Shooters shoot

Shooters shoot.
In my hundred or so years of covering high school girls basketball, that’s been one thing I’ve noticed. I was discussing this topic with a coach recently.
The coach, who has won a lot more games than I have, has a philosophy of passing the ball a certain number of times before a team takes an outside shot.
This can be a winning philosophy for certain teams. My disagreement with the coach wasn’t whether this was the correct philosophy for his team. My point was that this style of play could possibly hurt a shooter’s confidence.
Shooters shoot.
Shooters don’t count the number of passes.
I’ve never seen a shooter that had a lot of thoughts going on in their head before they took a shot. One of my favorite quotes comes from former Olympian Ruthie Bolton, who was asked what she thought about before taking one of her patented long-range shots.
“Nothing goes through my mind, if I can see the basket, I’m gonna let loose of it,” she said.
Every successful shooter has that same thought process. They don’t worry about what will happen if they miss. They don’t worry about how many offensive rebounders they have. They don’t worry about floor balance.
Shooters shoot.
When shooters catch the ball, the first thing on their mind is, am I open? If they’re open, they take the shot.
I’ve watched a bunch of coaches and how they deal with their shooters. I’ve seen some of the best and none of them ever jumped on a player for missing a shot.
Shooters shoot.
They don’t worry about missing. They have to have confidence in themselves. As important, they have to feel like their coach and teammates have confidence in them, too.
One of my favorites coaches is Gary Don Smith. Every year at Union, he had at least one designated shooter. He never introduced them as a guard or forward, they were his shooter.
I don’t know if Smith was responsible for teaching these girls how to shoot. But I know his attitude towards them allowed them the confidence to let it fly. I heard him yell at girls for not shooting but he never discouraged his shooter from taking the shot.
He might put ‘em on the bench if they weren’t hitting. But, as long as they were on the floor, as long as they were open, the green light was on.
Shooters have to have that green light. If you have to think about taking a shot before you take it, you’re probably going to miss it. If you’re not sure if you’re supposed to shoot the ball, you probably shouldn’t shoot it. If your coach and teammates don’t have confidence that you can nail that wide-open 20-footer, you shouldn’t take it.
Shooters don’t think about it. Shooters don’t worry about it. Shooters don’t wonder about it. Shooters shoot.
I don’t care how pretty a person’s shot is, if they don’t take the shot, they’re not a shooter.