Matter of Respect
January 28, 2008 05:41 PM | General
January 28, 2008
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – If you are ever dumpster diving and you happen to come across any discarded women’s basketball scouting reports be sure to look at how opposing teams choose to guard West Virginia’s Ashley Powell.
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| Junior guard Ashley Powell has scored 22 points in her last two games against Marshall and Georgetown.
All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks |
Most of them don’t.
Once Powell dribbles the basketball across the mid-court line watch where her defender goes – right down into the paint to help double-down on Mountaineer center Olayinka Sanni. It’s not a question of respecting Powell’s outside shooting, teams don’t even take it under consideration.
That’s why Marshall Coach Royce Chadwick had a look of astonishment on his face when Powell made several clutch jumpers and scored a season-high 13 points in West Virginia’s 58-51 victory over the Thundering Herd last Wednesday night in Charleston.
During Saturday’s win over Georgetown, Powell made all three of her shot attempts including her first career 3-point basket, contributing 9 points in a key conference victory over the Hoyas. Powell has now tried eight 3-point field goal attempts in 82 career games.
“I know I can shoot that shot,” Powell says.
Actually Powell was better known for her scoring when she came to West Virginia as a freshman in 2005. The three-time all-Detroit player averaged 22 points, 11 assists and seven rebounds per game as a senior at Murray Wright High School.
“I had to be the scorer, I had to be the defender, I had to be the rebounder; I had to be everything for the team,” Powell said. “I was always used to scoring. I took a lot of shots. I really didn’t become a decent shooter until my junior year in high school. That’s when I became a shooting threat.”
It was during Powell’s freshman season at West Virginia that she had to learn another way to play the game.
“When I came here as a freshman, Coach (Mike) Carey really wanted to slow me down because he didn’t feel like I was ready to compete on the Big East level if he did not control my game, which I understood,” Powell said. “It was like a learning thing.”
Powell was asked to do the impossible: replace all-Big East point guard Yolanda Paige. Mike Carey is also very demanding of his point guards and the combination of Carey tweaking her game and demanding that she take care of the basketball made Powell’s first season at WVU a nightly match of Russian roulette.
“I always had a pass-first mentality anyway but I would like to take it off the dribble and I would look to pass whether it would be good or bad,” Powell said.
Powell played in all 31 games her freshman year making 30 starts. Her assist-to-turnover ratio was a not-very-good 124-to-105, and she only managed to shoot 29.8 percent from the floor and just 42.1 percent from the free throw line.
Last year, Powell cut down her turnovers (74) and increased her scoring average (2.6 ppg.) and shooting percentage (40.3 percent), but she still was nothing more than an afterthought as an offensive threat.
This year she is starting to take all those sagging defenses personally.
“I definitely take it personal and not only do I take it personal for myself I take it personally for Olayinka Sanni because she’s the best five-player I’ve ever played with,” Powell said. “For them to double down on her it’s really insulting and it really upsets me. She’s a great player and she’s not the best that she can be because there are always two people on her.”
Now that teams are beginning to see Powell making wide open jumps shots that could free up more opportunities for her teammates. The same thing happened with the men’s team a few years ago when teams began respecting J.D. Collins’ outside jumper. Playing five on five offensively is a lot easier than playing four on five.
“If I continue to do it consistently … that’s the thing, being able to shoot consistently - of course they’re going to have to start doing something,” Powell said. “The coach from Marshall said I made them pay but it was just about doing what I had to do to get the win. If it’s me scoring, if it’s me on defense making stops, whatever I have to do that’s what I’m about.”
Yet just because she’s made a few outside shots don’t expect Powell to start jacking up 3s all over the place. It’s not her nature and Mike Carey won’t let her do it anyway.
“As a coach if she’s hitting those shots … God bless her,” Carey said. “But if you’re not hitting them there’s a reason why they’re leaving you wide open. Hey, if we can make them pay and she’s hitting those shots - that’s great and we’ll continue to do that.”
“My goal is to set people up and get my teammates where they need to be,” Powell added. “My goal is not go out and score 30 points every night. That’s not what I’m here to do. I’m capable of it but that’s not what my job is to do here.”
Powell and West Virginia will face a stern test Tuesday night against No. 5 Rutgers. The Scarlet Knights have won four of their last five games against the Mountaineers including a 55-49 victory in Piscataway last year. Most of the recent West Virginia-Rutgers games have been very competitive, though.
“I think we have to play excellent defense. Lately we’ve turned the ball over a lot and our rebounding has to be better. They’re big and strong so we’re going to have to box them out, first and foremost,” Powell said. “Our 2-3 zone has been pretty effective for us the previous games against them so I can see us running some 2-3 zone on them.”
It also wouldn’t hurt having Ashley Powell knock down a couple of open looks because the chances are excellent that Rutgers is going to let her take them.
