RALEIGH — Immediately after N.C. State’s annual Red-White basketball game, a sports information guy cheerfully pronounced that Scooter Sherrill had scored 14 points.
He was wrong. Actually, Sherrill had poured in 16.
But you couldn’t blame Mr. Stats for an honest mistake, because there were times Saturday morning when Sherrill was hitting hoops so quickly it was hard to keep track.
The 24-minute outing seemed like old times for Scooter. Things were just like they used to be for the 6-foot-3 sophomore guard. Just like they were when he was everybody’s All-American at West Rowan High. Before his freshman year at State roller-coastered him from ecstasy to agony.
The 2000-01 Wolfpack was a bad team. Worse, it was a bad team that didn’t get along. Sherrill started his freshman season beaming that famous gold-toothed smile and hailed as a savior by the Wolfpack faithful. He ended it with a first-round exit at the ACC Tournament with pursed lips and a frustrated frown and with Wolfpack fans wondering if maybe he’d be catching a bus for Transfer U.
Except for flashes scattered as widely as summer showers, Sherrill’s freshman season was one long slide. He endured a slump that started in his right wrist and eventually worked its way to his head.
Maybe we should’ve seen it coming. Sherrill, for all his talent and high school heroics, is young, and he’s human. So when he read and heard on a daily basis just how bad his outside shot was (28 percent from the arc) and how slack his defense was and how gosh-darn disappointing in general he was, it was only a matter of time before self-doubt crept in and he became as tentative as a 13-year-old at his first school dance.
Sherrill wound up playing 13 minutes a game and averaging 4.2 points. Not what he had in mind. Not what anyone had in mind.
Sherrill’s stock plummeted so precipitously over the course of last season that he wasn’t even mentioned in this year’s Wolfpack preview in Street & Smith’s magazine’s college hoops edition.
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But then along came the Red-White. And while it was merely a glorified, albeit well-attended scrimmage at the Entertainment and Sports Arena, it could be the catalyst that gets Sherrill started on the road back to what he once was and what he can still be.
Based on yesterday’s performance, there is reason to believe that Sherrill’s hard times on the hardwood will end — and soon.
Sherrill’s sweet 16 points — and they were sweet indeed, because they came on 8-for-10 shooting — made him the Wolfpack’s leading scorer, nipping the Wolfpack’s phenomenal new addition, Julius Hodge, by a point.
More important, Sherrill played every second without making a bad decision or taking a bad shot.
Wolfpack coach Herb Sendek declared it a “breakout game” for Sherrill.
“Scooter played well today, exactly the way he has practiced the last two weeks,” said Sendek. “He got out in the open floor and created easy baskets for himself and his teammates.”
Sendek has promised a quicker, more aggressive style of play for a guard-heavy team. A swifter pace would certainly suit Sherrill, who’s more scorer than shooter. A faster tempo is also a better fit for Sherrill’s defensive attributes. He’s better at flying around than he is as a straight-up defender.
The good news is that both Red and White squads played with frenzied passion. That pell-mell pace led to Sherrill scoring the first six points for the White team on two transition layups and a dunk.
A dunk? That’s right — a dunk. A one-handed power slam on a breakaway that he created when he blind-sided freshman big man Jordan Collins.
That play underscored just how assertive Sherrill is feeling these days. No doubt, he would have meekly laid the ball off the glass a year ago, bringing polite yawns. Yesterday, he brought foot-stomping cheers. He caused a ruckus.
“It was nice to dunk again,” said Sherrill. “It had been so long since I dunked in front of a crowd. Hodge was kidding me today, saying he’d never seen me dunk. But, yeah, I can dunk.”
All of Sherrill’s points came in the paint, including a couple of authoritative, gravity-defying moves that carried him past the hoop for soft lefty finishes.
Once, freshman big man Josh Powell screamed, “I got ball!” as Sherrill dashed downcourt. Before the words were out of his mouth, though, Sherrill was past him, scoring on a reverse.
On two other occasions, Sherrill soared to the hole, then generously dished off to happy teammates for slams of their own. His best move of all was a pull-up 10-footer in the lane that he nailed after being forced to go to his left.
“I’m just playing a little smarter now, a little more confident than I did last season,” explained a smiling Sherrill.
Scooter says his rebuilt confidence is the product of the hard labor he put in over the summer.
“I worked my tail off shooting 3s and lifting weights,” he said.
Bulking instead of sulking must pay. Sherrill says he’s gained only five pounds, but his chest and biceps are much more impressive.
“I’ve got my bench press up to 265 (pounds),” he said. “That’s important. Now I can take those bumps you get when you go in the lane. Last year, I’d come down and see all those big guys in the paint and hold up. I’d go, ‘Uh oh, better not go in there.’ But now I’m going to the basket even if I have to knock someone out.”
Yesterday, Sherrill put his right shoulder where his mouth was — taking one daring drive right at fellow soph Marcus Melvin (6-8, 230). He was rewarded with a bucket on a goaltending call. Plus the foul.
The only outside shot Sherrill attempted — a 3 from the left wing — didn’t go down, but even that miss should be looked at as a positive. As a freshman, Sherrill often hesitated on open 3s, uncertain whether to let fly. Painfully unsure if a misfire might land him on the bench or in the doghouse.
But yesterday, he took his shot — in rhythm and with a crisp release. It didn’t go, but it had every chance.
“I know I’ve got to shoot those shots and I’m going to shoot them,” said Sherrill. “It felt good. I thought it was in.”
So did everyone in the ESA.
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Contact Mike London at 704-797-4259 or mlondon@salisburypost.com
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