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Monday, February 2, 2009
A supremely confident freshman
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
I’ve had the opportunity to chat with freshman Iman Shumpert several times, and his unwavering confidence always comes through.
Even after losses in which he’d missed late free throws or committed critical turnovers. And, as you all know, there have been a few games like that.
In Saturday’s 76-74 upset of No. 6 Wake Forest — the visiting Demon Deacons were favored by 7 — Shumpert was directly responsible for Tech’s last three field goals.
First he found Alade Aminu for a layup. Then he swished the tying and game-winning shots, almost from the same spot near the foul line.
But what struck me most was one of his misses. He was 1 of 4 from 3-point range when he got a wide open look with under 5 minutes left, Tech trailing by one. There was no hesitation. He launched it and was 1 for 5.
At that point Shumpert was 2 for 8 overall. He made his last two, and Tech finally had an ACC win.
“Early on, he was unsuccessful,” coach Paul Hewitt said, referring to Shumpert’s struggles in earlier ACC games. “But you don’t stop going to a guy that you know has talent and courage. [Saturday] he made them, and hopefully this is a hump that he has crossed.”
Shumpert said he expects to hit 8 of 10 from the right elbow. Coaches chart him on that during practice.
“I’ve just got to get to that elbow — that’s got to be by money shot,” he said. “I knew that at the end of the game if I had to shoot that elbow shot, it was going in.”
Shumpert said he’s learning how to be a better distributor.
“I thought I could just make the one-hand pass that zips through the defense,” he said. “Now I’m starting to understand, watching more tape with coach, to reverse the ball and get the hockey assist rather than the big play. That’s what we’ve all been focusing on, the guards on the perimeter, to swing the ball and make the hockey assist instead of the home run pass.”
Not surprisingly, Shumpert believes Saturday’s win was a turning point.
“Now that we’ve gotten over the hump and we know how it feels, we’ve got to keep playing this way and keep finishing out games,” he said.
Shumpert said there can be “no more excuses.”
Looking back on the six ACC losses is very frustrating.
“We know we could have won a lot of those games. A lot of ‘em went to overtime because we missed free throws, we turned it over at the end of the game, we didn’t execute or didn’t follow the scouting report. Now we’ve got to eliminate everything out of our heads. We were 0-6, we snapped that losing streak, and now we’re just trying to go 6-0, 8-0, however many games we have left.”
Actually, nine games remain before the ACC tourney, starting Thursday at FSU.
Gani Lawal, who dominated on Saturday, said he doesn’t consider Shumpert a freshman any more. He had absolutely no problem with the Shumpert taking the big shots.
Added Lawal: “Not to sound cocky when I say this, but we feel we can beat any team we face. Coming into this game we were confident we could get the W if we didn’t beat ourselves. By us actually following through and getting the win, it does wonders for us and we definitely want to keep that confidence and this aggressive play going down to Tallahassee.”
