Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Shooting from the lip?

Coaches are incredibly stingy when it comes to clip 'n' save quotes during the preseason, so my first double-take came when George Mason's Jeri Porter said of Pitt transfer guard Ashleigh Braxton: "If there's a purer shooter in the (CAA) we would really like to know who it is. Ashleigh has range beyond belief and has one of the prettiest strokes I've ever seen in 20 years of coaching."
My second double-take came upon checking out Braxton line in Monday's 75-27 exhibition victory over Virginia Union: 1 of 9 from the field, 0 of 6 from 3-point range.
Hey, even the greatest shooter of all time stages a brick convention every now and then. Then again, the former Forest Park High star also hit on just 30 percent of her shots (26.7 percent from 3) in two years of spot duty at Pitt.
So we're left with two possibilities:
- Braxton is merely a workout warrior, a lights-out shooter until the lights go on for real;
- Monday's exhibition was an aberration and Braxton will commence knocking 'em down soon.
I'm betting it's the latter. Coaches just don't rave about their players without reason. At least the smart ones don't.
Of course, if the Patriots keep holding opponents to 19-percent shooting, Braxton won't need to make shots.

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