SAN JOSE, Calif. – Tamika Nurse realizes that when everything runs smoothly, everyone is happy. When things turn ugly, point guards shoulder much of the blame.
Look at her fondness for Los Angeles Lakers’ star Kobe Bryant, the all-star shooting guard, who paired with Shaquille O’Neal for three championship rings from 2000-03. Harmony dissolved when Los Angeles lost in the 2004 NBA Finals.
O’Neal demanded a trade. He went to Miami. Los Angeles began anew.
“Shaq left and you could understand that, apparently Kobe wanted to be the man,” Nurse said. “That’s what everyone says. Kobe’s just a good basketball player and people see him as cocky and look at all the bad things he’s done, his court cases and all this kind of stuff, but he’s a beast.”
Nurse is showing flashes of the same tenacity and poise Bryant exhibits on the court in year two of the transition from shooting guard to point guard.
“If things go well, great, good job and if they don’t, then a lot of it falls on the point guards’ hands because that’s your quarterback, that’s your leader,” assistant coach Selena Ho said. “That’s someone who initiates our offense, initiates our defense.”
Nurse worked more with Ho last season, but as the sophomore’s developed and taken greater control of the offense, her tutelage has shifted to head coach Bev Smith.
“She’ll tell you what she wants,” Nurse said. “She’ll tell you when you do it wrong. She’ll tell you when you do it right. You always get feedback, whether or not you like the feedback.”
The point guard is in charge
Nurse is in charge of making sure the offense runs smoothly. To do that, she needs to know her teammates’ games intimately. When asked, she rattles off her teammates’ strengths: Oaks is a good shooter, Chapdelaine can shoot and drive and Haring can take the ball anywhere and create.
Sometimes it’s understanding the simple things, like passing to Oaks on a fast break instead of Ganes.
“You can give Ganer the ball on the wing to shoot it and you can give her the ball in the post but you don’t want to give it to her and make her have to create something. That’s not necessarily a strength of hers,” Nurse said.
Nurse grew up in the shooting guard position, but switched in Eugene.
Her flair for scoring remains, it’s finding the right time to mix it in. She showed her freshman season and this season that she can get to the basket with her lightning quick speed. The difference this season is that she is consistently drawing contact, going for three-point plays and making free throws. She made 24 of 26 free throws in a two-game homestand with the Los Angeles schools.
Nurse is beginning to hit her mid-range jumper on a regular basis, which makes the three-pointer next on the list.
“I want to pass the ball and I want to have assists,” Nurse said. “That’s very important to me. Knowing how to get my teammates open and knowing how to put them in a successful place is very important to me but I don’t want to be a one-dimensional point guard.”
Finding a way
Oregon faltered midway through the Pac-10 Conference portion of their schedule, falling to 2-7 following an overtime loss to Oregon State and raising questions of where this team was headed, whether it was going to tank or had enough to revive its season.
The Ducks answered that question with a 6-4 stretch to end the regular season.
“We expressed the pressure that we have as a team,” Nurse said. “We know that we’re sitting at a big school and a big conference and there are expectations that are required. Oregon is a big name and we need to live up to that and we know that. When you fall short, like we did the first half of the Pac-10 season, it’s brought to light and we notice that.”
Oregon ran into a determined California team (23-7) Saturday in the Pacific-10 Conference Tournament in San Jose, Calif. Nurse had the challenge of guarding Cal freshman Natasha Vital, a point guard with quickness and offensive game rivaling the Oregon starter.
Vital repeatedly weaved through Oregon’s defense for layups and made a three-pointer en route to 16 points. Nurse had four points by halftime, and then became more assertive offensively, with eight points in the second half – six on three-pointers – with Oregon’s go-to scorer Eleanor Haring struggling.
Nurse’s 12 points overall went with three assists, two rebounds and a steal. Her first shot from long distance brought Oregon within four, 37-33, and the second within seven, 53-46, before Cal won 63-51.
Growing up fast
Nurse’s development might have taken longer if Oregon hadn’t lacked depth at point guard and upped her minutes. The sophomore, leading Oregon at 33.9 minutes per game, is backed up by freshman Micaela Cocks, a more methodical point to the more freewheeling Nurse.
She misfired to start the season. Nurse had makes on 3 of her first 18 shots before she found her mid-range game. She had 11 points on 3-of-4 shooting in a breakthrough performance in a win over Portland at McArthur Court.
Nurse scored 18 points at UCLA and bettered that with 22 when the Los Angeles schools visited Eugene. UCLA roughed up Nurse, leading teammate Cicely Oaks to step in. Smith had to hold Oaks back at one point.
“I know Cicely’s going to stand up for me, regardless of the situation, regardless of whether I’m right or wrong,” Nurse said. “Cicely’s a teammate and when it comes to confrontations between teams, she’s always going to have your back, regardless of what happened.”
Nurse also had 16 points, six rebounds and four assists during USC’s visit, good enough to earn Pac-10 Player of the Week honors – the first such honor in her career.
In all, Nurse’s reached double figure scoring 13 times this season, with averages of 9.1 points and 3.2 rebounds.
She’s balanced success with adversity. Nurse logged a season-high 43 minutes in an 11 point, eight turnover effort that figured heavily into Oregon’s overtime loss to Oregon State. Three days later, Nurse’s minutes dwindled to 25, with Cocks dropping a career-high 14 points.
Last week, Smith started Cocks at Washington State, citing a lack of effort from Nurse in practices a week earlier. Nurse ended up playing 30 minutes to Cocks’ 18, but the message was clear.
“I think it was a reminder to (Nurse) how important she needs to be if she’s a starter to bring intensity, to bring focus, to bring work ethic and attitude to practice,” Smith said. “You’re a starter and you have to show that behavior and not giving your best is not becoming of a starter and I think it was a reminder for her and a reward for Micaela, who has that sort of work ethic and attitude and punch.”
“I kind of sit there say, ‘(It’s) unfortunate what happened, learn from the lesson in practice, but know that I’m OK,’” Nurse said.
Nurse relates to the movie “Love and Basketball,” the tale of two next door neighbors who love basketball and eventually fall in love themselves. Monica (Sanaa Lathan) had to work to play college basketball, pro leagues in Europe and eventually the WNBA, whereas Quincy (Omar Epps) relied on natural ability.
“I admired the fact that she worked so hard because I’ve always wanted to kind of obtain that work ethic,” Nurse said. “She worked her butt off to get where she was and that was obviously rewarded and I felt good for her for that.”
Dreams of March Madness
Nurse forms a young, seasoned core of guards returning next season along with Taylor Lilley, Cocks and Kaela Chapdelaine. The front court in comparison is going to be young with at least five freshmen coming in.
“I think we have a really good nucleus on the perimeter that is solid fundamentally or getting there,” Smith said. “That is where the ball starts, that is where the intensity is set, that’s where we begin to look after the ball and then all we need to do is to develop those young post players to get position and develop one move and a counter move and get them ready to feel good about something
that they can go to.”
Oregon’s current season is likely to continue in the Women’s National Invitational Tournament – making it two seasons without a berth in the NCAA Tournament. Point guards are often considered an extension of the coach, and on this senior-laden team, Nurse has had a smaller leadership role.
“If I have to set an example more vocally then I will,” Nurse said of next season. If I have to set an example by actions, then I will. I just want to win to be honest with you – that’s what it boils down to. I want to be successful as a team. I want to do things. I want to go to the NCAA Tournament in my time here.”
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