Tim Hays pulled Ana Richter aside during Southeastern’s game at St. Thomas last week and asked her if she knew how well she had shot the ball.
LAKELAND — Tim Hays pulled Ana Richter aside during Southeastern’s game at St. Thomas last week and asked her if she knew how well she had shot the ball.
Richter, as she tends to do, told her head coach that she had no idea. She just knew the Fire were up big against one of their top Sun Conference challengers.
The next day, the team gathered in the locker room. There’s a chart hung up that keeps track of different statistical milestones for each player from each game. If you hit more than 50 percent of your shots in a game, you get a star.
But on this day, as he handed out stars, Hays said, “Ok, Ana was 15-for-16 from the floor.”
“What?” a surprised Richter responded.
“Her effort stays the same, her mentality stays the same, she rarely gets down on herself,” Hays said this week. “If she has a moment where she makes a mistake, she bounces back quickly because she’s not driven by that. She’s not driven by the stats.”
“She’s literally looking around at her teammates going, ‘I’ve got to go. I’ve got to keep going.’ I think she’s pretty unique in one mentality. There are not that many kids now that work that consistently at that high of a level.”
When Richter and the Fire are on the road for a game, the senior normally has her camera nearby.
She says she’s a better basketball player than photographer, but one day hopes to own her own photography business. She’s never taken any classes but, if she spent as much time taking pictures as she did holding a basketball, she might be the better photographer.
Luckily for Southeastern, basketball takes precedence.
Richter came to Lakeland last year after two seasons at NCAA D-I Miami (Ohio).
She was a solid player, but never a star. Even in her first season with the Fire, she was mostly a role player — a steady, valuable veteran. Richter joined an established team. Her first instinct wasn’t to walk in and become one of the stars.
She just wanted to fit in.
“Last year we needed someone like a defensive presence, and I love defense,” said Richter, whose vocal nature is obvious during games. “I would score points last year, but it wasn’t a huge deal because we had other players. I was totally willing to pass the ball because that’s what I did. That was my job.”
Richter admits that her confidence waned during her final years at Miami. The RedHawks went 16-44 over her two seasons. She regained that swagger last season and Southeastern has never lost a regular-season game with Richter and Hays around.
“I don’t feel any different," she said, "but I know the previous experiences and the people that have poured into me are the reason why I feel the way that I do and why I’m performing the way that I am."
It’s hard to ignore the video game numbers Richter is putting up this season.
The 6-foot-2 forward is averaging 24.2 points, 6.6 rebounds, 2.8 assists and 2.9 steals per game for the Fire. She’s led the team in scoring each game this season.
Her best performance, one that will be hard to top, came in that game at St. Thomas. Richter poured in 31 points, grabbed 13 rebounds and handed out four assists.
Perhaps most impressive is her efficiency — 15 of 16 shooting that night. She’s somehow hitting 70 percent of her shots.
Richter on pace to break single-season school records in scoring average (19 points per game), field goal percentage (63 percent) and total points scored (705). She didn’t know that because, well, she’s not much of a numbers person.
Hays, however, is a numbers guy. He breaks down everything the Fire do statistically, and he looked at what Richter did last season versus what the team could have been better at.
“She’s such a high motor, consistently focused kid,” Hays said. “That is the kid that you could take and put about anywhere and she’s going to be effective just because she’s going to outwork about anybody.”
So, he did.
After the season had ended, Hays went back and watched every game and looked back on every box score. Richter is tall and wiry, but she’s fast. She can run for days. She isn’t afraid to play inside, either. He decided that playing her at forward instead of guard made the most sense.
The Fire play fast. They play zone on defense and Richter is always at the head of it.
Hays saw it like this: Richter is fast, so, why not put her in position to be the first person out on a fastbreak? The way they play, guards break up the sidelines and forwards run down the middle of court to get deep post position.
Richter is faster than most bigs and stronger than most guards. She consistently got to her spot and scored.
Hays saw the results, and the first thought that came to his mind? Uh oh.
“She’s kind of a machine at deep seals,” he said. “She’s not that big, she’s not a thick kid, but she becomes an odd match-up. We just kind of found her perfect nice for this system.”
Richter was open to the change but, initially, it was a challenge. She had to learn a new set of plays for a new position. Being around Hays and playing within his system made it easier. It helps that she’s always been a creative finisher around the basket, too.
There aren’t any alley-oops during a Southeastern women's game, but there is a play that may be just as effective.
Richter gets out on the break after the Fire force a miss. Teammate Halee Printz dribbles up court and lobs a pass up to a positioned-and-ready Richter.
Fake one way, fake the other, bucket. Richter, armed with championship aspirations and All-American numbers, makes it look easy.
“That’s why I tell people, ‘I’m really not doing anything hard. I’m just finishing,'” she said with a laugh. “It has been different because I think scoring more points comes with more pressure. But I don’t feel pressure from coaches or teammates or anything like that. I feel free and that’s what I love about it — it’s fun playing.”
Brady Fredericksen can be reached at brady.fredericksen@theledger.com or 863-802-7553. Follow him on Twitter: @Brady_Fred.