The Shooter Emerges – A Feature on Gaucho James Powell

Jeff Newton

While thousands of burnt out undergrads poured over mountains of lecture notes and discussion slides at Davidson Library, James Powell put on a free seminar in the Thunderdome. The discussion topic, “How to Catch Fire from Three Point Land,” left the Gaucho faithful hooting and hollering. He made shots with a hand in his face. He made shots coming off of picks. He made shots from twenty five feet out, in one smooth motion where he stopped on a dime, picked up his dribble, set his feet and launched a fluid jumper. It didn’t matter where he fired from: the wing, the top of the key, the scorer’s table, the parking lot; he couldn’t miss. The senior’s spot on Reggie Miller impersonation, even in a hard fought home loss, gave weary students something to cheer for during the anxious quiet hours that make dead week such an uncomfortable staple of college life. In twenty three minutes of game time, Powell answered a year’s worth of criticism. In a season where his statistics have spiked while his minutes have dipped, Number 42 is looking, and playing, like a full time leader.

The box score hardly tells the story. On December 5th, SDSU wins 69-61, Powell hits 6 of 9 from downtown and the Gauchos shoot well south of forty percent from the field. Big whoop; sounds like a solid individual performance in a relatively forgettable showdown. Both team’s coaches, however, provided a more stirring account of the young man’s impact. SDSU’s Steve Fisher said, “When James Powell made his first three, it kept them and the crowd in the game.” Bob Williams stated, “There’s no doubt James offensively hitting those 3s bailed us out, got us back into it. He really made a game of it.”

On a night where the scorers couldn’t score, the perimeter defenders couldn’t prevent open looks and the rebounders couldn’t protect the glass, Powell willed UCSB back into the contest. Coming off the bench early in the second half, with the deficit quickly building, he calmly knocked down five treys in less than seven minutes of game action. His teammates kept feeding him the ball and he kept rewarding their trust. As the jumpers kept dropping, one shortly after the other, the bench erupted while the fans hopped around with manic excitement. When his sixth three found the bottom of the net, the guard calmly pounded his heart. His gesture touched on some relevant points. He had the heart to deliver under pressure. More than anything, he had the heart to persevere through a horrific stretch.

The good play he’s enjoyed this fall (11.8 ppg, 54% fg, 53% from beyond the arc) heavily juxtaposes Powell’s disaster junior season. Deemed by fans and followers as Chris Devine’s new co-leader, Powell struggled mightily for a fifteen loss team that regularly disappointed. His ghastly personal statistics (32% fg, 29% 3fg) sparked occasional trips to Bob William’s doghouse. He turned bad shooting into a bad habit. More than anything, Powell couldn’t live down the North Carolina game. In front of his home crowd, in a nationally televised game, against the number one ranked team in the country, Powell’s itchy trigger finger repeatedly killed any momentum. Whenever the underdogs pulled close, and elicited quick fantasies of an Everest sized upset, Powell chose to shoot his way out of a slump. His terrible night (4-16 fg, 1-9 3fg) tanked the school’s high hopes.

In any other game, the Gaucho faithful could have dismissed his efforts as just an off night. Off nights happen in basketball, especially for streaky jump shooters. But to have an off night during the biggest game in the program’s history, that’s something people tend to remember. Many college players would have folded completely after a season like that, where the performance fell so far short of the expectations. We could have chalked it up as just another kid who was wrongly labeled as top dog material. It’s a testament to Powell’s work ethic and thick skin that he’s positively reinvented himself as a player. In the process, the Gauchos have reinvented themselves as a basketball team.

Powell’s brief window as the team’s leading scoring threat has come and gone. He’s the sixth man on a developing team that’s less than a month from their first conference game, against UC Irvine. Transfer standout Orlando Johnson and sophomore teammate James Nunnally now provide the heavy lifting on the offensive side of the floor. Technically, Powell is a bench player, not even good enough to crack the starting five. That’s not the truth; it’s simply the role he fits well. While his playing time has declined, his attitude has thrived. Shortly after the SDSU game, when he could have easily acknowledged his marquee night, Powell reasoned, “The ultimate goal is to get the win and we didn’t get that done.” He didn’t point fingers, or mention that Johnson and Nunnally combined for only fourteen points, or puff out his chest in a self congratulatory manner. He discussed a Gaucho team that, at 4-2, is headed in the right direction. He just wants the wins. They’re something to shoot for.