after the Final Four, and it was the first time I let myself get excited about the new freshmen coming in, because I did not let my heart, or my mind go there one time before. And my friend said that was the first time she’d ever heard me get excited about them. And she was right. I couldn’t allow myself. I had too big a commitment, too much love and care for the team I was called to serve that year. No distraction would have been acceptable.

SLAM: The season ended with that loss to Colorado in the Pac-12 tournament. At what point did you turn your focus toward this season, and begin to build?

CC: I gave them three weeks off; we didn’t do anything. I remember watching March Madness on my couch, and just thinking. I’ve been coaching a long time, and there’s very few times I’m on my couch without preparing at the same time for my own game. On the one hand, I was like, It’s weird. Usually…you’re not beating yourself up, but you’re thinking, Oh, we maybe could’ve gone a little further if I could’ve done this. It’s a self-reflective time, and usually it happens during the Elite Eight or the Final Four.

But this year, I didn’t have any of that, while watching. I told myself, my staff got the most out of that group. I was just thankful. We played as much to our potential as we could have. Here we won 13 games, and I was sitting there, thinking, Oh my gosh. I felt satisfied. It was like Coach Wooden’s definition of success, that it’s peace of mind, knowing you did the very best you could. To be the best you could be that day.

When you define success that way, I really had a peaceful feeling. As soon as I could acknowledge, ‘I think we did everything we could do’—of course, there’s always things to learn from, and push forward. You’re never perfect. But there was a peace, that our staff had poured everything into that team. If you’re measuring it by growth and toughness, we challenged them to grind and grow and give, and they did that. As soon as I could acknowledge in my own mind, and it was really during the NCAA Tournament, ‘OK, I have peace,’ then I could start really dreaming about next year. I think it was right about the Sweet 16 games of men’s and women’s basketball, on a Saturday. I thought, OK. I could allow myself to turn the page.

I love development. Since we’re a quarter school, we could work with the players who were healthy during the spring quarter. So then I get excited, and I started to gain some momentum, started to think about…it’s not only the six freshmen that have joined us, but the four players we redshirted. We have 10 new players who’ve never played together. Part of that is scary; part of that is really exciting. What we’re going to be able to do.

SLAM: You mentioned the debuts this November. There’s so much talent. Savanna Trapp, Paulina Hersler, Kari Korver, Kacy Swain are all back. This team could be highly competitive, but a lot of disparate elements have to fit together. What has that been like this offseason?

CC: This is the first year I’ve felt like the quarter system is an advantage. We had that time in the summer, with summer access, and we’ve tried things. We scrimmaged more. We played more than I would normally do. It was pretty much small group development, fundamentals, and then, let’s try things five-on-five, see what we can learn about them, who fits well together, what styles do people gravitate toward. It was a learning curve.

So by the time we came back right now, we know where the team identity is going, how we can put this team in the best position of strengths, strategically, Xs and Os-wise. We got a chance to do that this summer. It is hard. We’re still learning, we’re definitely a work in progress.

I think we’ll be good early, but I think we have a chance to be great late. I’m really not concerned…we have a really, really tough non-conference schedule (UCLA makes trips to North Carolina and UConn, and hosts Texas, Nebraska and Notre Dame), so I’m not concerned with wins and losses. I am concerned about our mental state staying really good. And learning from everything, that there will be a significant growth with each particular game.

I just think, it’s really like an art project, a painting you’re creating. You think it’s going to look a specific way. Then you start to paint part of the picture, and you go, Oh, it’ll look good if we do this. I’m not much of an artist; I’m a photographer, but I feel like we’re painting a picture. It’s changing, taking different forms. Since I’ve been here, I’ve not had pieces that can make this kind of canvas. I feel like this…budding artist that has all this incredible color and possibility, and this really clear vision in my head of what it’s going to look like, how it’s going to evolve. I’m in the midst of a creation that’s so fun.

The other part that makes it so fun, from 1 to 16, including our two walk ons, our medically retired Rhema Gardner, they’re completely bought in. One of the interesting things is learning from our football team. They had tons of expectations heading into this season. [Brett] Hundley’s on the cover of Sports Illustrated. They’re picked in the Final Four. And really, they played incredibly tight their first three games. It was very difficult.

I actually had my team over to my house, and we watched a movie, but we also watched one of the episodes of The Drive, the documentary on the team (airing on Pac-12 Networks). I asked them, What have you noticed in them? How have they processed expectations? Because let’s be honest, we’re going to have some of those same expectations. People are going to be saying all kinds of things, but really, all of that is potential—none of that have been earned yet. How do you control the voices around? None of those are reality. All talk. Nothing has been earned. How do we stay very, very process-oriented? Our football program is very disciplined. I know they were talking about that. And look at what still happened. How do we learn from that?

One of the things I learned from those expectations, Jim Mora says in the documentary, “I’m so happy about how high our expectations are, I want my players to hold themselves to expectations, but expectations can never become a burden.” How do we protect ourselves from that? How do we work incredibly hard, how do we embrace difficult challenges? How do we learn that on the other side of hard is success? How do we continue to thrive and grind and maintain joy, and fun, and really play this game like it’s a game, and try to be our best at it. What a cool thing.

I had one of our players in my office today, and we had done a clinic for women over 60. They never had the opportunities our players have. Madeline Poteet (formerly Madeline Brooks) said, “I think that will be a real key for us, keeping our joy. To realize, there’s so many people that would enjoy being in our shoes. We’ve got to enjoy this.” They would love to play in a UCLA jersey, with a full scholarship, let alone play in Pauley Pavilion. Oh my gosh. The more we can have a sense of gratitude, freedom and joy—and hard work—the more we will play with those things.

SLAM: Kari Korver was elected a team captain last year—after she’d suffered the season-ending ACL tear. I don’t think I’ve seen a player more fully engaged with what her team, and her program, was about. How much does Korver bring to this team?

CC: She’s…the hub of the wheel. She connects so well with all her teammates; there’s not one person on our team that doesn’t respect her. I had Recee’ Caldwell at my house, she was dropping something by on a Saturday morning, and we were sitting on my porch, and I said, Who are you going to model your leadership after? And she said, “Well, I have to model my leadership after Kari Korver.”

She understands everyone’s needs, she’s always looking to serve her teammates, she works hard every single day, she never has a down day with attitude, effort, concentration or leadership. It just never happens. Recee’ recognized that within weeks of being here. That if she was going to be a great leader and a point guard, she needed to model her leadership after Kari Korver. I think Kari…it’s really been fun since she got here. Really, the credit goes to (UCLA assistant) Shannon Perry. She does a leadership class that really helps players explore how to become a better leader. I’ve seen a lot of coaches complain, ‘We don’t have good enough leadership, we don’t have good enough chemistry or toughness.’ And I’m like, Well, how are you teaching it? How are you equipping them?

You don’t have to join Shannon’s class, but there’s five players who are in it right now. And Kari’s been in it, going on her third year. You can choose—I want to be pushed as a leader. I want to be equipped as a leader. Shannon really takes that charge and leads them through it. I remember the first year, Kari was so scared to open her mouth and use her voice.

There were times that Shannon would say, “You have to have a confrontational moment in practice today.” And Kari’s face would get all red. Shannon was teaching her about opportunities, and she’d say to Kari, “You’re only going to confront someone on something they can control”—effort, attitude, body language. None of the team knows this, but there’s been so much work behind the scenes.

To watch Kari go from this shy person who didn’t want to use her voice, who just said, “I’m going to be a leader by example—that’s it”…to not only see her leaping with enthusiasm, jumping off the bench, but when we’re going down the hallway before a game and I hear this scream—”Give me a B!” And I’m like, Is that Kari? She’s spelling out B-R-U-I-N-S, leading this cheer, and I’m like…It can’t be Kari…and sure enough it was, and she continued on through the year.

As a coach, to watch someone’s growth from the inside out…we say at UCLA, ‘Champions are made here,’ and that’s great, but we say, ‘Champions are made here—from the inside out.’ Kari is a great example of that. To watch her leadership grow from this shy person, that was not very confident, and even doubted her ability to play at this level sometimes, and to watch her leadership grow, her confidence grow, her fortitude…it’s really what keeps me going as a coach. I feel like Kari has given way more to me, and to what I’m building, than I could ever give to her.

SLAM: The theme for last season’s team was ‘Beyond’. To go beyond comfort zones, beyond what other people expected. How do you come up with these themes? Have you settled upon a theme for this season?

CC: Last season, it was interesting, the Beyond thing—we have two words now. Beyond, the leadership said, we don’t think that’s going to end. Beyond, and now Uncommon, will become part of our fabric. Our action words, our characteristics, what makes us unique. Our leadership group, our players said, We don’t think that’s done. It has to be deeply engrained, so Beyond will stay with us in a different form. Our leadership group has a big influence on what the theme is for the year. I have some influence, some discussion, but I think the more power it has, and my staff has really pushed me in this, that if we want it to resonate, and to influence behavioral change, we have to let them have ownership.

Beyond was a good step, but this year we really wrestled, and we came up with the theme ‘One.’ It was easy to stay happy last season with five players, when everyone was going to play as much as their bodies can handle. You don’t have to make selfless decisions. So how do we maintain—and it’s sort of the charge Kari Korver’s dad gave me after the banquet—how do you maintain that selflessness, that vibe, that sacrificial nature, that my desire to serve my team and my program is greater than my own desires for my own dreams. Usually your own desires and dreams come anyway, when you put those other things first.

So how do we maintain that? And the theme was One. There’s a thing with everybody’s name worked into it. There’s no individuals. In fact, Shannon Perry made this thing called Bruin Bucks over the summer. I’s Monopoly money surrounded by our six core values, and it just acknowledges they could earn different things with this. It’s lifestyle givers, and gratitude. All our core values they know about. Communication.

Shannon presented it to them. And they said, “Our theme is going to be One, we don’t think we should be earning anything individually. We should earn it as a team”—so that became a goal. They wanted to earn Bruin Bucks as a team. It really solidified it. That if One was going to be our theme, it’s got to be in anything we do. Never affects just the individual, always the group. As coaches we always talk about that, pay lip service to that. But it was really fun to watch our team say, “No, we’re not going down that path, everything has got to be seen through the lens of One. We are one team, one program, one group.”

Even when we have a chance to earn something, for individual actions, the reward needs to be collective. Just like when you make a poor choice, the consequence is collective. That’s something that, when we made the proposal for Bruin Bucks, and the chance to earn these things based on core values, it was fun to say, “One needs to go deeper for us. That doesn’t fit in.” The theme is One. It really derived from our leadership group.

We believe that’s going to be the tipping point for reaching out potential as basketball team this year. The extent that we can live that out, the extent that we’re able to play to our strengths.

SLAM: You’ve referenced John Wooden numerous times in this article alone. You’ve mentioned his importance in your life, since you were a graduate assistant at UCLA in the mid-90s. How do his teachings impact you on a day-to-day level?

CC: There isn’t enough space or time here to hear all the ways he influences me. I say I have this walking tape recorder, but then everyone looks at me weird, so I should say MP3 or iPod, I don’t even know, there’s this ever-rotating of the latest thing. I’ve got this ever-rotating clip of his sayings, his wisdom, sitting in his den and listening to him and planning for these opportunities, asking for his opinion. I would ask for his advice, and he would say, “Oh, no, I don’t share advice, I only share my opinion, you have to find what fits your personality and your strengths.”

One one hand, I want to mimic everything he ever taught me. Why reinvent the wheel? On other hand, one of the things he taught me, in my time with him was, he would always say, “Cori, You can’t coach like me or anybody else. You need to coach within your own personality, and find your own vision.” It’s a walking combination. The freedom he gave me to be my own person is remarkable. It says so much about him.

I’m sitting in my office right now, looking across at this picture on the wall of all the things he’s given to me, or said to me, and there’s pictures on there…it’s hard for me to articulate how much his mentorship has meant to me. Just the time he gave me, and I’m thankful to his family that they shared him the way they did, because they didn’t have to, and that came at a price for them.

Coach Wooden won his first few Championships without a lot of talent. His ability to adjust and get the Lew Alcindors, the Bill Waltons, to continue that sustained excellence. One of his keys was, he never looked at it through the eyes of winning or outscoring the opponent. He never talked that way.

Competitive greatness is at the top of his pyramid of success for a reason. You really never talk about it. It’s a byproduct of building that pyramid with incredible attention to detail, and commitment to the foundation, and all those other things. Then, that’s a natural byproduct, it doesn’t really need to be spoken of. It happens when you build those kinds of habits, and you get to the top of your building process.

I’ve tried to take that approach with this program. Don’t get distracted by outscoring opponents, or recruiting battles, or things that are not true measures of whether I’m being the best coach I can be for this team, whether or not I’m teaching the right lessons that will not only make us a great basketball team, but also prepare them for life outside UCLA. That’s what coach Wooden taught me. How to have sustained excellence on the court, and really be demanding of those standards.

Sometimes in recruiting, some of my colleagues have said, “Well, that must means that winning isn’t that important to her. Listen to the way she talks.” But I just don’t think you talk about it. The same habits that lead to winning basketball games are the same ones that make you a great teammate, that make you a great employee, that make you a great leader.

With the time I spent with him, it really just refocuses me on process. Outscoring an opponent will never be the measuring stick of whether or not I’m building the things inside of them that help them live like champions.

The post Great Momentum appeared first on SLAM.

It’s December 7, 2013, and Harvard has made the trip across town, one of four non-conference matchups they’ll face this season against Beantown neighbors. They also faced Holy Cross, located 40 miles away in Worcester, at the TD Garden.

You know it’s Harvard in the house, because the heckling doesn’t take long to begin.

At Matthews, the Northeastern student section is right on the court. It is four rows of chairs deep, extending almost the entire length of a sideline. And there’s a couple of hecklers standing front row who won’t leave Harvard sophomore point guard Siyani Chambers alone.

They make fun of his slight frame, they make fun of his name. Ad hominem, ad infinitum. Ah, college sports, seen through the unmistakable lens of a young partisan.

But what these two kids couldn’t make fun of, as is so often becoming the case where Harvard is concerned, was the final score. The Crimson were tested, and the Crimson prevailed. Another successful cross-town trip. Harvard head coach Tommy Amaker called the performance “gritty.”

And there was a moment, right before halftime, when Chambers became the spitting image of the wizardly, dexterous point guard Amaker has referenced. The kind that leaves an arena in a wake of Dopplerized reverie as he pistons up court. Here, the 6-foot guard seized a rebound and headed out on the break. He navigated the left side. Junior Crimson swingman Wesley Saunders was to his right. Chambers attacked the lone trailing Northeastern defender, then jumped up in the air. He hung.

And hung.

And hung.

Until his toes were inches from returning to the court. At that precise, precarious moment, Chambers released a pass past the defender that Saunders layed in with ease. The Crimson went into the half up 34-29. They went on to win 72-64. Saunders said afterward that it was Chambers who kept the team organized when things got tough. Once again.

Recently, I re-read through my notes of that game. Nary a mention of Chambers for most of the first half. Seems strange. As a freshman, Chambers was a finalist for the Bob Cousy award, given to the nation’s top point guard. He’d once again be named a finalist as a soph. He was the first freshman in history to be named to the Ivy League First-Team. Then, that moment of brilliance. Coursing upcourt like a churning rapid, the perfectly timed leap. Coaches so often tell players not to jump in the air, unless they’re trying to score—it so inevitably leads to indecision and turnovers.

But this was unbridled instinct, honed from years of playing ball. Ultimate cool, laced with breathtaking brilliance. As Amaker told the Boston Globe‘s Julian Benbow last season, Chambers is never emotionally drunk. Chambers knew exactly what he was doing. So did Saunders.

When he’s asked about that Northeastern game, and those hecklers, some nine months after the fact, Chambers’ response seems fitting. He doesn’t remember any of it. I mean, he remembers them in a vague sort of way, like you might make a subconscious note of an ill-placed stump along your morning run. You’ve conditioned yourself to side-step past it and keep going. That’s pretty much how Chambers and his teammates deal with hecklers.

“We really just try to focus on the court,” says Chambers. “We listen to each other and we listen to Coach. We get a lot of heckling when we go to gyms; I guess it comes with winning lots of games. The intensity grows, and crowds get bigger. But we don’t focus on the outside noise.”

It comes with the territory of a top-25 program, which is what Harvard has, thrillingly, become in these past few seasons. Those three consecutive trips to the NCAA Tournament. Wins in the Round of 64 in the past two.

Word’s getting out about this group. Even President Obama picked them over No. 5 seed Cincinnati last spring. Told about that the day before the game against the Bearcats, Amaker told reporters, “Really? That’s pretty cool.”

After the game against Northeastern, Huskies coach Bill Coen followed Amaker and co. in a post-game press conference located in the bowels of the arena, next to the weight room. He talked about how the Crimson had that aura, the know-how of closing out tough basketball games so many crave. Experience has that habit of bursting to the fore when it’s needed most.

Coen had told his team to use Harvard as a measuring stick. Because when he looked at Harvard, he couldn’t help but note:

This was a team headed back to the NCAA Tournament.

***

It’s worth noting, once more, that before the 2011-12 season, it had been 66 years since Harvard made an NCAA Tournament. The Ivy League title that got them there was their second in a row, and just the second in school history. (The previous year, Harvard had tied with Princeton for the title. They fell to the Tigers, 63-62, in a winner-take-all playoff.)

They’ve now made three in a row. It began with the parting gift from Oliver McNally and Keith Wright, seniors on that ’11-12 team. They’d committed to an idea when they committed to Cambridge, as part of Amaker’s first full recruiting class. McNally, from San Francisco, CA, joked that he had to be “coerced” into taking a visit. They became sold on the idea of bringing a program to respectability. They’d certainly gotten it in that debut showing. After falling behind by 18 points late in the second half against Vanderbilt, Harvard clawed back to within five before falling 79-70. “We can be proud of this team,” wrote Boston Globe columnist Bob Ryan in the next day’s paper.

It set the scene for Chambers, who entered Harvard the following season. He was thrown into the fire from the offset. Weeks before the start of the ’12-13 season, Harvard’s athletic department was rocked by a far-reaching cheating scandal. Kyle Casey and Brandyn Curry, both slated to be seniors, and the latter of whom was slated to start at point guard, were suspended. (Both were re-instated for ’13-14.) Enter Chambers, who assumed full point guard responsibilities as a true freshman. He responded with aplomb. His 5.4 assists in ’12-13 led all DI freshmen.

That might have surprised many around the nation. Not so for Amaker and his staff. They didn’t raise an eyebrow. They’d known all along they had something special here.

Now, Harvard doesn’t just want to make the tournament—they want to make a run. It was already on Amaker’s mind after that loss to Vanderbilt two years ago. Never mind that he’d just coached Harvard to its first NCAA appearance in generations. “We’ve got a lot of guys returning (next season),” Amaker told reporters. They were already thinking of what it would take to get back.

They did so in ’13, and found third-seeded New Mexico awaiting them. They promptly beat the Lobos, and shocked the nation. Last season, they encountered a dogfight with the Bearcats. With time dwindling down in the second half, and Harvard’s lead cut to one, Chambers got the ball at the top of the key. He was just 1-9 from the field at that point.

No matter. He calmly nailed a free-throw line jumper to put the Crimson up 56-53. He said afterward that the team practices that situation all the time. Harvard won 61-57.

“He’s fundamentally sound—pivoting, footwork, passing, shooting—all the nuances and feel and instincts and intelligence you think of with athletes on the floor,” says Amaker. “He’s one of the smartest young players I’ve been around in all my years of coaching.”

From a statistical standpoint, Chambers’ production dropped across the board in ’13-14 after his sensational debut season.

But Amaker argues that Chambers’ importance to the team remained iron-strong. He’d become a focal point of opposing team’s scouting reports, and he progressively learned how to handle that attention. “Siyani has been our most important player, and I think he’s been the best point guard in our conference and one of the best point guards in the country,” says Amaker. “His impact last season was still the same.”

See: big-time shots in big-time moments.

Speaking with Amaker, you can sense the enthusiasm over this recent surge. He certainly knows not to take it for granted. “Anybody who’s been in this crazy business recognizes how fragile things can be, how lucky you need to be, but also how good you need to be,” says Amaker. “I’m incredibly proud to think we’ve created a top-25 program at this amazing institution. We’ve been able to do it, and have fun doing it.”

That ’08 class helped kick this thing into overdrive. (There was this Jeremy Lin dude doing his thing at one point, too.) Now, the new generation is looking to build upon the foundation.

And who better than Chambers, the kid who won three state championships at Hopkins (MN) High, and began playing varsity in the eighth grade, to help lead the way. “He’s a flat-out winner,” says Amaker. “That’s how he’s wired.”

***

A winner always looking to get better.

When Amaker recruited Chambers, he’d tell him about ways he could improve his game. Chambers didn’t bristle at the advice, or shield himself with his lengthy list of accomplishments. Amaker was so personable; it was the sort of approach that had sold Harvard players, including Lin, when Amaker interviewed for the job back in ’07. We’ve got to get this guy, Lin told Pablo S. Torre, then of Sports Illustrated.

So Chambers listened. He knew he was talking to someone who knew the game, from whom he could learn. As Chambers once told the Globe’s Benbow, “[Amaker] kept it real. he wanted me to become a better person and a better player.”

“That speaks volumes about him,” Amaker says. “To show that kind of respect, and then to take things in, to understand that my intention was to help him improve, it shows a great deal of maturity. That’s the first thing I thought of him—this is a mature kid.”

Amaker, a former prep stalwart in Virginia who played point guard for Mike Krzyzewski at Duke, saw traces of himself in Chambers. “It’s pretty neat to see some things that you think you were a part of once,” says Amaker. “Siyani struck me like that.” Chambers had a homework list this offseason, helped once more by Amaker. Focus defensively, get a lot better on and off the ball, continue to make consistent jump shots.

Take that next step as a leader. This summer, Chambers was named a team captain alongside Steve Moundou-Missi, a senior. For a junior to be named a captain is a tremendous honor, Amaker says, and a reward for Chambers’ first two seasons, during which he emerged as a dynamic, on-court leader. “You don’t just drop that on somebody for the sake of it, when he becomes a junior,” says Amaker.

The Crimson are getting after it. Chambers talks of doing everything at game pace, whether its moving from set to set in the weight room, or playing afternoon pick-up. “We want to get better each and every day,” Chambers says. “Trying to strive to become a better player, a better person and a better team. That’s what’s really going to help us during the season.”

That might sound like coach speak. Which it is—it’s one of Amaker’s main messages to his team. It’s fitting that Chambers is voicing it.

This season, the Crimson lose Brandyn Curry, Kyle Casey and Laurent Rivard, all integral members of past teams. But Kenyatta Smith, a 6-8 junior center who came on strong at the end of the ’12-13 season, is back after missing ’13-14 due to successive injuries to his left foot. Corbin Miller, a 6-2 sophomore guard, returns after spending the past two years on an LDS mission in Mexico. He hit 46 percent of his threes in ’11-12. “The transition process has been pretty seamless,” says Chambers. “We lost key pieces, but we’ve got a lot of good ones coming back.”

Amaker often speaks with Chambers about taking the next step in his game. “I’ve told him since we recruited him that I think he can be dynamic, he can be electric” says Amaker. “We need him to do that. I want him to think of himself as a guy that can play with flair and flavor. He can be electric at times with his pinpoint passing, seeing things before others can.”

Chambers has certainly shown flashes of comprehensive impact. He scored 27 points in a win over Vermont last season, before dropping 21 in a narrow loss to UConn, the eventual national champions. He was 5-7 from three against the Huskies.

Amaker wants a jump in Chambers’ shooting percentages, on top of all the things you expect of a top-notch point guard at the high-major level when he becomes an upperclassman. “He’s incredibly fast with the ball,” says Amaker. “He’s our pace-setter. When he has it, boy, we sprint hard to keep up with him. Which is what we want. We want him leading the charge for us.

“When the ball is in his hands, we’re very confident.”

***

As the conversation with Amaker wound down, I mentioned that game against Northeastern, and that play at the end of the first half. It was stunning stuff, to see Chambers rocket, 0-to-60 style. The way he’d hung in the air and…and…

I didn’t have my notes with me. I’d forgotten the crescendo’s final cresting.

Amaker finished it for me.

The Northeastern game? The end of the first half? When Siyani hung in the air?

Amaker remembered the whole scene, way better than I ever could. He even filled in additional details, like how Chambers made a bounce pass to Saunders.

The total recall of a top coach.

Chambers is the type of point whom coaches look at and say, That’s the way this game should be played. Same goes for Amaker’s style: stout defense, fast-paced attack.

You need a great floor general for that type of scheme. Harvard has one.

“He’s been voted a captain by his peers,” Amaker says of Chambers. “It’s his time.”

The post It’s His Time appeared first on SLAM.

The kind you get when pundits feel that the program you’re part of has hit its ceiling. That you lack the ability to smash through. Don’t that make you feel you got something to prove.

On April 7, Kelly Graves, who’d lifted Gonzaga from conference bottom feeder to national contender in the space of 14 years, took the head coaching position at Oregon. It marked the end of an era. One week later, Gonzaga athletic director Mike Roth announced that Lisa Fortier, an assistant on Graves’ GU staff for the past seven years (she was the Zags’ coordinator of basketball operations from ’04-06, then took a one-season stint as a Northern Colorado assistant before returning to Spokane) would become the next head coach.

Cometh the rumblings. Gonzaga had peaked, people said. Without Graves leading the way, there was no way it could push on and achieve glory greater than that Elite Eight run in 2011.

Talk about stoking the fire.

The new-look Gonzaga (wrinkles, not foundation-ripped-out type deal) returns a formidable core. The defensive intensity seen in recent years (Gonzaga’s 11.6 steals in 2013-14 ranked third in the country) will be back. So will a diverse, multifaceted attack. If you play at Gonzaga, it means you can score in any number of ways. And if you’re looking for injection of something new and exciting, consider Emma Stach a 5-9 freshman guard from Germany. Her first memory of basketball came at age 6—when she played for a boy’s team. The legend only became burnished from there.

Stach began playing professional basketball in Germany at 13; she has already played two seasons in the highest division, and once averaged 35 points in a season. In 2011, she featured for the U16 German team at the European Championships Division B. She was 14 at the time.

She won Best Point Guard at the tournament, and finished as the top scorer (18.0 points). Add her to a talented team with a chip on its shoulder.

Stand back and watch and enjoy. This season, #GoZags should be a frequent Twitterian refrain.

SLAM: You’re just back from a recruiting trip. How have things been going?

Lisa Fortier: I am. September has become busier than July, which was our big, busy month, but now we do all these home visits and evaluations in September. We’ve been all over the place, it seems like. I just got back into Spokane.

SLAM: It’s fascinating to listen to coaches who’ve come to Gonzaga describe their experience. Ray Giacoletti, a former assistant for the men’s team, and Jerry Krause, the men’s current director of basketball ops, couldn’t say enough about GU. It is a family atmosphere they’d never experienced before. What has it meant for you?

LF: Growing up and in college, I was always interested in coaching, and wrote papers on it. There were always a lot of males coaching females, and I never understood why. And people would say, ‘It’s hard, you become a mom, and you can’t do both.’ I have three kids. We have a 4-year-old, a 2-year-old and an 8-week-old. For me, I now know what they were talking about, about how hard it is. If I was not at a place like Gonzaga, I don’t know how we’d do it. We’re living the family environment. My husband is on my staff now, in his first year coaching with us.

With the support you have around here, you realize it’s OK to bring your kids. My daughter’s actually in the gym right now, in her stroller. (GU men’s head coach) Mark Few’s kids are always around. (GU men’s assistant) Tommy Lloyd’s kids are always around. Everybody’s kids are around the athletic department. Nobody scoffs at it, nobody has a problem with it. People just ask if they can help, what they can do to take care of them for you.

That’s something I think is important for the parent of a student-athlete you are recruiting. They want to know that their kids are going to be taken care of. That they’ll have a home away from home, especially when they come from far away. It’s evident when you come into the program—you’re likely to see a kid around. We all take care of each other, we all talk to each other; there isn’t a rift between this sport or that sport, or this gender or that gender.

It’s a small school (current enrollment is a shade under 5,000 undergrad), and half of us on the basketball staffs went to school here—at least for grad school. (Fortier earned her master’s degree in Sport and Athletic Administration in ’06.)

We’ve grown up within the program, and grown up together. It feels like we’ve matured as professionals together. Coach [Giacoletti] and Coach Krause are two of my all-time favorites. It’s a weird deal up here—we all like each other.

SLAM: You’ve said that Coach Krause taught you what it meant to be a Zag. What has it been like to work with him?

LF: I’m so thankful to have Coach Krause. He was the reason why we got here in the first place. (Craig Fortier worked two seasons as a grad assistant for the GU men’s team, from ’04-06). We worked for his book publisher in California, in Monterey. When we were looking for a grad position, he said ‘Come on up here’ to me and my husband—we were just dating at the time. From the first time we met him—and this is on an interview for grad assistant-ship, he treated us like we were so important. We were not. We didn’t play Division I, we were just kids who’d played junior college, and we weren’t even the best on our teams—well, Craig was, I wasn’t. There wasn’t anything special about us. There was no reason why he needed to give us a second look or pay any attention to us. We were going to come and work for free!

But he treated us like we were really important, and that’s how he treats everybody. I like to think I have a little bit of that, just because I’m a courteous and caring person. But Coach Krause showed me it’s important to treat people better…you know there’s the cliche, ‘Treat people the way you want to be treated,’ but this is to treat people better than they expect, and treat everybody like that.

He’s awesome. He’s helped us with our schedule this year. He’s all about learning, and continuing to learn. Making your own destiny. He always says, “Make it a great day.” That’s something I like, and I’ve taken from him—I always send ‘Have a great day’ in my email.

He’s such a positive person. He’s going to sit down with me every few weeks during this first year as a head coach, and he’s going to help me with anything I need. If I have any questions. He’s just someone who’s really in it to give back to people. And not just with basketball. He loves basketball, but he loves teaching and relationships too. I’m so thankful to have him around. He’s not going to be working for that much longer, he may be retiring soon, but it’s a blessing to have him in the office, to get his perspective.

He’s a good one. He’s a keeper. He has so much knowledge, so much to share. Anyone who doesn’t sit there and drink it all in, is nuts.

SLAM: For your past seven seasons at Gonzaga, you’ve coached defense. When did you develop that aspect of instruction?

LF: It was how I was as a player, so I think that’s why I was given those roles. It’s easy for me to see the defensive parts of the game. It’s pretty natural. I was a defensive player. I love defense. As the head coach, I’m obviously going to have to look a lot more big picture—not to say that I wasn’t involved with the offense before. I spent tons of time with point guards, and they’re the ones the run the offense. I’ve always had offensive input, but defense is something I’ve more naturally fallen into. That’s kind of my passion. Head coaches can’t focus on only one part—at least not for the first few years. We’ll fall into our own areas as we get going. But I love defense.

SLAM: About the guards you coached. The talent that’s come through this program is considerable. (Fortier has served as the recruiting coordinator.) Courtney Vandersloot, Taelor Karr, Haiden Palmer, Jazmine Redmon. Guards often keyed the defensive pressure you’ve become known for in recent years. Do you have to work with them to accept that?

LF: I think you have to get them to buy in. For different players, it’s different reasons. You have to play on their strengths, and their desires, and what their intentions are. Courtney wanted to be the best player she could be, but she didn’t necessarily want to be a great defender. She wanted to be a great assists person—that was her first priority. Haiden Palmer and Jazmine Redmon, their priority was more defense. Jazzy liked to stop people, Haiden liked to take the ball from people. We were able to help Courtney become a really good defender because we convinced her that she needed to do that to get to the next level, that it would help lead to our offense. Jazzy and Haiden, they took pride in just locking a player down. They wanted to score, too, but they were more interested in the defensive side.

We work on it, sure, but more important than any specific strategy is figuring out which strategy is going to work for each individual player, and tailoring it for her. To convince her to play for both sides of the ball. We don’t have a lot of use for someone who can only do one thing.

SLAM: On May 28, you spoke to 4,080 Gonzaga women’s basketball season-ticket holders. What was that like? What were they interested in learning?

LF: It was a little intimidating. Our fans are invested in our program, and I’ve talked to them a couple times. Just a few weeks ago, we had another opportunity to talk with some of our fans, and it was so much easier. You realize that they have some history with me, and they know me, but most of all, they love Gonzaga, and they love our players. They’re not trying to nay-say, they’re not trying to figure out the weaknesses, they’re just excited for the new thing, the next, the team. They make you feel right at home. They make you feel comfortable. We have great support here.

It’s intimidating to talk in front of a bunch of people, but when you realize who your crowd is, and what the demographic is, that there’s not a lot of people out there who aren’t pulling for you, that most of them don’t wish you anything less than success. They’re all willing to do whatever they can do to help us be successful. It’s a pretty nice situation, because if they were not as nice, if it were a different demographic, or people were not invested in our program, then it would be more intimidating. But when you realize what they’re about, it becomes pretty easy.

SLAM: Considerable talent returns for this season, including a strong core of upperclassmen. What has the team’s focus been like this summer?

LF: I think they’re really dialed in and focused. We’ve had hard, hard-working teams ever since I’ve been here—this one has been the hardest-working in the offseason. We’ve really embraced our new coaching staff, the new style, the new drills and the new things they’re learning from our new coaches. They’ve really stuck together, with each other and with me.They trust me. We have some history. I’ve recruited all of them, coached them all. They’ve really bought in. There are some people out there—not even some of our fans, but a little sense of…with the way all the change happened this past spring, a sense that some people think we are lacking something, or that you can’t do ‘something’ at Gonzaga, that we don’t have the demographic or makeup.

I think the players are all driven to prove that we are every bit as good as everyone else out there—and better. We’re going to succeed. They’re awesome to be around. I’ve never enjoyed coaching a group more than this. I don’t think that has to do with the fact that I’m the head coach now; it has to do with the fact that they’re so united and driven.

SLAM: You alluded to new wrinkles you’ll add as the head coach. What are some of the things you’ve implemented into this program?

LF: We’ve been a little bit more strict. This probably always happens with a newer coach. In the past, we’ve gotten a little bit…I don’t know what the right word is…a little lax. We’ve been a little bit casual with some things. We’ve tightened up the ship with disciplinary and on-time things. We have a pretty intense coaching staff, which is a good thing. I’m one of the intense ones. They’ve really started working on fundamentals. They want to get back to tightening up our game, making sure that we’re improving, and not letting any of the little things go. We’re coaching all the details right now. As far as style goes, we’re doing a lot of similar things. We needed to expand all of our games.

Last year, it got to the point where a lot of our players weren’t as multi-dimensional as we’d like them to be. We’ve really tried to diversify some of their skill sets, to encourage some of our bigger kids to shoot it outside a little bit more, encourage our wings to handle the ball a little bit better than they did in the past. We’re trying to diversify their games in this offseason, so that we have some more of the versatility that we can capitalize on.

SLAM: Speaking of versatile perimeter players, Lindsay Sherbert is entering her senior season. She has a conference Player of the Year-type of skill set, but needs to tether it to consistency. Have you worked with her on that?

Yeah, we have. Sherbert had a tough year last year. (10.8 points, 4.3 rebounds, 1.5 assists, 43% FG, 35% 3FG). She was inconsistent. But she is versatile, in the fact that she can play inside and outside. We’ve worked a lot with her. We didn’t have any point guards on campus until September. So all of our wings spent a lot of time handling the ball during the summer. Since we were sure all of our returning wings would be back, we spent a lot of time with Lindsay, working on her ballhandling and getting shots up full speed.

She’s a great shooter at her own comfortable pace, but we’re trying to get her out of her comfort zone, going faster than she’s used to going so that when she gets into a game, and has to go faster, it’s natural and she’s more comfortable. We’re really trying to focus on her skills.

As a transfer…I’m the fourth head coach she’s had in her college career. (At Cal, Sherbert was coached by Joanne Boyle and Lindsay Gottlieb for one season each before transferring to GU, where last season she was coached by Kelly Graves.)

She’s had a lot of different styles thrown at her, a lot of different styles that she’s had to adjust to. It’s nice that we’re going into our third year together. (Sherbert redshirted in ’12-13.) I’ll have coached her for three years. I’ve been the one around the longest, and so now, we’re trying to be consistent; understanding what we want to do in general.

There will be some changes, but I think she’s really going to have a great year for us. She’s getting real comfortable with the system, and her leadership has stepped up. When she’s helping others, that makes her think less, and just go out and play more. I think that’s really good for a player like her.

SLAM: Looking at the other seniors on this roster, Sunny Greinacher and Keani Albanez stand out. Sherbert has assumed the mantle of a leader. Have they done likewise?

LF: Sunny’s been gone for a lot of the summer, playing with the German national team, so we haven’t had her around a ton. She’s more of a lead-by-example kind. Pretty quiet and steady, a little bit like Heather Bowman (’06-10) used to be. Keani and Sherbs have really stepped up with trying to take on a more vocal role. I don’t think that they’re natural and comfortable leaders—without any training, but they know that we need it, and they’re really trying to leave a positive impact on the program. We’ve talked a lot to them about leaving it in a better place than it was when they got here.

[Sherbert and Albanez] have different approaches, but both have been very effective to our players. They were unanimously voted in as captains. They’re doing a really good job of leading both on and off the court with the freshmen, and our new kids. Getting everybody organized and on the same page. Keani’s been here four years, Sherbs for three. It’s fun to see where they were as freshmen to where they are now, as seniors.

SLAM: Emma Wolfram came in with fanfare last season. She’s a really talented post. How did she improve during her redshirt season, and how can she impact the post in ’14-15?

LF: Emma is going to be terrific for us. She’s like every other post player we do well with. She can score inside, and she can really shoot it from the outside. She’s going to draw people out away from the basket, and she’s extremely skilled inside. We’re going to rely on her a lot for her scoring. She plays tough and physical—that’s part of her international experience (with Canada.) I’ve seen her guard 35-year-old women from all over the world. She’s not afraid to be physical. Every time I remember she’s just a freshman, I get really excited. You realize that after her redshirt year, she’s only a freshman. Emma is only going to get better. She’s got a high ceiling and she wants to get better.

SLAM: Emma Stach (pronounced Stasch) jumps out as a freshman who can contribute immediately for this team. Her scoring record in Germany’s professional divisions is remarkable. How do you see her transitioning to the collegiate game?

LF: Emma is going to translate pretty quickly. She didn’t get here until September 1, but she came in the best shape I’ve ever seen a player come in with. She worked all summer on her conditioning and her shooting. She can really, really shoot the ball well. She’s got a great handle, and she’s going to make an impact right away. We can use her. She’ll play point and on the wing, but she’ll spend time at the point guard position, for sure. She’s eager to do so. Having played against professionals, she’s got a lot of great experience. She’s not intimidated.

That’s nice for us in a year where we need freshmen to contribute. Some years, we don’t need freshmen to do much. But we’ll expect her to come in and get quality minutes, and she’s mentally and physically prepared to do so.

SLAM: You’re just back from a recruiting trip. You’re five months in to this head coaching position. Does “blur” even begin to describe the experience?

LF: It’s been fun, and it’s been busy. It’s been kind of hard. There’s been a lot of ups, also some downs. There’s been things I’ve dealt with before as an assistant, and when you’re an assistant, those things don’t seem to be as ‘good’ or as ‘bad.’ As a head coach, the highs are really high and exciting, and the lows are a little bit tougher than they used to be. And you realize, there’s a lot of ups and downs in every day. It’s not a day-to-day thing, or a week-to-week thing. Every day, there’s several things that go right, and a bunch of things that go wrong. You just have to look at the big picture and just keep moving on. But it’s been really fun. I’m enjoying myself already. I love the place that I work, the people I work with, the people who I get to coach. It’s a pretty great situation. I’m having a great time, and I’m so thankful for this opportunity.

The post Stoking The Fire appeared first on SLAM.

Consider the task arrayed before first-year Ducks head coach Kelly Graves.

But this is nothing new for Graves. When he began his last job, at Gonzaga back in 2000-01, he went 5-23 and didn’t win a game in conference. And, as Graves is fond of saying—don’t let that record fool you—GU wasn’t that good.

By the time the dust had settled on 14 seasons in Spokane, however, Graves had created a perennial power. The Zags have won the last 10 West Coast Conference championships, and have made six consecutive trips to the NCAA Tournament. They captured the nation’s hearts in ’11, when Courtney Vandersloot led them on a rip-roaring ride to the Elite Eight. The Zags sandwiched that run with trips to the Sweet 16 in ’10 and ’12. Last season, their No. 6 seed was the best in program history.

All of which goes to say: given Graves’s track record and the pieces he’s already fitting into place in Eugene, reclamation seems more a matter of when.

As well as a matter of how.

Graves’ Gonzaga teams frequently sold out the McCarthey Athletic Center, which holds 6,000. Their fans loved Graves’ teams. Practices were open to the public. Once games ended, win or lose, players came back on to the court to sign autographs. Weekend trips to Costco for Graves often turned into impromptu interview sessions with inquisitive members of the community. That was just in July.

This is the sort of following Graves intends to implement in Eugene, whose denizens are only too eager to oblige. This is a town hungry for success in women’s basketball. Last season, Oregon women’s basketball averaged 1,038 fans per home contest, among the lowest turnouts for Pac-12 teams. But that can quickly be countered by the 5,852 fans who flocked to games during the ’99-00 season, when the Ducks last won a conference title. That March, some 9,000 showed up for the Civil War showdown against Oregon State.

An easy conclusion: Winning always helps.

So does the right fit. For Graves, this is home. Two of his sons were born in Oregon, during his time as a University of Portland assistant. His wife was raised in this state. As Graves told reporters during his introductory press conference, “I think it was fate.”

Maybe Geno Auriemma—he of the nine National Titles at UConn—has the best take. In a statement to goducks.com, in the wake of Graves’ hire, Auriemma said, “I won’t be surprised when Oregon is competing for Pac-12 championships, and contending on a national level, in the near future.”

Let the party begin.

SLAM: The first press release following your hiring at Oregon said the UO fan base was “itching for conference championships and NCAA Tournament contention. Have you gotten a palpable sense of that feeling since April?

Kelly Graves: Now that the kids are back, I’m seeing people around town that know who I am, and are excited. It’s a gold mine here in terms of potential fan base. They did support this program a while back. The product’s gotta be good—I think that’s a big key, and I think it’s just a matter of time. I really do. One thing I believe, I don’t know if I’d say I’m ‘pretty good at it,’ but I enjoy talking and meeting fans one-on-one. I’m very accessible. That helps, that’ll grow the fan base. At the same time, I want our players to be accessible. We’ll let players know who we are.

SLAM: The story goes that you spent three hours with UO athletic director Rob Mullens and senior women’s administrator Lisa Peterson in a hotel room in Nashville during the Final Four interviewing for the Oregon job. What sort of things came up in that conversation?

KG: It’s really funny. I interviewed them as much as they did me. I’d just come back from recruiting in Europe 30 minutes before. I asked if I should take a shower before heading to the room. I was in such a great spot at Gonzaga, and I wasn’t looking to leave, necessarily, or “climb a ladder.”

It was a lot of dialogue—I never looked at it as an interview. I’d been to Matthew Knight Arena to see some games, but I’d never been on the Oregon campus, so I had questions about that and the organization that was in place. We talked about the vision for the program, what they expected, what I expected. We both have similar visions and goals for the program. I could tell it was a good match.

But I really liked Lisa and Rob. They were terrific. I liked their attitude, their vision. It was a good match right from the start.

SLAM: You’ve endearingly referred to your assembled staff of Mark Campbell, Jodie Berry and Nicole Powell as “All-Stars.” What makes it such a special collection of coaches?

KG: As a staff, you want to have all your bases covered. You want to bring as many skills and abilities and personalities as you can. I want every player on my team to relate to someone on the staff. Someone they can confide in and feel comfortable with. I’m a 51-year-old male, so some players won’t feel as comfortable around me.

First and foremost, these three coaches are great “people persons.” They are amazing communicators. They have high morals and great character. As a coach, loyalty is the number one trait an assistant can have. I would have no hesitation in turning the team over to any of them, at any point. I know they’d have my back. Nicole has great credibility. She’s a tremendous recruiter, and I’ve already seen the benefits of that. (Powell spent the 2013-14 season as a Gonzaga assistant.) She’s still young and learning. Jodie is all the details, day-to-day; a real mother hen type. Mark is a go-getter. A tremendous recruiter, and he knows the league. (Campbell spent the past four seasons on Scott Rueck’s staff at Oregon State.) He’s a great developer of talent.

SLAM: You hailed the leadership shown by these players during summer workouts. Who in particular stood out, or stood up?

KG: Jillian [Alleyne] is the obvious one. Not vocally, but she leads by example. She’s so consistent in her effort every day, and people see that. When your best players work the hardest, it’s easy to get the others in line. Lexi Petersen has been great. Our team really looks to her, and she’s working hard, showing a great attitude. And she’s got game. Those two really stick out. Off the court, I’ve been impressed with Amanda Delgado. She seems to keep the team organized and on task. They all bring a little something. But those three have stood out.

SLAM: This team has considerable offensive talent. (Oregon averaged 93.2 points in ’13-14, far and away tops in DI.) But defense was one of the first things you addressed in your opening press conference—that if you can excel on the offensive end, logically, you should work just as hard on the defensive side. How has this team bought in to that mentality?

KG: We can certainly become better. We were 343rd in the country last season. (The Ducks gave up 89.1 points, 2.5 points more than San Jose State, which finished second-to-last in DI.) They’re buying in—it seems like they want to be good defensively. I haven’t worked with them a lot, only a few practices this summer—we were only allowed two hours a week with them during summer—and they were almost all defensive-oriented. They better buy in, or our team won’t improve. Defense is a constant, not a variable. Great defense builds a team, more than any other aspect of the game. Defense takes five people working together. You have to have everyone engaged, everyone involved, or it doesn’t work. The strongest teams play great defense. We’ll continue to stress that, and we’ll make great strides.

SLAM: Self-motivation is something you often look for in recruits. Have you seen that reflected in this Oregon roster you’ve assumed? What have you worked with them on?

KG: Offensively, we can still make great strides. The system that Paul Westhead ran, the players were asked to do one or two specific things—then they fit it all together. If you were a three-point shooter, you sprinted down, spotted up and waited for the point guard to penetrate. [Alleyne] would run rim to rim, get rebounds, receive passes over the top into the post.

What we try to do is teach the whole player. I think that’s why we’ve had five WNBA draftees the past five years (at Gonzaga); that’s because the WNBA knows what type of players they’ll get. They’ll be taught every stage of the game, including the mental side. That’s my goal. We want to create great players. Lexi Petersen can become a defensive stopper, because she’s so long and athletic—versatile. But it’s going to be quite a challenge.

SLAM: You recruited BCS-level talent to Gonzaga. But the lack of a football team was a constant topic that you had to overcome. College Gameday has already come to Oregon for this current football season. Does that type of excitement create a recruiting boon?

KG: It’s funny. I always laughed at people, because we’d get hammered on that at Gonzaga. I’d tell recruits, You’re not playing football, you’re playing basketball. Now I’m here and I see it, and I get it. It’s not just the fact that there’s a football team. It’s the school spirit on display. And everything else. That’s the best part of it. Recruits come on unofficial visits just to see what it’s like. It does really make it special. Now I know what they’re talking about. Our players are here for basketball, but the football is pretty cool. This is mecca, so to speak.

SLAM: Last season, Jillian Alleyne (21.4 points, 16.2 rebounds) was honorable mention All-America. Chrishae Rowe (690 points, 21.6 per) set a UO freshman scoring record. Did you have to do any recruiting to keep them in Eugene, or were they on board from the start?

KG: Yeah. No question. I thought from day one, they were receptive and excited. They wanted a change, they wanted discipline, they wanted to be held to a higher standard. They wanted to guard people. Right from the beginning, I haven’t detected anybody not on board. We just have to change the culture. It’s not that it’s broken, it just needs to be changed to where we expect success. We work hard enough that success will happen. We hold ourselves accountable on and off the court. Excellence isn’t something that happens on the court.

When I was coaching Team USA (Graves coached the U18 girls in ’12 and the U19s in ’13), I coached UConn kids, and they’re more than great basketball players. Theyr’e great kids. They’re hard workers. They get what it’s all about. We want winners off the court. Everything we do is focused on winning. “We strive for perfection, but excellence will be tolerated” is one of our sayings. I think the future is real bright.

SLAM: Lexi Bando is perhaps the best known of this season’s newcomers. Can she contribute right off the bat?

KG: It’s funny you say that. All the WNBA players we had at Gonzaga, it wasn’t like they were WNBA-level kids out of high school. We developed them. We got the right players. I don’t always feel I have to recruit the best player, but the right player; one that fits our system, our attitude, our culture, everything we’re about.

Talk about Lexi. She’s a winner. She won two state championships, and she came up big in both games. One of them was against Mercedes Russell (now at Tennessee). As a junior in the title game, Lexi completely outplayed Russell. She has an edge, she’s unselfish, she’s ornery. Everything Lexi is about is what we want our program to be. She was a perfect fit at Gonzaga. (Bando had signed a letter of intent to GU last November; after Graves left in April she was released from it and signed a grant-in-aid at Oregon.) Now, I’m happy she’s here. I don’t think a lot of local players have come to Oregon in years. Lexi’s kind of a legend in these parts. I’ve already seen that. I call her a “culture creator.” She’ll help create what we want to be about.

The post Fly Together appeared first on SLAM.

Which, for Zechariah, Jacob, Elijah and Joel, just so happened to be their little sister, Lia.

As the youngest, Lia didn’t have much say in the matter. And like many sibling rivalries, where older and younger forces combine, it often ended in tears for the latter. For Lia, the saline spilled for 12 years. But then something resolved within her, became like iron. OK, I’m going to fight back now.

She poured herself into any athletic event she could find, and thrived. Basketball courts. Football fields. Ask anyone who knows her, and they’ll tell you that Lia loves basketball, but man, was she good at football growing up. She played Pop Warner for two years, at record-breaking pace. When she entered high school, she wanted to play for the junior varsity team, but her parents stepped in and offered advice.

“Stay focused on this game of basketball,” they told her. “It’s going to take you somewhere.”

As she recounts these humbling, tumbling beginnings, Galdeira stands just beyond the designated media room at Seattle’s Key Arena, thousands of miles away from her beloved home of Waimea. It’s March, and the 2014 Pac-12 Conference tournament was in full sway. Washington State has been in fantastic form.

At the mention of her brothers, Galdeira can’t suppress a chuckle. On the facial expression spectrum, she always ticks toward joviality. There was a point where they wouldn’t let her play basketball with them anymore. She’d become that good. Now, she can’t help but marvel at how her brothers molded her into the person and the player she is today.

Namely, one of college basketball’s best-kept secrets, the jet-quick guard with the jet-black hair tied tightly in a ponytail. Coiled. Such a fitting descriptor.

Washington State, Wazzu, is on the long road to prominence, and they continued to take steps at the conference tournament. When Galdeira first spoke to SLAM, she was minutes removed from a thrilling takedown of Cal, a Final Four team in ’13 and the No. 2 seed in the Pac-12 field, in the quarterfinals.

A little over a week before this, Wazzu had lost a heartbreaker in overtime to these same Bears at Haas Pavilion. As they left the Bay Area, there was a profound sentiment that they hadn’t adequately taken care of business.

“I feel like as a team, we just got tired of losing,” Galdeira says. “Every one of us knew that we were better than what we were doing on the court—and off the court. We’ve got girls who love to argue, love to yell at each other, but at one point in the season it was like, ‘Dude, we’re not gonna win individually, we need to seriously get it together.’”

In Seattle, the 5-11 dynamo finished with 28 points against Cal, which becomes a bit more impressive when you consider that some 24 hours prior, Galdeira’d gone volcanic on Oregon.

When the dust had settled on a 107-100 victory over the Ducks, Galdeira’s stat line read: 31 points, 7 rebounds and 5 assists. It was one of the finest performances ever seen from a player in Pac-12 tourney history.

This game is downright electric. Galdeira possesses consummate rhythm, flow and feel. She can light up from deep, but is most effective with the ball in her hands, top of the key, ready to blow past a sorry defender and get to the rim. Last season, more than a fifth of her 611 points came from the foul line.

Her arrival in Pullman two years ago has coincided with a surge. Wazzu’s 17 wins last season were its most since ’95-96. An NIT bid marked the first post-season appearance since ’91. They were just a few wins away from the NCAA Tournament.

It was the way they got there. A huge non-conference win at Nebraska in November—nobody wins at Nebraska. A 5-0 start in Pac-12 play.

Then, the near-withering ebb in mid-season, followed by thrilling flow. Galdeira at the top of the key during that late-season conference game at Cal, the clock running down, seconds removed from her layup that tied the game. The way she demanded that ball, then the confident dribble. She missed, the game went to OT, the Bears won.

When she hurt her left wrist just over four minutes into the Pac-12 tournament semifinal against Oregon State. She came back—of course she did—but she wasn’t at full strength, and the Cougs weren’t the same. After the loss, she took it harder than anyone. “She felt like it was all her fault,” says Wazzu associate head coach Brian Holsinger.

But that fiery spirit is coupled with a breathtaking composure. This is just a game, Galdeira tells you. You win, you lose, you move on. “My brothers made me strong,” she says. “They prepared me to not be scared of anything.”

That includes the ability to stare her game straight in the face. Faced against such a glare, her shortcomings can’t help but flinch and expose themselves. Then, more work poured in to turn those weaknesses into strengths.

Well, for Galdeira it’s really just play. Sometimes, Holsinger jokes, you have to kick her out of the gym.

Galdeira averaged 18.5 points in ’13-14, second on the team behind Tia Presley’s 19.0. They became the first Wazzu teammates in history to earn All-Pac-12 honors. Galdeira’s 80 steals ranked second in conference, her 71 assists second on the team.

This thing’s just getting started. And oh man, you know it’s gonna be fun.

Growing up in Waimea, Galdeira learned that there were two things you could always rely upon: family and the beach.

So when Washington State assistant coaches began contacting her, she rarely responded. She was always off somewhere. Maybe practice, maybe school, maybe lounging with friends on the sand. But there was a coach who wasn’t going to lose this recruit. June Daugherty was rebuilding a program, and she needed a spark like Galdeira.

Wait.

That doesn’t do this job justice. What Daugherty is doing might best be construed as miracle work. In spring 2007, she’d left the urban pitter-patter (not just rain) of Seattle and headed east for Pullman’s scenic sprawl. She’d been let go by Washington, despite posting nine winning seasons out of her 11 on the job.

In ’06-07, just before Daugherty’s arrival, the Cougs lost their last 18 games. It had been a decade since they’d broken .500. Her first August on the job, she held open tryouts. The only specifications: You needed to be a registered Wazzu student, had a physical in the last six months and could provide proof of insurance. In her first four seasons in the Palouse, Daugherty won just 32 games.

But she had a vision, and a staff that shared it.

Then, this player surfaced.

Rodney Cavaco, a guidance counselor at Aiea High School, in Oahu, sent tape of Galdeira to Washington State. Cavaco had coached Galdeira for Team Aloha, an all-star team that traveled to the Arizona Elite Tournament in spring, 2010. Holsinger’s first reaction, when he watched Galdeira on the screen?

Holy Cow. She’s really good.

Cavaco told the Wazzu staff that during the July club basketball circuit, Galdeira would play for the Hawaiian Stingrays, but they wouldn’t be in the top divisions of tournaments. That kept interest at a premium. It also piqued Daugherty’s interest. She sent Holsinger to check out a tournament in Oregon, where the Stingrays were playing. “He walked in the gym, watched for about two minutes and went ‘Oh my goodness,” Daugherty says. “He immediately called Mike (Daugherty, June’s husband and Cougars assistant coach).”

Mike Daugherty was at another tournament, in Las Vegas, but Holsinger told him to drop everything and catch the next flight to the Northwest. Fly in here, dude, and see what I’m seeing.

A connection became forged, and slowly but surely, they began to turn the tide in Galdeira’s recruitment. This wasn’t tick a box if you’re still interested in our program kind of stuff. It was, “‘We want you, how are you doing, how is school, I’m going to come and check in on class,'” says Galdeira.

That last one took Galdeira aback. No way they’d come all the way to Kealakekua, where she attended Konawaena High School. Only, sure enough, one day she peeked down the hallway and saw Holsinger and fellow Cougs assistant Ashley Grover checking in on her class.

“I was like, Whaaat? This is crazy! I think I gotta keep with them,” says Galdeira.

“It wasn’t the easiest thing in the world to develop a relationship,” says Holsinger. “They’re surfing, playing hoops, constantly busy. But I spent a lot of time trying to connect.”

Trust was paramount, and Holsinger accepted that that bond couldn’t be built overnight. He attended Galdeira’s track and field practices. He spoke about how, at Wazzu, Galdeira would be part of a family. It wasn’t lip service. “Family and trust are two things that we do well,” Holsinger says. “I think that was attractive.”

Holsinger counted upon extra help from the Wazzu family. Ken Low, father of Derek, a former star guard on the men’s basketball team, knew Galdeira’s family. That was huge.

A visit from Daugherty, on top of another from Holsinger, sealed the deal. “June came out and wanted to know more about the family, about us,” says Phillip Galdeira, Lia’s father. “She made the extra effort.”

During that trip, Daugherty watched Phillip, a musician, play the ukulele. He only had three strings on his instrument that night, instead of the standard four, but it didn’t matter. He played for two hours.

Galdeira’s campus visit was mere formality. “I felt like I’d known them forever,” she says. “I committed right then and there.”

***

There was this other player the Cougars wanted to get, a player Galdeira would not go to college without.

It didn’t hurt that Dawnyelle Awa, the best friend in question, just so happened to be the reigning Player of the Year in Hawaii. (Galdeira nabbed three state POTY awards during high school.)

There may not be a person in this world who understands Galdeira better than Awa.

They began playing together as middle schoolers for the same club basketball team. Then, they became the stuff of legend at the Hawaii prep level.

Galdeira had moved across the island from Waimea to attend Konawaena. She lived with Awa, whose parents coach the boys and girls varsity teams at the high school. Galdeira only saw her family a couple times a month. “It was really hard,” Galdeira says. “Workouts, class, every single day it was rough. I would be up all night missing my family.”

But she’d made her decision. Her mind was made up. “Nothing was going to stop me,” Galdeira says.

The strength of her dream certainly helped. So did three state championships. Since they first began playing together, Galdeira and Awa had spoken of replicating that success at the collegiate level.

They call each other ‘Sis’ on and off the court. They’re inseparable. One zigs, the other one zags. “When I grew up, it was always my brothers protecting me,” says Galdeira. “Now I’m like, (Dawny’s) protector.

“I can’t even describe the feeling with Dawny. We started off playing against each other for maybe a year, and ever since then, we felt this…I don’t know what it was, but once we started playing with each other, no one could stop us. It was crazy. At times, we weren’t even trying, and our minds were just talking to each other.”

After every win in high school, they’d sit and say they couldn’t wait to do it at the next level. “She’s like a sister I never had,” says Awa. “And I have a sister! You don’t find those everywhere. She reads my mind all the time.”Galdeira’s family considers Awa a niece. And vice versa. That title is borne of respect, Phillip Galdiera explains.

Daugherty was looking for a point guard in that 2012 class, and after scouting Awa, she decided she fit the bill. “Lia catches the eye instantly, but you’ve got to watch Awa a bit more to see where her value comes in,” says Holsinger. “She’s so smart. From the beginning, we liked them both.”

Remember Holsinger’s trips to watch Galdeira in track and field? He did the same to watch Awa play volleyball.

In her first two seasons in Pullman, Awa has compiled 183 assists. Many are of the thrilling variety: Daugherty swears you can see pool-table spin sometimes. Galdeira always knows exactly where those passes are headed.

After that win over Oregon in Seattle, Daugherty said, “Awa is the straw that stirs the drink.”

Which Holsinger takes a step further. “Awa is kind of the unsung hero on our team,” he says.

***

When Galdeira speaks now, it’s over the phone from Pullman. Does she have some time for an interview?

“Yeah, I have a couple minutes,” she says, before adding, “maybe two-and-a-half or three.”

This summer, after almost a year’s worth of continuous basketball, Galdeira had some time to relax. In June 2013, after her freshman year, Galdeira was a late addition to the U19 Team USA tryouts in Colorado Springs, CO, ahead of that summer’s World Championships in Lithuania. She didn’t make that team, but felt she should have.

There was no time to mope—not that she’d need it. She came back for summer school and workouts. In August, Wazzu went on a European tour that included stops in Austria, Slovakia and the Czech Republic. When they returned stateside, it was time to begin preparing for the ’13-14 season.

So it was nice, this time, to have a little break.

But not too long; soon, Galdeira was joining her fellow Cougs for sessions with strength coach David Lang, she was planning meals with director of sports nutrition Lindsay Brown.

She continued making adjustments on the court. Strengthening her finishing ability with her left hand; dropping floaters off the bounce. Having a quicker first step on defense. Rebounding. Getting her team involved.

“People learned real fast that it’s impossible to stop her,” says Holsinger. “So they started forcing her left, and we worked on that. We worked on her decision making, which she’s really improved.”

Trust comes more easily now. Unsurprisingly, it has elevated Galdeira’s game. She has a better understanding of when to unleash her HAM-ness, which resembles a turbo-charged power-up in a video game.

Bang. She’s blown past you off the bounce. Bang. She’s dropped a three in your eye on the break. Bang. She’s jumped a passing lane for a steal and pushed ahead for an easy two.

“She’s absolutely fearless,” says Holsinger. “You never want to take that away from her. But there are times when you need to tone that down and make good decisions. She’s learned to do that, how to pick when to gamble.”

This summer, at Wazzu’s elite camp, Daugherty invited several former WNBA coaches to evaluate Galdeira’s game. Their analysis mostly involved skill work that needed improvement. Now, Holsinger sits down with Galdeira and runs through tape. This is what it takes to become the first Hawaiian to grace the WNBA. “The higher you go, everyone’s athletic, so fundamentals matter more and more,” says Holsinger.

Galdeira is more than willing to add the extra coursework. She can’t wait for winter—bring on the snow. It reminds her of Mauna Kea, the fabled peak of her island home that often wears a powdery cap, too. When she coached at Washington, Daugherty had a player named Giuliana Mendiola, who was the Pac-10 Player of the Year as a junior. “She always knew the clock, always knew the time and score,” says Daugherty. “She could play every position on the floor, and she wanted the ball in her hands. You get maybe one or two of those players in 30 years of coaching.”

About that second…

When Awa is asked to describe Galdeira as a player, she uses ‘athletic’ three times in the same sentence. “She’s just like her brothers,” says Awa. “That’s what makes her ‘Lia.'”

The scary thing? Daugherty attested to it. Galdeira is more athletic than Mendiola.

And isn’t Galdeira going to be a junior?

***

The Cougars have made waves for some high-scoring affairs, perhaps most notably that thriller against Oregon last season. But Holsinger and the coaching staff know that if a true jump is to be made this season, it will be keyed by improved defensive effort.

Which comes like breathing for Galdeira.

Back in Hawaii, playing for Awa’s mother, Bobbie, Galdeira learned the importance of defense. She knows it wins championships. She has the rings to prove it. Now she’s on a mission to stamp something indelible into Pac-12 lore. That means pouring herself into this process in Pullman, the quintessential college town.

It’s hard not to get excited about where the Cougs can go this season. Four starters are back, including Presley, who’s now a senior and even further removed from the ACL tear that prematurely ended her sophomore season. Daugherty marvels when she mentions that Presley looks even more athletic now. Taylor Edmonson, another junior guard, was sensational in that 76-72 win at No. 10 Nebraska (the Cougars hit 12 threes) before suffering, as Daugherty put it, “a plethora of concussions.” She couldn’t practice during that span, and she lost a lot of her timing. But as the season neared its end, she rediscovered her bounce. Oregon certainly felt it, to the tune of 14 points and 4-7 from three.

Seven freshmen enter the fold this season, two of whom hail from an island in the Pacific.

Well, it’s actually Australia, but still. These girls are good. “We really like our freshman class,” says Holsinger. “The expectations are definitely high.”

Galdeira will be counted upon to lead, in her own, unique way. “I’m not the type to yell when I’m trying to teach (the freshmen) something,” she says. “Being a leader and a captain this year is a big priority, but a leader is a kind of servant; you have to do everything and anything so that everyone else follows you.”

Like her father, Galdeira plays the guitar and ukulele. She brings the house down with her singing. “Everyone wants to follow her,” says Holsinger.

There’s still just two seniors on this ’14-15 team, Presley and Shalie Dheensaw. If Galdeira leads by example, they’ve got the vocal, accountability end down. The freshmen attest to that. Lia brings comedic effect. She allows everyone to relax. You need both styles to be really good.

A note to that dynamic. Before the Cal game in Seattle, Presley sat next to Galdeira on the bench just before the opening tip. Galdeira’s head was bowed, heavy in thought and prayer. Then, she resurfaced, only to be met by Presley frazzling her with her hands.

“Tia’s…I never know what she’s doing,” says Galdeira, laughing. “But that’s what makes us a team. We all have different personalities, and we all love each other for who we are.”

***

Toward the latter stages of that conference tourney game against Cal, there was this voice that kept ringing out in the Wazzu fan section, just a few rows above the bench.

Twenty-one! Twenty-one!

A quick turn of the head, and oh, it’s Lia’s father, Phillip. Asked afterward if that number bore any significance for Lia, Phillip chuckled and shook his head ever so slightly. He was referring to Cal junior star forward Reshanda Gray. “I just wanted Lia to take it to the rim and foul her out.”

Her brothers hadn’t made it for the conference tournament, but her mother was in attendance, sitting nearby. Phillip stood up to speak about this journey. How this tournament has been another revelation, how the team continued to become a reflection of the coaching staff.

Seattle was another chance for the Galdeiras to meet with the parents of other players and get to know this community better. Both of Awa’s parents were in attendance as well.

Phillip stared toward the Key Arena rafters. This team had come such a long way from the losses of last year.

You have to think that more post-season bids are on the way, the occasions becoming increasingly grand.

Phillip speaks about the opportunities present. Then, with trademark lyrical flourish, he finishes with, “This is where memories are made.”

Lia speaks for both of them—hell, the whole family, of which Wazzu has become an indelible member—when she turns her attention toward the season at hand and says, “This year is gonna be awesome.”

The post Strictly Buckets appeared first on SLAM.

When he’s sitting on the bus on the way to a game, Peter Hooley has this ability to shut everything off. Silence. Such a fantastic friend.

He thinks about home back in Hahndorf, a small town in the Adelaide Hills in southern Australia. He pictures the farm he grew up on, the concrete court where he hoisted all those jumpers and frequently faced off against his twin sister in heated games of one-on-one. His mind turns toward the final words his parents told him. The last thought is a prayer. Then, he’s good.

Hooley is a redshirt junior at Albany, but he didn’t even take a visit before he decided to attend the school in the state capital, roughly two hours north of New York City.

After Hooley helped South Australia to a third-place finish at the country’s 2011 U20 Championships, Albany head coach Will Brown got in touch. He’d heard about Hooley from Phil Collins, a sporting director in the northern territories who’d played college basketball with current Albany assistant Jeremy Friel. Collins couldn’t stop raving about this Hooley kid. He could score. He could shoot from anywhere.

“We told Phil, ‘We don’t want kids that can ‘play here,'” says Brown. “A lot of guys can play here; we want guys who are really good.”

Brown was sold on Hooley. The high basketball IQ, the way that this 6-4 guard could play multiple positions; how he found a way to always make an impact. Then, that fluid ability to put the rock in the net.

Hooley was intrigued about Albany. He consulted with Great Danes forward Luke Devlin, a compatriot who hailed from Sydney. Devlin was the forerunner in what has become an Australian pipeline. Devlin raved about life on and off the court. Hooley consulted with his father, Jeff. Since he couldn’t take that visit…

Why not go and see how it turns out?

This is pure Hooley, a player endearingly described by Brown as a unique bird. “They don’t make ’em like him,” says Brown. “They just don’t.”

There’s Hooley’s redshirt season, after he suffered a stress fracture of his right foot during Albany’s tour of Canada ahead of ’11-12. Like it would’ve gone to waste. “When he sat out, we’d talk to him about certain things to watch during games,” says Brown. “He needed to know our scouting reports. We held him accountable. You can be a valuable asset, talking to your teammates on the bench.

“You really learn the game from a coach’s perspective; you begin to understand what we’re preaching, and why we’re preaching it, how it helps us win.”

Hooley offers a similar assessment of that time on the sidelines. Healthy the following season, he was named to the America East Conference All-Freshman team.

Consider this past season’s conference tournament championship, held at Stony Brook. Pritchard Gymnasium, where the Sea Wolves had played since 2008, holds 2,000 people. (The brand new, 4,008-seat Stony Brook Arena opens this fall.) Pritchard…well, it gets up there, decibel-wise. The Sea Wolves were riding a 40-3 streak on that court, heading into the final.

But Albany wasn’t anything near fazed. This was nothing new. A season before, they’d had won the conference tournament title at Vermont. Before three minutes had gone in that one, Albany was down 10-0.

Over the next six minutes, the Great Danes went on an 11-0 run. They beat the Catamounts 53-49. It was the first time that a 4-seed had won the America East Conference tournament. Hooley finished with 8 points, 4 assists and 4 steals. (Stat sheet stuffing is nothing new. He has a single-game career high of 12 boards.)

So one year later, again the No. 4 seed in the tournament field, Albany came out at Stony Brook and…went down 9-0.

Hooley remembers running past Brown, unable to hear his own thoughts amid the din. But Brown got his message simple, and he got it through. “Don’t worry about it,” he told Hooley. “We were in this position last year. We stuck with it. Every guy bought in. And good things happened.”

Albany reeled off the next 10 points. At halftime, they led by three. Then, in true seesawing tradition, the Great Danes trailed Stony Brook by six with just seven minutes to go. Their NCAA Tournament hopes on the line, they stormed to a 23-8 run to seal their second consecutive berth. Brown joined Jim Calhoun as the only coaches to win at least four America East tournament championships.

Let’s get this point across: Albany relishes this type of environment. Tough, tough kids. The week before the conference tournament championship, they held practices held in a tiny P.E. gym on campus, music blaring to give a sense for what the crowd will be like.

The night before big games, the team heads to the movies. Plush seats, gazing at a silver screen. Darkness, a serenity discovered amidst the noise. When Brown tells his team to ignore the crowd, they understand completely.

“Only one of nine teams is going to go to the NCAA Tournament,” says Brown. “That’s the tough thing about our conference. If there’s a hiccup in the conference tournament, you’re done. But we don’t fear that; we embrace it. We don’t call it pressure, we call it fun. We love the fun of knowing we need to survive and advance.

“I don’t think we were the most talented team in the conference these past two years, but I do think we were the best team at the right time. We were the most prepared. You have to play well, you have to stay healthy, and you have to have a little luck on your side. Things have gone right for us.”

As a sophomore, Hooley led Albany with 15.1 points per game. For the past two years, he’s known nothing but the NCAA Tournament. This offseason, he’s gotten bigger and stronger. “I think the best of Peter is yet to come,” says Brown.

***

Consider the toughness. Consider the talent. Marvel at the player and the person that emerges from such an alloy.

During last season’s conference tournament, Hooley was transcendent for the Great Danes. In three games, he averaged 23.7 points, hit 52 percent of his threes and 49 percent of his field goals. In the quarterfinal romp over a short-handed UMBC, he dropped 30 points in 20 minutes. As he headed to the locker room at halftime of the semis against Vermont, he had 22 points to his name. It was the timing as much as the torching. “In the last two minutes of the final at Stony Brook, he hit this floater—I call it the Aussie finger roll—that really opened the game up,” says Brown. “He’s not afraid to take big shots, he’s not afraid to make big shots. He’s fearless.”

He was named the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player, the first sophomore in 15 years to earn that honor. Then, after each of these games, Hooley raced to his computer. He opened the Skype app and called his parents. Susan, his mother, was in her fourth year battling colon cancer. The night before the conference tournament championship, Dad nearly lost his hand to a saw on the farm. It needed to be surgically re-attached. When he spoke to them before Stony Brook, they were both in the hospital.

But you wouldn’t know this, because Hooley didn’t want to make it public.

He put his head down and played: In each of the final three games of the season, he went all 40 minutes. Says Brown, “He had every reason in the world—and it would’ve been justifiable—to come up with excuses for why he’s not taking care of business in school, why he’s not practicing hard or playing well. But with Peter, there’s never any excuses.

“He was the 2014 America East Conference co-scholar athlete of the year for men’s basketball. That says a lot about his focus, his mental toughness. I don’t know how I would deal with it, if I was in his shoes. Probably not as well as he is. I have tremendous respect for him as a person.”

“I knew they would have been there had that not happened,” says Hooley. “But they said how proud they were, how they knew I could do anything. So I really wanted to do it, not only for my team, but for them. Everything I do is trying to make my family proud.”

This past summer, he was able to go home. He’d given his first NCAA Tournament watch to a parent; now, he was able to make it two. One for each. It had been 364 days since he’d seen the farm. He spent six weeks with a now cancer-free mom and fully recovered dad. They’ll be out to Albany at Christmas this year. Hooley is sure they can’t wait.

Brown makes a point of checking in with Hooley every day. He wants Hooley to know he’s constantly thinking about him. Sometimes, when Brown is home watching film, he’ll shoot Hooley a text.“Hey, how’s the family?”

“Every coach in the country preaches toughness,” Brown says. “Toughness, toughness. A lot of times, you get caught up with toughness as it relates to what guys are doing on the court. Banging, taking charges, diving for loose balls. I think sometimes you forget about toughness off the floor—what a kid is going through on a daily basis.

“Peter didn’t have access to his family besides through the computer. I told him, If you need to go home, go home. I was willing for him to go home in the middle of our season.”

“They really do look after you here at Albany,” Hooley says.

***

This past January, Hooley’s shoulder popped out, forcing him to miss practice time and a game at UMass Lowell. Three days later, he was back against UMBC. He played 36 minutes, added 19 points (12-12 from the line) and 6 assists.

There was a three-to-four game stretch during conference play when Sam Rowley, an Aussie post and the Great Danes’ leading rebounder and third-leading scorer, couldn’t take a shot with his right hand—his strong hand, because it had become too bothersome. “It’s hard to win games at our level, and win them at a high rate, when your two best players aren’t healthy,” says Brown.

By the time March rolled around, Albany used a seven-man rotation. Brown called them the Iron Seven. Hooley had to play through the pain. Rowley, too. Both did what they had to do, then iced afterward. “Unless it was something that was going to not let me be able to pass or shoot, I was going to make sure I was out there for the next game,” says Hooley.

The threat of further attrition meant Brown had to adjust as a coach. He changed up the length and frequency of practices. By March, his players commented about how fresh they felt. “As coaches, we ask our players to adapt and adjust,” says Brown. “We as coaches have to do a good job of analyzing how we can help, instead of always putting the onus on our players.”

“It was huge,” Hooley says of Brown’s decision. “We had a lot of niggling injuries. But we stuck with it. Everyone looked after themselves, and we took care of business when we had to. We knew we were ready, come tournament time. We just had to make sure everyone was healthy.”

They really needed to be. Albany played its conference tournament championship game on a Saturday, then on Selection Sunday found out it was headed to Dayton for the NCAA Tournament First Four game on Tuesday evening.

The Great Danes took Mount St. Mary’s down 71-64, booking passage to the Round of 64. Their reward: a matchup against No. 1 overall seed Florida. In Orlando. They wanted to celebrate the first NCAA Tournament win in program history, but they weighted that against getting ready for the Gators. This was a chance at history: the first 16-seed to ever topple a 1. So it was back to bus, back to the hotel and off to the airport, where they lumbered on to a plane just after midnight. Then, off said plane and into the warm Orlando spring air.

A frenzy awaited them. Media, fans, police escorts to and from an arena that seats 20,000 come tourney time. Entry into the arena through a maze of backdoors and corridors. But Hooley & Co. kept calm. They spent time laying by the hotel pool. Brown kept them away from courts. The most strenuous physical activity involved a walkthrough in the hotel ballroom. The coaches created a court with tape. By Thursday, everyone was fresh. Minds were buzzing with possibility.

“We did a bunch of film work with our guys,” says Brown. “Our mindset was, ‘If we’re going to play the best team in the country, we’re doing it to win.'”

Two of Brown’s assistants played on his ’05-06 Albany team that, as a 16-seed, gave UConn all it could handle in the Round of 64. Hooley spoke with another member of that team, Jamar Wilson, about such a task.

The core returning group had tasted this in 2013, when Albany faced Duke in the Round of 64 in Philadelphia. Against the Gators, Albany came out with a vengeance. They mixed up their defense; through the junk looks, they forced certain Gators to try and beat them. For the first 13 minutes, Albany was in the lead. They were tied with just 14 minutes left in regulation. Then, they fell 67-55. A local beat writer’s opening line in his post-game column: It was supposed to be easier than this. It was a fun way to exact a bit of revenge upon an article Brown had been sent ahead of the game: Gators open with laugher.

Brown was asked about the glut of games in the past week. Yes, it was hard, but that’s not how this team looked at it. “If they made us play every day, we’d play every day,” Brown told reporters. “We’d represent our city and our university to the best of our ability.”

“There’s no point showing up if you think you’re going to lose by 40,” says Hooley. “The coaches gave us a great game plan. As a 16-seed, we had nothing to lose. The opportunity to upset the best team, really, in the country at that time was something everybody wanted. Guys just ended up getting tired toward the end.”

Now, with a summer’s worth of reflection, Hooley wants another shot at the Tournament. He wants to knock off one of those “big-time” programs. To get there again, Albany must replace three starters. Hooley and Rowley will need to increase their roles.

“We need those two guys (Rowley and Hooley) to work together to lead this group,” says Brown. “Peter has the capabilities to be a vocal leader. It’s something we need to continue to work with him on.”

“I embrace that,” Hooley says. “I look forward to that challenge. The old veteran heads like (Sam Rowley) and myself have to increase our roles that little bit more from last year—as leaders as well.”

Brown thinks this season’s team will be good enough to once again compete for a conference crown and an NCAA bid. But new guys will need to step up. The coach likes what he sees from Sam Rowley’s younger brother, Mike, a 6-8 sophomore who’s a Swiss Army knife of a forward. He thinks Mike, injury-free after battling foot problems all last year, will be the next Aussie to make a big jump.

Sophomore Dallas Ennema finished second in the conference in three-point field-goal percentage (50 percent) last season. Now he’s got to add more versatility to his game.

Hooley’s game continues to grow. In ’13-14, he finished second on the Great Danes with 87 assists. He’ll look to improve his shooting percentages: 39.8% FG, 38.8% 3FG. (His 85.2 percent free-throw accuracy ranked second in conference.) “Now he’s the focal point, he’s getting the best defender his opponent has on a consistent basis,” Brown says. “It was a learning experience for him. Not only does he have to adjust, we have to adjust and make sure he gets the ball in spots where he can be successful on a consistent basis.”

He’s kept writing. Hooley has begun work on a book about his mom’s ordeal. He blogs for an Australian basketball website. Having posted a 3.51 GPA through the first five semesters of his double major in Journalism and Psychology, there will be no shortage of options once his playing days are through. As he puts it, “I just have to decide what I want to do.”

But first, there are more championships to win, more NCAA Tournament bids to snap up. The Great Danes have yet to lose in a conference championship game under Brown. They know they have to fare better during the conference season. (They went 9-7 in America East play in ’13-14.) But you can’t knock the way they come good in the end.

The night before this last conference tournament championship, Hooley was feeling particularly unsettled. He’d done the preparation, but something still felt slipped. Then, his phone bleeped. On the screen was a text from Mike Black, a former Great Danes guard who was a senior when Hooley was a redshirt frosh.

Anxious!?

 

Very. I don’t know how you did it.

 

Embrace it man…you the man now everybody countin on you gotta accept the challenge man that’s how I did it. But at the end of the day it’s basketball.

It might have been the last line that did it. Nerves no longer jangling, Hooley took a screen shot of that section of the conversation. The next morning, he added it to his pregame routine. He went out and helped his team win. He made sure to thank Black once more.

“You keep in contact with these guys,” Hooley says. “You become brothers with every guy on the team. It’s always good for the future.”

Don’t it look bright.

The post Challenge Accepted appeared first on SLAM.

There are commemorative basketballs, and the various paraphernalia of a coach always on the move. Smartphone plugged in to battery source. Numerous water bottles. All that running around. But it’s the photos that grab you. On one side of the wall rests a collage from the thrilling Final Four run in 2013. Nets cut down to the rim’s orange bone in Lubbock and Spokane. To the right, a shot featuring Mikayla Lyles and Avigiel Cohen, both now graduated. They’re vaulting off the bench, hailing their teammates.

It’s fitting. Gottlieb would do anything for any player, past and present. This is just a reminder of that.

On a recent weekday, while a Cal campus bathed in sunlight and shade thrummed with the start of a new academic year, Gottlieb spoke to SLAM about seasons past and present. In this upcoming campaign, Cal has a chance to be pretty damn good. And they’ll do it the way they’ve been doing it under Gottlieb. Quintessentially quirky. Unbelievably talented. Unfailingly resilient.

In just her fourth season at the helm, the program has reached the point where the 22-10 (13-5 Pac-12) season seen in 2013-14 isn’t good enough. These players want more. They’ve poured in work during the spring and summer. Three uncommonly talented freshmen are joining the ranks. Two unbelievable seniors will lead the way. That bodes pretty well, you’d think.

It’ll be different. It’ll be thrill-ride levels of fun. It’s Cal basketball.

SLAM: You seemed to be beaming through the press release that announced the arrival of Devanei Hampton and Sweets Underwood to Cal this past week. These are two of your former players. Is this one of your proudest moments as a coach?

Lindsay Gottlieb: It sounds kind of cheesy, but it is, 100 percent, the most gratifying part of coaching. It’s why we do this: to see players succeed and reach their own goals in life, whatever it is. I’m just as happy when Mikayla Lyles (Cal basketball, 2010-14) is going to be moving onto a movie set some day, but it’s so immediate to be able to help players through basketball.

Derrick Florence, the high school coach that coached Sweets—this guy grew up in Compton, went to Harvard for grad school, then decided to come back to work at this school in Compton to help kids with aspirations like himself meet them. He connected Sweets to me. This is a kid who lost both parents by the time she was 7, and was raised by an aunt and uncle who told her, “Anything below an A in school is not acceptable”; they were so academic-oriented. I connected with them when I got to (UC) Santa Barbara.

When you recruit a kid, it’s about so much more than just, ‘I’m gonna coach you.’ It’s, ‘I’m going to be in your life.’ Derrick was that coach, and they’re the ones who brought [Mercedes] Jefflo (current Bears sophomore) to Cal camp when she was in the seventh grade. So you see all these connections. And Derrick wrote me this text: “What you’ve done for Sweets, and for Jefflo, it’s everything you’ve said you’ve done. It’s why we do this.” That’s really what this whole purpose is: that you can impact these kids’ lives. For Sweets, she was playing overseas, and she actually had a health issue that effectively ended her professional playing career.

I remember being in the NCAA Tournament (last season), and it’s the day before we play Baylor in the Round of 32, and Jefflo comes up to me and asks, “You talked to Sweets?” And I say, No, and Jefflo says, “She’s in the hospital, and she won’t tell me what’s wrong.” So I told her, I’ll find out, don’t worry. I call Sweets, and I ask, What’s going on? And she says, “Jefflo needs to prepare for the game, she doesn’t need to worry.” I was like, OK, Jefflo won’t worry, but I need to know what’s going on. Do I need to go over there? And she told me what was going on, and essentially had to get her mind thinking, ‘OK, life after basketball? OK, what can we do?’ And Sweets said, “Well, I might want to coach, I might want to be an academic advisor, I might want to marketing, I don’t know.” And I said, Well, we’ve got this internship at Cal; it’s perfect. And it worked out from there, and just having the ability to impact their lives beyond teaching the pick and roll defense, to me, that’s the most important thing.

With Dev [Hampton], it’s pretty widely talked about. We got here, Joanne (Boyle, then the Cal head coach) and I, and I’d never lived on the West Coast, I certainly had never coached anyone quite like Dev. And the first time we sat across from each other, she probably thought I was an alien from outer space. I was totally intimidated by her. She’s this All-American from Oakland, and it took some time, but I probably became as close with her as any player, ever.

Being at her grandmother’s in Oakland, helping her through the injuries and academics and all that. When I left to go to Santa Barbara (in ’08), you tell them, I’m leaving this job, but I’m not leaving your life. I think Dev’s the only kid we’ve had that’s come through and hasn’t gotten a degree, so it was really important for me to facilitate that happening, and she wants to do it.

Now she’s a mother, with a son, she was working and like, ‘I want to do this.’ We made it happen, and the NCAA is really good about paying for kids to come back and finish their degree and letting them on the court. It’s just a great chance to have her share her experience with our players, to really live the notion that we’re a family, that we don’t just say it. But also, the most important thing, she’s given so much to me, to this program and to this university, that she needs the degree. We want to make sure that that happens, so she can do anything that she wants. Moving forward with her life, that’s really important to me.

SLAM: Berkeley has become a home for you. That’s made all the more interesting given that you were born in New York, played basketball at Brown University, and got your start in coaching on the East Coast. What has made this place so unique, and special?

LG: When you’re an assistant, you don’t totally have control of your life. So I was Joanne [Boyle’s] top assistant during our last year at Richmond (2004-05), and she was the hot, young coach. And there was big turnover that year; it was one of the first years when it was like, ‘Oh, women’s basketball, there’s going to be turnover closer to the men’s.’ I remember Miami, Colorado and Cal were open. And they all kind of showed some interest, and I remember thinking…obviously, Joanne and I are close, and she’s going to consult me on this, but where she decides to go, I either go, or I don’t have a job. It’s a weird feeling.

So, I was really excited that she chose Cal, for a lot of reasons. I thought the Bay Area was a pretty appealing place, I knew about the incoming freshman class, about the academics. I knew that Adam Duritz was a big Cal fan, and maybe we could get the Counting Crows connection going. [Laughs] That kind of stuff. (Duritz is the CC’s lead singer.) In theory, it was great. But you also have to pack stuff up and get on a plane and move 3,000 miles away. So it was really stressful. And for me, I played in the Ivy League, I’d been successful connecting to those kids at Richmond, but it was a mid-major thing. I was like, What if I look at the Devanei Hamptons and Ashley Walkers of the world, and they don’t listen? I definitely had to go through my own process with it.

But because it was such a big move, Berkeley did become home really quickly. The first thing is with the players, I consulted some people that I know and trust. Two things I learned: If the players believe you know what you’re talking about, they listen. They don’t care if I played at Tennessee or at Brown. They really don’t—if they believe that I can get them where they need to be. And they did. The second thing is, if they know that you care about them, then they’re gonna run through a wall for you. Those were the two things for me that I learned.

And there was just that bond with that group and this place, and taking Cal from 13 losing seasons in a row to eighth in the country when I left. There was a connection and a feel here that was really strong. And then, I had a choice of different jobs around the country, but I loved California, and I was going to take a good job—I wasn’t going to take any job—and Santa Barbara was such an appealing place for women’s basketball.

It also made a lot of sense. The same club coaches I’d had relationships with, and was calling, now I was calling, and maybe I’m talking about the third or fourth kid on the roster, instead of the McDonald’s All American. But I could use my reputation that I’d built with them, and the relationships, so it made sense.

And obviously, coming back (to Cal), I didn’t have some grand plan. I didn’t say, Oh, I’ll go to Santa Barbara until Joanne leaves. I didn’t expect that. I certainly was open, at the time, to considering East Coast, but really saying, I’m going to do a great job at Santa Barbara and I could be here for 15 years.

When the Joanne move (to Virginia) happened, it felt so right. It felt like, I was supposed to come back here to Cal. I’m a student of women’s basketball, and the landscape of women’s basketball was changing such that there could be an opening for another school to join that ‘elite’ group. There was only Stanford on the West Coast that had consistently been great. Obviously, [Arizona State] has had some runs, and other people have had success, but I wanted to say that the best players, if they want to go 3,000 miles away, more power to them, but I don’t want it to be because there isn’t an option where you can play for championships and get a great education, other than Stanford.

I wanted to make that happen at Cal. Obviously, I believe in this place and the mission, and I think there’s such a support for women’s basketball here. So all those things together, I think, make it the ideal spot for me, and I think it’s a good fit because I love it here, and I think the community in turn has embraced me wanting to be here as well.

SLAM: You were struck by the potential at UCSB. That head coaching stint often seems passed over when your career is examined, particularly after your immediate and resounding success at Cal. How much did your first head coaching job prepare you for Berkeley?

LG: More than I can articulate. I sort of get asked by young coaches and young people, ‘What’s the right way to be successful?’ And there’s no one path. It’s not a profession where you can say, Oh, do A, B and C, and then you’ll get to D. There’s a lot of ways.

But for me, there are some things that…all I can do is say how valuable they were for me. The first thing is working for Joanne, when she was a first-time head coach at Richmond. Because she said, “Come with me, let’s do this together.” It was as close as you could possibly be to being a head coach without actually doing it. It doesn’t mean that someone who goes to work for a coach who’s been at a place for 30 years doesn’t get a lot of value out of that, but it’s different. Going to someone who’s looking at a group for the first time and saying, ‘Trust me, believe in me, let’s set up this program.’ That was one thing that was huge.

The other thing, for me, was being at this high-level program at Cal, but then taking my first head coaching job at a place that was the right fit. I think sometimes coaches make bad decisions on jobs. Either it’s not a good job, or it’s not a good job for them. It might not be the right time. For me, I felt like I was ready to be a head coach, but it’s one of those things where you can be ready on paper, but then you have to do it.

It was a chance to…call a timeout myself, be the only one talking in the huddle, make mistakes, learn from them, and put my core values into action. Believe that those can work, but also make adjustments as necessary. It was valuable in so many ways. And again, I always say, I wanted to take my first job in a place where you think you can be for a very, very long time. I don’t think you’re successful if you say, Oh, three years, and I’m on to the next thing. That mindset’s not going to work.

But I also think, I see a lot of assistants take jobs, and they don’t think about how they’re going to be successful at that place. They’re not asking, “What is the recruiting footprint for here? What is my vision for this place?” If you’re recruiting to Duke, or Tennessee, or Cal, or UConn, it’s one thing. And then you go to a different place, and you have to understand that maybe the type of kid you’re going to recruit is different, or what you want to run is different, or you have to kind of be aware of what it’s going to take to be successful, to make sure that you can be. You can’t just say, ‘Oh, I’m a great coach, and I’m going to be successful wherever I go.’

For me, Santa Barbara was a wonderful place to develop as a young coach, to make mistakes, to grow, to learn, to continue to build my style and relationships with people. Coming back here to Cal, then, I was far more prepared than I would’ve been had I just stayed at Cal and got the job.

SLAM: A first head coaching job allows you to incorporate your personal values—even bolster them. At Cal now, Devanei Hampton is undertaking this new coaching endeavor. She’s graduating and helping prepare the current players for a life beyond basketball. Is this a core value for you?

LG: I said it in my staff meeting yesterday. We had a high-performance meeting with staff, plus our trainer and strength coach. We’re kind of setting up for the season. Really, every single thing we do should be about setting up our players to have the best possible academic and athletic experience, while they’re here and beyond. Really.

I’m reading [John] Calipari’s book (Players First), and whatever you think about him, it’s about the players. We have this opportunity to coach them, to teach them. Through basketball, let them get an incredible education. Now, I also want to be accessible to our fans, be a great part of the community, I want Cal basketball to get a lot of wonderful things, but at the end of the day, the players that come here and put on the jersey and walk across the stage at graduation, that’s what it’s about. I think we live that. I’d much rather have someone tell me I ran the wrong play at the end of the game than I didn’t treat a player correctly. That’s huge.

Other of our core values. I think we’re incredibly innovative, I think we try to push the envelope and not just do what’s been done, but to create an elite program in women’s college basketball based on who we are. I think we embrace each player’s individual character insofar as it makes the team stronger, the team better. I think it got a lot of publicity with the Final Four team. I was so comfortable that they believed in the Cal across the front of their shirt that if one of them has crazy hair and another one wears skinny jeans and another one wears baggy jeans, I’m OK with that. In fact, we embrace that, because I think the strongest team is a collection of various individuals. The same way we’re going to ask one kid to set more screens, and one kid to shoot more, this kid’s gonna get in the newspaper and this kid’s gonna do the dirty work—not everyone’s the same.

But if you bring these kinds of values and embrace the various aspects people bring to the table, it makes for a stronger unit. It also makes for stronger human beings, in general. Those are the things. Really caring about players, valuing all of them, even though they don’t all play the same amount, or get the same accolades. I think part of this family and this culture here that is supposed to empower each them to be great while they’re here, and after.

SLAM: The 2012-13 team was special. By the time they reached the Final Four in New Orleans, the nation was able to see it. Coming into last season, you lost three key players and a spiritual leader (Tierra Rodgers) from that team. Then, Gennifer Brandon is out. Brittany Boyd and Reshanda Gray are thrust into new leadership roles. How tough was it to get going in ’13-14?

LG: The first thing is, Talia (Caldwell, a senior on the ’12-13 team) is going to play in Greece. She left yesterday (August 26). She stopped by over the weekend, and we were just talking, and even she and I were like, with a little distance, and a little bit of perspective, she was like, “Sometimes I just sit and think about how unreal that year was.”

It was just really hard to be, whatever-and-2 we were before we lost to UCLA in the Pac-12 tournament and then we went on the Final Four run. We were talking about how it really was…fun. It had this supernatural feel to it. We’re in sports, so we understand there’s going to be pain and failure and success and you’ll learn from it, but that year was just so…you could just bottle it and say, there should be a 30 for 30 made about it. That’s what Talia said.

Coming off of it, we were conscious that we want to use this as a springboard to be consistently great, even if every year doesn’t look exactly like that, and I do think we are on that path. I have no problem that we come back from that, and people are asking, ‘Are you going to win the Pac-12 again? When are you going back to a Final Four?’ I mean, isn’t that what you want? Those kinds of expectations. We want to be thought of in that realm.

I think now, in retrospect, I knew that we were graduating great production, with those three we were graduating, and great leadership and veteran knowledge with Laysia, Talia, Eliza and Tierra. But I sort of didn’t know what I didn’t know. I’d never been a coach coming off a Final Four, and how that might affect people. I couldn’t exactly pinpoint what areas we might need work in. What I sort of realized as we were going through it was, it wasn’t just, ‘OK, we’ve graduated three significant players,’ it was that every single person on the team was going to be in a brand new role. Whereas the year before, we had everybody back. I think the Final Four year was so strong because everyone was coming back, and they were just better. They were in similar roles.

Now, it was new for Boyd and Gray. They had the luxury as freshmen and sophomores of stepping in and making plays. They were gamers, they were wonderful energy, they were competitors—but they didn’t have to get everybody ready for practice. They didn’t have to be 35-minute-a-game players. Afure Jemerigbe (a senior last season) was in a new role. Our freshmen are brand new and asked to contribute. The role players were in different and/or different roles. Mikayla Lyles, Justine Hartman: each person had something new.

I think that I didn’t quite…I wasn’t quite prepared…for the impact of the Final Four in terms of the players’ mindsets. They’re human. It wasn’t a conscious, ‘Oh, we think we’re great.’ But their mindset was, ‘OK, when we get back to the Final Four…when we get back to the postseason,’ whereas the year before, we had very much been like, ‘OK, we have to be better at practice tomorrow, we have to be better the next day.’ These are kids now who’ve had this taste of this big thing, and so that’s what they want, but I think the focus maybe should’ve been on smaller things along the way.

One thing I was really proud of was how much we improved through the season, and the way we were playing at the end of the year. We lost to Washington without Boyd, and we lost in the Pac-12 tournament (quarterfinals), so it looked like we slipped up. But I thought the progression over the course of the year…we were pretty darned dangerous in postseason.

We played at Baylor, and it was a tough situation, but it was a great game and felt a lot like being at Notre Dame in the ’12 NCAA tournament, where we were like, ‘Hey, we’re in this game, we’re just not quite good enough.’ And we talked about it. This is why you don’t want to be a 7-seed. Each game matters, so that you end up as a 2-seed instead of a 7-seed. That kind of thing.

Coming off of that, I think this spring and this summer, I’ve had a really, much more acute pulse of what our strengths are and what the potential downfalls or weaknesses could be, so we could address them proactively. I think it’s been an incredible spring and summer. We’ve really worked on our discipline and mental toughness and leadership and who we are and what we’re about. Things that never went away, but things that we need to reemphasize because that’s what makes Cal special.

I think these kids have totally bought in, and I actually think we have the chance to do some pretty special things this year. I think it’ll look and feel a little different than the Final Four year, but I think there’s a feel about it, like…the kids were saltier this spring and summer. They lost a little before they wanted to last season, and we have a little bit of that chip on our shoulder back. It’s an incredible group. We have more basketball players who can do more things on the court than we’ve ever had, in terms of multi-faceted kids, and I think it’s going to be exciting.

SLAM: There’s a human element to sports at any level. Thinking of your father, who passed away just weeks before last season was set to begin. A piece of you was ripped out. How do you begin a season after such a blow?

LG: Yeah…you know, my dad was not ‘young,’ and he had some health things going on, but nothing life-threatening. We certainly didn’t expect that. He’d been in the hospital for a relatively minor bladder procedure, and it was a Wednesday, and we had the Thursday off at Cal. We were in that fall practice time.

And I would often call on my way home, you know, it was 7, 8 o’clock, so it was 10, 11 o’clock on the East Coast, right as my dad’s going to sleep or whatever. So I knew he was in the hospital, and I talked to him, and he sounded OK, even though he’d rather be home than in the hospital.

My sister had gone with her kids to the hospital and they’d played that day. So we had a conversation, he asked about practice that day, and it was totally normal. And I go home, do whatever. And my phone is always on. I have 18- to 22-year-old children who can call at any hour. And my sister called at like, 11 o’clock my time, 2 a.m. their time, which is not a good sign. She and my brother had left, they’d gone home from the hospital, and just at some point after that, he had heart failure. And someone…I’m sure somebody saw it, and they revived him, but he was pretty much gone.

So it was literally in the middle of the night, I’m emailing (Cal associate head coach) Charmin Smith, ‘I’m going to be gone.’ I didn’t want to wake anybody up. It was just this crazy kind of obviously emotional time, emotional for me and my family, but at the same time, I do have this family here, and the things that go through my head of, I would never leave them without telling them, so to Charmin and (Cal assistant) Kai Felton, I said, You have to meet with the players so they don’t think I’m abandoning them. I found out in the middle of the night.

We had to get Gen Brandon separately, because she and I are so close, and her stuff with death, and just all of the things we had to do. But I will say, credit to Charmin and Kai and our players. I was worried about all that logistical stuff; they were so great about being like, “We got you, you spend time with your family, you do what you need to do.” And I’ll forever be grateful for that. I think if I didn’t have such a warm and capable and wonderful people here, I might not have felt like I got the closure that I needed to get. Ace—Avigiel Cohen, a senior on the ’13-14 team—came into the office and said, “This must be hard for you; what do you need from us?” You see people emerge in ways that change you forever.

I was gone from Cal for like, 10 days. I missed the Saint Mary’s scrimmage. Can you imagine? I missed a scrimmage! It’s crazy, you know. But coming back…it was obviously wonderfully comforting to be around the team, and this community, the people that reached out, it was unreal. I told the story of the kids pooling money together and sending flowers. Like, these kids don’t have money, and for them to each give $10. They allowed me to do my process.

At the same time, I was obviously really aware that I am still their head coach. It’s not that I can’t be human, and I can’t be vulnerable, but in a good way they feed off how I am. So I pride myself on never being in a bad mood, or putting too much stress on them. So similarly, I did not want to put what I was going through on them in any way—although I knew that they were there for me, and they were a source of strength for me. But I certainly wanted them to feel like I still was OK. And I was OK. But you go through stuff, and I don’t know…it was interesting.

SLAM: There was a palpable “saltiness” emanating from the team this spring. A sense that they wanted to return to where they feel they belonged in the national reckoning. When you met with the players ahead of this summer, with an eye peeled toward ’14-15, what message did you impart?

LG: Let’s address where we weren’t good enough and make it better. And that’s a hard thing to do sometimes. They know how great I think they are. I’m not afraid to say we have this, this and this—and nobody else has that, and we want to play fast, and people can’t stop us when we do this, and we’re talented…so to then be able to say, OK, we didn’t get to where we needed to be, so what do we need to do better?

I always say to them, when it’s November, December, January, February games, I want to be able to look at the film and say, ‘We need to be able to play better transition defense. Or, move the ball better. Not, Who are we? What are we about?’ So we spent time just revisiting what we are about.

We brought in The Program, which is former Marines, to do a two-day thing. They teach team cohesion, togetherness through shared adversity. We put them in situations outside their comfort zone. We address things like mental toughness and discipline, if we say we’re starting at this time, we’re here early. Things that have always been part of our program, but it felt like we had to make an emphasis on it so that they realize when it comes down to basketball, we want to be able to showcase our physical capabilities on the court, but there’s a lot of work that goes on outside of that to make sure that we’re functioning as highly as we can.

We hit it hard in the weight room, with conditioning, skill sessions were more competitive. We raised the standard in terms of expectations, I think. They loved that. These are competitive kids who don’t like not being at the very, very top. I also think, we use things I hear to motivate them. I don’t necessarily think people are talking about us coming into this year. OK. So what do we want to do about that?

SLAM: The Program is renowned as a terrific realm in which leaders emerge within a team. Did you have the same experience?

LG: There were so many moments. We only have 10 kids, so there is a spotlight. I’ve said this to everyone. The fact that Brittany Boyd bought in so headfirst made the whole weekend work. The first time the guys said, “I need a leader to step out,” Boyd sprinted about as fast as only Brittany Boyd can sprint from here to here (Gottlieb uses arms to display short distance), and said, “I got you.” She was completely locked in. She’s been a really good leader all spring and summer, but I think this was one of the defining moments.

The Program is really good. They talk to the coaches for two hours before it starts, asking, “Who are your leaders? Who needs to step up? Who are you looking for?” We tell them stuff, and then see how it emerges.

I think that was big, and then our sophomore class—we don’t have a junior class—so I think the sophomore class has a lot in it to kind of burst and come out this season. Courtney Range and Mercedes Jefflo in particular. The other thing, there’s this segment in the pool the second day, and let me just say, our players are not that comfortable in the pool, so there were tears.

But it was interesting, because kind of on the whole, the people who were the best swimmers were not necessarily our kids that play the most or score the most. So, they now had to really take on, like, OK, if you can tread water, you can swim, and meanwhile Reshanda Gray’s flailing in the water.

You have to take on a role, now, the burdens that leadership takes sometimes, or performance. So that was neat to see, kids that maybe have the swagger or whatever, the best players have to be vulnerable. A lot of dynamics came, which was huge. But all of our players bought in. I think there was some really, really good things that emerged in terms of leadership. But mainly, I think that our players want to be special, and they’re willing to do some hard things to do it.

SLAM: The sophomore class brims with talent. Take Courtney Range. Few players in the country can match her skill set and ceiling. How has she improved this summer to get closer to reaching that potential?

LG: The number one thing, to put one word on it, is confidence. Now, as a coach, and I say this to her all the time, confidence comes because you’ve put the work in, because you’re earning that right to be confident. But you often see that freshman to sophomore leap where you’re not just trying to keep your head above water; you’re more in command. I always talk about, you want to be in command of the workout. Boyd now commands workouts; the workout doesn’t command her.

Courtney has been in the office a lot, and we talk basketball, and she throws in style conversations in the midst because she’s a very girly-girl, but we talk about her goals—and she has these really big goals—and she’s so capable, and she just needs to be pushed at times.

We have built that relationship where I’m always going to make sure that she realizes the ceiling is even higher, and I think our best players here don’t need to compare themselves to one another, or even to other players in the conference…but what do you think Maya Moore did when she was heading into her sophomore year (at UConn)? Those are the kinds of things.

Range looks great. She’s strong, the workouts…I think she figured out how to attack the workouts, as opposed to just getting through them. We really are excited about what she can do this year.

SLAM: Last season, when Boyd had the ball at the top of the key, defenses might sag off and double- or triple-team Gray in the post. Then, if Boyd drove to the basket, they’d collapse. Their improvements in skill have been remarkable, but what have they done to take the next step as seniors?

LG: A lot of it is verbal, because a lot of what you do in the offseason is conversation. They both understand that ’13-14 was the first year that they had to be relied upon completely, and when you’re relied upon that much, you’re exposed.

Gray had probably one of the best seasons…I mean, her improvement was ridiculous. Her shooting percentage, her points and rebounds…but of course we talked to her about the foul trouble. We don’t take it for granted, but we acknowledge her physical capabilities, and we say OK, now the next step is staying out of foul trouble. Now the next step is to get through double- and triple-teams. Some of it, for them, is realizing that’s as much your next level of growth as the physical.

That’s the first thing, the mental part of it: just being consistent leaders. I’ve talked a lot with them, about whether they’re going to be professional basketball players or not, having our kids prepared going into senior year for what’s next. Because it’s a big deal to go into senior year and then graduate. So the two of them, I have to have a sense of what that player needs, whether it’s, ‘Relax, you just need to play’, or ‘Think about this, that next thing.’ From a mental standpoint, we talked about that being a big growth.

From a physical standpoint, I was on the phone with coaches and GMs in the WNBA, asking what they need to do. Obviously, I know what we need them to do to be better for us. They both have the mentality now, ‘We’re not just doing workouts because coach says.’ They are motivated on their own, they’re doing extra. Gray has worked a lot on her perimeter skill. Not to be a 3—she’s not going to be a 3—but to make her a more effective 4/5, to be able to pull people away from the basket when she is being double-teamed. To be able to be in great condition so she doesn’t get tired and foul.

Boyd worked on her jumper relentlessly, but she’s also worked on her conditioning and the other parts of her game, just to give her all the options available to her on the court. I’ve talked to them: If we are at our best this year, those two combined may average less of a percentage of our points. We shouldn’t be as reliant on the two of them with points, if you ask me. But I think they’re both better players than they were six months ago, which is exciting.

SLAM: For the freshman class, Penina Davidson is a bit of an unknown, stateside, but it’s pointing out the obvious to wager that Gabby Green and Mikayla Cowling could be pretty good players this season. What specific areas do you see them bolstering, though?

LG: I think this concept that we’re always going to be able to put five people on the court that are dynamic basketball players. Gabby and Mikayla both fit that in different ways. As does Courtney Range. As does Jefflo. Multiple players fit that mold. Gabby and Mikayla are both incredibly athletic and long. They bring different kinds of scoring dynamics. Gabby’s a legit 6-2 kid who handles and makes decisions from the 2-guard spot like a Layshia Clarendon. She can shoot it, she can come off the ball screen and pass, she can get to the rim. Cowling is in that Courtney Range dynamic of, sometimes you’re just like…Oh my gosh, did that just happen? She’s so athletic. She gets above the rim for rebounds. She’s freakishly athletic in a Gen Brandon way, but with a guard’s skill set. When she shoots her pull-up jumper, it’s unguardable, because she’s so big and she gets up. We did a one-on-one-on-one one day in practice with Jefflo, Boyd and Cowling. Jefflo and Boyd are gonna kill me that I’m saying this, but we gave them a hard time. Cowling won two out of three of those one-on-one-on-one games because when she rises and goes into her mid-range jumper, there’s nothing they can do—if she’s feeling it. She’s kind of a rhythm shooter.

In addition, and I talked about this to the older kids long before the freshmen got here, we need to be so good, and so together, and so solid, and such leaders, have our—excuse my language—shit together so well, that these freshmen get to do what the Boyd/Gray/Hartman freshman class got to do, which is come in and be students and not worry about too much. That’s the luxury that Boyd and Gray had, because Layshia and Talia and Eliza and Mikayla and Ace were so solid. That’s what I want. I want to take other dynamics off their plate, and they can be great student-athletes. I think they’re going to be capable of doing that, and we need them to do that. We have 10 players, we expect everyone to contribute. And Nina too. I think Nina is going to…she’s the unknown quantity, I guess, but she’s going to be able to step in and give us stuff. It’s never just one great class that makes a great team. It’s classes, stacked. In ’12-13, if we didn’t have the Layshia class, as veterans, along with the Boyd and Gray class as young ones, and Fu [Jemerigbe] and Gen in between, that’s how you get really good. The fact that freshmen don’t know sometimes that they’re supposed to be nervous, don’t know that this is a big game, or don’t quite have all of the knowledge that can help a team, if you have the older ones anchoring and saying, ‘We need to be sharp in shootaround.’ That balance is, I think, what makes a great team.

SLAM: This is the senior season for Boyd, Gray and Justine Hartman. When they were freshmen, you were in your first year as Cal head coach. Does that lend a certain poignancy to this season?

LG: I think every season—and this is what I love about college basketball—you see the growth of every class. You see the way that they change, and come into their own in certain ways. I sort of feel that way every year. But yeah, I’m aware that this senior class, we were freshmen together, sort of, and they don’t know anything except the NCAA Tournament. They’ve had this incredible ride already, but now you want this to be everything they want it to be, without feeling pressure all the time. I have to kind of make sure that’s not the prevailing sentiment. I want them just to play every day, work every day, go to class every day. But sure, I think about, like I do every year, but particularly this year, the journey of where they’ve come, and I’m looking forward to the things that they’re going to be able to do this year. It’s going to be pretty exciting.

The post The Program appeared first on SLAM.

The University of San Francisco men’s basketball team finished the 2013-14 season with a 21-12 record. It was the most wins for the program in 37 years. Their 13-5 conference mark tied for second-best among West Coast Conference opponents.

Head coach Rex Walters was named WCC Coach of the Year. At the conference tournament, in Las Vegas last March, the Dons came within an Avry Holmes missed three-pointer in overtime to sealing a date with perennial powerhouse Gonzaga in the championship. An automatic NCAA Tournament berth would’ve been within their grasp.

They earned an NIT bid, and lost at home to LSU. Before those final two losses, the Dons had reeled off nine wins in 11 to close the regular season. Now, consider where this team had come from, and the surge becomes all the more thrilling. It’s no coincidence Walters’ WCC colleagues so appreciated the work his staff had done.

Because they knew what had happened in November.

Back-to-back home losses to Nevada (92-90) and Idaho State (93-90, OT), the second of which Walters called “the worst loss of his career.” Then, just before a swing through the hinterlands (Montana), Dons senior point guard Cody Doolin, a veritable bedrock coming off one of the best offensive performances seen last season against the Wolfpack, announced he was leaving the team. The announcement triggered seismic reactions. Another program departure, after the mass exodus following the ’11-12 season? What was going on at the Hilltop?

And yet, there was no time to linger. The Dons were off to Oregon. They tried to run with the Ducks, and were beaten 100-82. A mid-December trip to the Big Apple resulted in a crippling 81-57 defeat to St. John’s, shown on Fox Sports 1.

It later emerged that Doolin had become embroiled in an altercation during practice with a teammate. Fodder for journalists, including Jeff Faraudo of the San Jose Mercury News, who unleashed an article late in the season, asking if the Dons’ late run “masked other issues?”

Many saw one side of the story, and ignored the rest.

And didn’t they miss something remarkable. In the final months of this past season, a team came together, and began playing basketball as well as anyone in the West.

There was the loss at Gonzaga in the opening weekend of conference play. USF was outhustled and outmuscled, while the Zags ran riot. But before they braved the biting cold of Spokane, and the bus ride back, the Dons stayed behind in the McCarthey Athletic Center locker room and hashed out their issues. Everyone felt he could speak up. A mark of a team, growing together.

Of responsibility taken, and the places you can go when that bedrock is set. In an interview with the San Francisco Chronicle’s Steve Kroner last March, Walters admitted he should have stepped in to stop the early season altercation that sparked Doolin’s departure, that too many players had transferred from the program during his tenure.

And the whole time, Walters and his staff tinkered, and began to get a feel for how they might unleash this team’s considerable talent. They had tried to run with the Ducks in Eugene, to near-disastrous effect. OK. Offensive sets, with Walters’s trademark “Let It Rip” focus upon rapid ball movement and paint touches, became increasingly efficient.

The Dons buckled down on defense and, after those high-scoring, thrilling affairs that marked the early season, they began to impose their will against opponents. No coincidence that late win streak was flecked with opponents’ frustration. Each Don took his defensive assignment personally. Top opposing scorers found no joy. In the last eight conference games, they held opponents under 63 ppg.

Now, just wait for next season.

Gone are steady senior forward Cole Dickerson (team-best 15.1 points) and sophomore point guard Avry Holmes, who transferred to Clemson last April. But four players who started in ’13-14 are back, and they are joined by a very good supporting cast, in addition to six talented newcomers.

There is considerable reason to be excited about these Dons. Junior 6-9 swingman Mark Tollefsen is one of the most versatile players in the country, as well as one of its most electric dunkers. Senior post Kruize Pinkins (12.2 points) became a force in the paint as the season wore on. Senior Matt Glover, whose nickname of “Jumbo” rings out, courtesy of the USF announcer, after he scores during games, will play a vital role running the point. Junior Tim Derksen, a 6-3 wing known for his hard-driving forays into the paint and steady range from deep, will pair with Glover in the backcourt.

They are among the players who finished last season so thrillingly.

It’s what allowed Walters to lean into his microphone in a room at the Orleans Arena, after the loss to BYU, and reaffirm his belief to reporters that his team was the best one at the conference tournament. It rankled feathers, but that’s a frequent response to unflagging belief. Cougars coach Dave Rose told reporters he felt “fortunate” his team had prevailed in that particular game.

Despite the loss, Walters had the Dons stay in Vegas. They took in the final and visualized where they wanted to be next season. Hoisting that trophy, heading to the Tournament. All part of the growth process.

That might just come full circle this season.

“This is my team,” Walters told reporters after that BYU game. “I’m proud of my team. No coach will be prouder of my team. I love this team, I would go to war with them, I’d be in any foxhole with them. I wouldn’t trade any one of my guys for any player involved in this tournament.”

It’s what he tells them before any game. Play for each other. Be the aggressor.

Oh, and the kicker?

“Absolutely—absolutely, let’s have fun.”

SLAM: Last season ended with a trip to the WCC tournament semifinals, where you lost to BYU in overtime. You went toe-to-toe with LSU in the NIT. How did those experiences contribute to this team’s growth?

Rex Walters: It was big for us. It was big to play in those types of games against those types of teams. BYU and LSU, those are high-major body types, with physicality and finality. We were in a WCC semifinal, where you feel you have a chance to win that game and go to NCAA Tournament. So close. That was really, really big for us. It’s something that made our guys more hungry. They see now that we’re good enough to achieve some great things. It was a great learning experience for us.

SLAM: Has that momentum carried over into the offseason?

RW: Our guys have worked hard. Summer workouts, everyone’s in, it’s the most competitive we’ve had it. That says a lot, when you talk about the team we had (in ’11-12) with Rashad [Green], Angelo [Caloiaro], Perris [Blackwell]…that team was very competitive. This team, this year, is a little deeper—a lot deeper, actually. With Angelo and Rashad, we had to fuel the fire with games, we had to separate and divide those two up. They never got to play with each other.

With this current group, we can go 12 or 13 deep. It’s very competitive. Even in the short workouts we’ve had so far, there’s been unbelievable competitiveness. The run from last season has definitely carried over. The younger players got to watch it, and the juniors and seniors have that type of experience now. They’re getting pushed by the younger guys, and the guys who sat out last season.

Our older guys have a better understanding of what we’re doing, but now they’re being pushed. It’s not a walk-over. Today in practice, we skewed the competition with the older guys stacked on one team, and it was one of the first days we saw domination of one team over the other. But they’re still being pushed. Incoming freshmen Frankie Ferrari (Burlingame High’s all-time leading scorer,) Devin Watson (offers from UConn and Oregon State) and Chase Foster (Colorado Class 4A POY as a HS senior) have shown a really good feel. Uche Ofoegbu, Darrell Robertson, Corey Hilliard (transfers from SMU, DePaul and Midland College, respectively) bring versatility, so it’s a great mix.

SLAM: At what point last season could you say that this team really began to “get it”?

RW: I think the loss at BYU (in early February). It re-focused us. We played well, and lost. It really spoke to our group about rebounding, how important that part of the game was. Now, they understood that playing hard wasn’t going to be enough. We had to be really efficient defensively, protecting the paint and rebounding. We got better.

That win at home against Saint Mary’s (on February 20), against whom we hadn’t had a lot of success in recent seasons, was huge. Then, we beat San Diego in the conference tournament quarterfinals. Those two games, where we beat teams we were better than—that we knew we were better than—we didn’t really ‘get’ that until we beat Saint Mary’s. Those games stick out, because we were playing really good basketball.

SLAM: Avry Holmes transferred to Clemson after last season. Does his absence diminish any of the momentum gained at the end of ’13-14?

RW: I think there was always going to be a lot of competition at the point guard spot this season. I just think that both [Ferrari]…and we got really fortunate with [Watson]…there was going to be competition. The way we needed to play last year, Avry was perfect for that. He ran our offense, made shots and was really good at end of the shot clock. We’ll miss that. But these new guys bring a different element.

Jumbo has more of a footing to play point, and he really wants to prove he can do it. It makes for a competitive practice. Today in practice, I thought Glover was fantastic. He really played like a point. That’s exciting for me to see. Physically, he’ll be by far the biggest, most athletic point guard in our league. Obviously, there’s a change with Frankie, who’s a high-feel, pass-first guard who can really shoot. Devin can really score. It gives us…it’s great to look down our bench and have those options. In the past, we might have had one bullet in the holster. Now, we’ve got a couple different guns we can turn to. That’s a nice feeling for a coach.”

SLAM: Last season marked the most wins for a USF team in 30 years. You were on the brink of a shot at an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. That thrilling run late in the campaign was fueled by cohesiveness and self-belief. And yet, the story of Cody Doolin’s transfer seemed to dominate the headlines. Was there a sense that the perception of the program, from those outside of it, didn’t mesh with the reality of the situation?

RW: Yeah. It’s difficult, I’m not a guy that is gonna…reach out to everybody and play the political game, be the news writer’s best friend. I’ll tell the truth. The tough thing about the Cody Doolin situation was, I always want to protect my players. Any guy that transfers, I’ll protect him—not that they necessarily need protection, but I don’t want anything misinterpreted and thereby hurt a guy who’s 21, 22 years old, and about to start his life.

Now, when you do that, it allows rumors to grow. Innuendo. And I can take that. I get paid well to do my job. But it didn’t serve our players well, in that they thought our program had a dark cloud hanging over it. We have great kids in our program, we work hard, we do things the right way in recruiting, our administration supports our players and our staff. It’s a little bothersome, but it united our team.

SLAM: You’ve alluded before to the significance of fostering a specific culture—a feeling of history—within a program. When you played at Kansas, guys like Danny Manning would come back in the summer and hop into pickup games. Does a season like ’13-14 further that process at USF?

RW: It does. Obviously, you have a guy like (former Dons forward) Jerome Gumbs around our guys, or Angelo Caloiaro (2008-12) working out with our guys—those types of guys permeate the feeling we have around here. I’m buying pizzas at Costco for our basketball camp, and there’s people patting me on the back. The players feel it more than I do, people around this city telling them, “Hey, you guys are fun to watch.”

That’s a great feeling in a place like San Francisco, where there’s so many great, and different, programs—professional as well as college. For them to recognize our guys, that we’re doing it the right way…when we’ve taken a more difficult path. We’ve recruited high school kids and developed them. There have been ups and downs, but we’ve always stayed the course, work and grind.

The best testament is that we see the little things adding up. Our guys are great about what they eat, and they monitor each other. As a staff, that makes us proud and happy. They understand that every little bit helps.

SLAM: Even with three months to go until the start of the regular season, do you have a sense of how good this team could be?

RW: We have some things that obviously need to fall in place. Health a big concern, but in terms of this team’s talent, I like it. Chemistry will play a part, guys accepting roles. It’s not necessarily ‘waiting their turn,’ but instead working like heck. Those will be things that they battle. And those are good things to battle, as opposed to in the past, when we had just seven guys in our rotation that could play. Now we’ve got a group of guys that is really talented and versatile. They’re accepting of their roles; they’re around each other all the time. When the season starts, and we suit them up, guys will really have to accept those roles. And if we can do that, we can be really good.

The post Growing Together appeared first on SLAM.

On June 1, Dominique Collier headed out along US-36 West from his Denver home. Some 40 miles later, he arrived at the University of Colorado at Boulder. He was three days removed from his high school graduation. Now he was, in his new home.

Twenty-five days later, Spencer Dinwiddie was selected by the Detroit Pistons with the 35th selection in the NBA Draft. One of the best players in recent Pac-12 history, Dinwiddie had announced this past spring his intention to forego his senior season at Colorado.

It seemed only natural, then, that Collier, who at 6-1 is widely considered to be one of the best floor generals in this incoming freshman class, found himself immediately thrust into the departed Dinwiddie’s shoes.

Don’t we have a habit of building up hype.

But let’s hold up a moment before we go crashing into that ever-growing realm of unnecessary proclamations and outsized expectations.

That being said, Collier has the skill to back up the hype. He’s a two-time Colorado Gatorade Player of the Year with a prep legend that could make Chauncey Billups, perhaps the greatest basketball name ever to emanate from Denver, blush. This past season, Collier averaged 21.6 points for Denver East, whom he helped lead to the 5-A state championship. He first began hearing from Colorado before high school—in eighth grade, actually—right around the time that Tad Boyle took over the head coaching position. As Collier progressed through high school, becoming a Buff became an increasingly appealing option. “When I saw what coach Boyle was doing at Colorado, and the way he was developing players, that really opened my eyes,” he says.

Under Boyle, Colorado has gone to three consecutive NCAA Tournaments and consolidated its position as one of the top programs in the West. A slew of top prospects, several of whom come from the Los Angeles area, have signed in recent years.

Now comes Collier, and he’ll join a number of in-state recruits on the Buffs roster, including talented posts Wesley Gordon and Josh Scott. Yet Collier is the first Denver Public League player to come to CU since a certain Billups. That means something substantial. “There’s pride, coming from Denver,” Collier says. “I’m playing for everyone back home. It’s great to have their support. I want to keep proving that we’ve got some players in this state, too.”

“As the University of Colorado, it’s imperative that we get the best talent in the state to stay home,” says Boyle. “This is the area we want to concentrate upon, and Dom’s addition, following the lead of Scott and Gordon, is a big one.”

His game is smoother than the acoustics at Red Rocks, his ability to lead a team proven at the highest levels of prep competition. Many are calling him the perfect addition to a Colorado basketball team that is preparing to make a serious run in the season to come.

But the next Dinwiddie? Boyle would appreciate it if we held off on that particular christening. Give the kid a chance to find his feet first. “One of the ways we’ve built Colorado basketball is to have a little bit of succession at our positions,” says Boyle. “We don’t have to have two or three freshman come in and have immediate impacts for us in order to be successful. That’s part of our evolution as a program. Recruits can develop at a normal pace.

“It’s not like we have to say, ‘Dom, you’ve got to come in and save the world.’ But I do want him to play and be a contributor. It’s important he gets his feet wet as a freshman, and starts developing.”

That’s what Collier is looking forward to. He knows what’s expected of him—working hard constitutes a large part of it—but he also possesses the requisite confidence, honed over years of work, required to contribute in a large way, right away. And that could come quite in handy come next season.

“There was a lot of attention placed upon him because of his skill level, quickness and basketball abilities,” says Boyle. “But the thing I loved most was watching him grow and develop a team-first attitude in high school. He’s a true point guard who thinks pass-first, score second.”

***

Collier’s mother, Lori, is fond of joking that her son grew up with a basketball in his hands. When asked about this, Collier doesn’t exactly demur. “Everyone in my family played basketball, so I was around it every day from when I was a baby,” he says. “My brothers, my dad, my cousins—they made me want to start playing.”

As a youngster, he gravitated toward Allen Iverson and tried to catch any game he could of the transcendent Sixers guard. And then there was this connection to the family of a certain local legend.

“I think it started with my dad and brother,” Collier says. “My brother played against Chauncey Billups in high school, and my dad was good friends with his dad. When I was 5 years old, I started playing on the same team as Chauncey’s younger cousin. He was in my grade, and we played on the same team all the way to high school.”

Billups became a mentor for young Collier, someone he could hit up out of the blue. “Basketball or life, I’d text or call him, and he’d tell me his insight and guide me,” Collier says. “He was just a mentor.”

There are stages in any young man’s growth, and in addition to the Billups link, Collier enjoyed a chance to grow his game in the summer before his freshman year of high school, when he stayed with his family in Milwaukee, WI. Why? Well, the whole thing happened almost by accident. When Collier was in seventh grade, he’d participated in an All-American camp in Virginia Beach, VA, where he played on the same team as Riley LaChance.

LaChance hailed from Milwaukee, and the following summer, one of the point guards for his AAU team, Ray Allen Select, moved to Florida. His father, Tom, was one of the coaches, and both LaChances had an idea of whom they’d like to fill this roster spot. “My dad got to know Dom’s parents pretty well, and he said to them jokingly, ‘Yeah, you should spend a summer in Milwaukee and play for us,'” says LaChance.

“[Dom’s] parents wanted him to do it. So we talked it over, and long story short, he ended up playing for Ray Allen Select.” That summer was marked by growth. Quiet by nature, the new surroundings forced Collier out of his comfort zone. If he was going to help his team win, he had to speak up on the court.

LaChance agrees with Collier’s self-assessment that in those months, Collier became a better floor general.

The level of intensity from that summer, emanating from so many grueling workouts with LaChance, has remained with Collier. “When I played in Milwaukee, I played true point guard—and that taught me how to do it,” Collier says. “In workouts here at Colorado, I’ve been able to display my point guard role. I want to come in and be a leader, be a point guard.”

LaChance, who will play for Kevin Stallings at Vanderbilt this season (he’s one of the best shooters in the country), calls Collier “the nicest dude ever.” Well, at least until Collier gets on the court, where his game is fresh snowfall-levels of cold. And that smoothness…

“It’s almost effortless,” says LaChance. “Dom can get wherever he wants on the court. And he’s always looking for somebody else to pass to.”

***

On January 12 of this past season, Colorado headed to Seattle for a Sunday showdown with Washington. The Buffs boasted a 14-2 record, and were ranked 15th in the country. They’d already shocked then-No. 6 ranked Kansas at home, thanks to an Askia Booker bomb at the buzzer. This team had “tournament dark horse” written all over it.

Then against the Huskies, Dinwiddie went up for a ball and came down in shuddering collapse. The anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee was torn. His season was over.

Colorado, reeling.

And yet. There is a resiliency in this cast of characters Boyle has assembled in Boulder. In late September of last year, the team participated for the second consecutive year in a grueling weekend training camp, called “The Program.” It’s overseen by ex-military men, and while it ain’t fun, it sure is beneficial.

After the loss of Dinwiddie, the lineup was tinkered with. Boyle landed upon a rotation that featured three sophomores, a redshirt freshman and a junior. Booker (the junior), who emerged as one of the leaders during The Program, helped key the charge. So did Scott. The Buffs found a way to push through to the NCAA Tournament, where they lost to Pittsburgh in the Round of 64.

“It gives us confidence,” says Boyle, when asked about last season’s finish. “The way I look at it, we got an 18-game jump on this season. But that’s also a double-edged sword. I feel very good about it because of the confidence our players developed, and the fact that we’ve got a lot of good, young talent back.”

That includes juniors Xavier Johnson, a 6-7 swingman from Los Angeles, and Scott (14.1 points, 8.4 rebounds), who transformed into one of the conference’s dominant post presences. They’ll pair with Booker (13.7 points), now a senior. Consider that four freshmen played serious minutes off the bench, including the high-flying Tre’Shaun Fletcher, and you get a sense for the optimism.

But then…

“On the flip side, we were 9-9 without (Dinwiddie) last season,” says Boyle, alluding to the span after ‘that’ injury. “That won’t cut it this season. We need to make sure that the offseason is a time where the players coming back, along with Dom and Tory [Miller, a 6-8 freshman post] are working hard every day in the weight room and developing.

“But I like our team. I like the youth, the talent, the length and athleticism.”

Make no mistake, Dominique Collier knows full well the task arrayed before him. It’s one reason why, after committing to Colorado in May of his junior year at Denver East, he began working with a personal trainer.

“The biggest question mark on our team now is the point guard position, because Spencer’s injury, and his decision to forego his senior year, puts us back to where we were at this time last year,” says Boyle.”But we’ve got different guys who can handle that role. Xavier Talton had great minutes in critical games for us. Jaron Hopkins is a big, physical guard.”

Here, his days are filled with the of work. At 6 a.m., he lumbers out of bed and heads off to weight training. Then there’s school, followed by more workouts in the afternoon. But Collier has a strong support group around him—including Rodney Billups, a Buffs assistant, and Chauncey’s brother. “(Rodney) was a great point guard, too, and he teaches me a lot, like going somewhere with my move, and not turning the ball over so much,” says Collier. “It’s great having him here.”

“The biggest issue he’ll have will be transitioning to college,” says Boyle. “He’s moving up a level now in terms of talent and quickness and strength. That physical maturation will take time to acquire. What I don’t want to see is people’s expectations early in his career getting out of whack. It’s important we guard against that, and understand that this is a development.”

Dominique Collier is learning the collegiate ropes, but he’s not really sweating the season just yet. When asked about the summer so far, he keeps it succinct. “It’s just been good,” he says.

“He’s adjusting academically, athletically and in the weight room,” says Boyle. “That’s not a room he’s been accustomed to living in. But that being said, his talent and skill level are exactly what we thought it would be. Once he gains the confidence to finish at this level, he’ll be a very good player. No question about it.

“It’s just a matter of when; not if.”

The post Legacy Buff appeared first on SLAM.

The big announcement had been made four days earlier, when Dunbar revealed on Twitter that he was Pac-12 bound. This ceremony at St. Ignatius College Preparatory’s McCullough Gymnasium allowed Dunbar a chance to say goodbye to the place and the people that had helped him reach this exciting destination point.

On a deviated note, there’s another gym we should reference, one that featured prominently in A Season’s Worth, the wildly popular seven-part series (see: more than a million hits) based on Dunbar’s basketball journey that aired last summer on YouTube. For years, Dunbar has made the short trip to St. Paul of the Shipwreck at any and all hours to pour work into his game.

Ten-thousand hours? Lace that Malcolm Gladwell-ian notion with a raucous adrenaline kick and you get a taste of Dunbar’s drive. Every time he is told that, at 5-8, he’s too short to make an impact at the highest level of basketball, every time some hack of a hater pours bile into a message board comment, Dunbar invokes the greats. He puts his head down and works.

And just to clarify—that ain’t silence. Far from it. It’s the right kind of response.

That level of poise wasn’t lost on those who came into contact with Dunbar at St. Ignatius. To kick off the signing ceremony, athletic director John Mulkerrins said of Dunbar, “Not only have you been an outstanding basketball player in our program, you’ve also been an outstanding young man.”

This was where the all those hours had gradually come to fruition, in what might best be termed a ‘blink’.

The previous Saturday night, upon returning from Grad Night festivities with his departing SI senior class, Dunbar had checked in with the Washington State coaching staff via text message.

Dunbar knew that a scholarship offer had recently opened up after a point guard, once committed to the Cougars, had reneged and opted for a different route. Rumor had it that Dunbar was the next name on the list. The next morning, he woke up, tapped his phone and came across this message, sent from Wazzou.

If we offer you, will you come?

“I was like, Yeah,” Dunbar says, laughing. “I had visits set up to St. John’s that Monday, and I was ready to look at Maryland and Towson too, but [Washington State] was just the best fit. This way, I get to stay on the West Coast.”

That the reaction to Dunbar’s commitment triggered a seismic spike of responses on Twitter should give you a sense of his local celebrity, which has reached the point where his highlight reels on YouTube become hotly anticipated events. (They’re worth a gander.)

These vids are a showcase for Shift Team, a movement begun by Dunbar that is dedicated to players who showcase a certain level of on-court swag and smooth. Dunbar was the ringmaster, darting this way and that like a record continually skipping. Defenders never quite seem able to catch his beat.

Despite all the internet clicks (Kyrie Irving is a frequent collaborator on Twitter, and a member of Shift Team) high-major scholarship offers were slow in coming—until new Washington State coach Ernie Kent extended his hand to Dunbar (since the late signing period had already passed, Dunbar signed a Financial Aid Agreement).

Tim Reardon, Dunbar’s coach at St. Ignatius, shared the befuddlement of many that this jet-quick guard was forced to endure such a taxing, and at times nerve-jangling, wait. Few know Dunbar better than Reardon, who returned from a brief break from coaching basketball (he’d been head coach of the SI varsity from ’03-08) just as Dunbar was beginning his freshman year in the fall of 2010.

Reardon coached the Wildcats’ Freshman A squad, which included Dunbar, and has enjoyed a first-hand, four-year look at Dunbar’s transformation from talented ballhandler into complete floor general. Reardon returned to the varsity coaching position in 2011-12, and took Dunbar along with him. “No [team] pressed me during my last four years of coaching at SI,” says Reardon. “He came in with the skills, and he just had a great feel for the game. So it was more about understanding tempo, not having a pissing contest with the other point guard and just knowing what he can do.

“Now, he’s grown in his understanding of time and score and he’s become very good in the last two minutes of games. In his first two years at SI, he couldn’t do that yet.”

So it went this senior season, when Dunbar averaged 22 points, 6 assists, 5 rebounds and 3 steals and was named the West Coast Athletic League and Central Coast Section Player of the Year. “If you watch tape from one of my teams before he got here, it looks like a completely different sport than what we did with him,” Reardon says. “We changed things up quite a bit for him—we just had to give him ball screens and let him try to create.”

It didn’t hurt having the likes of Julian Marcu and Troy Rike, both good friends of Dunbar’s, on varsity, either. When a dizzying variety of no-look passes are in play, familiarity becomes tantamount.

Despite these dazzling displays, however, the high-major collegiate interest remained tepid at best. “I think it was about his size,” says Reardon. “If they got to see him in the [San Francisco] Pro-Am, they would’ve had a great idea that his size doesn’t affect him when he’s out there. The early knock on him was that he couldn’t shoot, and he ended up shooting 40 percent from three (his senior) season. He doesn’t turn it over. So it had to be about his size—that’s the only way I could figure it out.”

Even when Dunbar was lighting up teams—he dumped 40 points on WCAL rival Serra—Reardon never got the sense he was pressing. He did what needed to be done to win games. “You see guys trying to do too much when they’re in that situation (looking for a scholarship offer),” says Reardon, “but I never got that sense from Trevor. He wasn’t trying to showcase himself. He put the team first.”

As the season ended and spring began, Dunbar couldn’t go through the H-shaped hallways at SI without someone asking where he was headed next season. “It was definitely stressful,” says Dunbar. “My dad was a bit more stressed than me, because I was always planning on hopefully finding the right fit.”

In early May, Dunbar was invited to the BallisLife All-American game, where he went toe-to-toe with heralded point guard Tyler Ulis, a Kentucky commit. Still, Dunbar kept his collegiate plans close to the chest. Some in the Bay Area felt sure he’d head to City College of San Francisco to play for Justin Labagh, who has sent a number of players to top DI schools, including Utah’s Delon Wright.

Then the floodgates opened. Ernie Kent took the Washington State job on March 31, and just after two months, he’d picked out the point guard with whom he wanted to begin a process of revitalization. In 13 seasons at Oregon, Kent coached the likes of Luke Ridnour, point guards renowned for playing with some serious moxie.

“Coach Kent loved my game, and he didn’t want me to change anything about it,” Dunbar says. “He’s had a lot of success with smaller guards, and on a long phone call that we had, he brought up [Tajuan] Porter and Aaron Brooks (both of whom Kent coached at Oregon). I’ve watched Brooks on the [Houston] Rockets. It gives me hope for that next level.”

Before you sniff at any talk of the NBA, remember that few thought Dunbar would end up in the Pac-12, either. Competition doesn’t faze him. For the past two summers, Dunbar has gone toe to toe with NBA and professional talent at the San Francisco Pro-Am, frequently cited as one of America’s premier summer leagues. He’s taken the court with Matt Barnes and Jeremy Lin. And not blinked.

“I’m not killing ’em, but I’m out there on the same floor as them and I look like I belong,” says Dunbar. “It’s an honor to be out there.”

On June 22, Dunbar headed to the Palouse to begin summer school and off-season workouts. He’s close with his fellow incoming freshmen, including guards Jackie Davis and Ny Redding. He still has the numbers of current roster members, whom he met last summer on his unofficial visit. (Ken Bone was head coach then.) “I’m really excited to get started and see what this season’s got for me,” Dunbar says. “Pullman is this big college town, and that’s different from the City life, but I think that’s going to be a good environment for me.”

As Kent told Washington State’s official website, “Trevor is an outstanding young man that has spent an enormous amount of time refining his game, which will show in his ability to handle the basketball and see and make difficult plays. He has a certain style and flare to his game that will quickly unite and excite our student body when it has the opportunity to see him play. I look forward to coaching Trevor.”

With that ceremony in St. Ignatius’s gym as evidence, Kent should have a blast. After thanking a lengthy list of people for their contributions on his journey, Dunbar read a brief statement he’d prepared, detailing his intentions at Washington State.

I, Trevor Lamar Dunbar, intend to attend Washington State University, graduate from Washington State University, and take Washington State University to the Final Four.

The third one is sure to raise eyebrows. Washington State has made just one Final Four in its history — and that was back in 1941. They finished 10-21 last season, notching just three victories in Pac-12 play.

But while you stand there agape, Dunbar is busy listing areas where he can improve his game. He wants to help Kent reinvigorate basketball in the Palouse, which enjoyed a mini-heyday under Tony Bennett as recently as the mid-aughts. With the likes of senior swingman DaVonte Lacy (19.4 points) still on the books, Dunbar will have some fun running mates when he gets out on the break. You get the sense that during Dunbar’s four years in Pullman, things could get re-routed on an upward track quite quickly.

Dunbar likes where his jumper’s at, but he’s ready to bolster his defense. He knows he’ll play against bigger guards in the Pac-12, and he wants his defense tenacious, so he can hang on pick-and-rolls.

He’ll trade the fog for snow, and lots of it. He welcomes your skepticism. So far, he’s got a pretty good record of proving people wrong.

“I just felt like he deserved this,” says Reardon. “It’s a relief, knowing he’ll be playing where he deserves to be playing.”

The post Shift General appeared first on SLAM.