Making a POINT

Sporting News, The, Feb 8, 1999 by Michael Bradley

We all know the point guard is the game's most important position. But what exactly makes a great point? Here's a look at the four keys, illustrated by four of this season's best floor leaders.

Pepe Sanchez had shot 2-for-9, but here was Temple coach John Chaney, noted basketball curmudgeon and hardly one to dispense praise readily, describing the point guard's play in the Owls' 76-63 win over Rhode Island as "perfect." Maybe the old man had blurred the print on the final stat sheet when he tipped over a can of soda during his postgame remarks. Perhaps he was trying to stroke the young Argentine's ego so the junior will return for his final season in North Philadelphia, rather than head home to play professionally.

As always with Chaney, there was no hidden agenda. Sanchez may have been wayward with his shot, but what had Chaney in such a praiseworthy mood were Sanchez's other numbers, most notably his nine assists to one turnover and six steals.

When Chaney, an old point guard himself, says he would like to have "five Pepes," it's not just hyperbole. Chaney wants his team to be defensive-minded, willing to make the decisions necessary to take care of the ball while still directing the offense. Sanchez does that. And if you look around the collegiate landscape, you'll see that virtually every top team is blessed with a gifted point. In fact, this is clearly the best year in a while for the position, from veterans such as Sanchez to young pups such as St. John's Erick Barkley.

No other position in the game has as many responsibilities. Point guards have to defend. They must pass. They have to run the break. And they need to score. What follows is a breakdown of the components of a great point, and how four of this season's best point guards embody those responsibilities.

On guard

It starts with defense. Any coach will tell you that. And defense starts with strength, quickness and good instincts. More important, however, is a great, heaping dose of want-to. A coach with a roster loaded with committed defenders already is ahead of half his peers. If the point guard on said team is the best of the bunch, then you have something special.

"Defense is determination, heart and wanting to stay with the other guy," Maryland point Terrell Stokes says. "It's down and dirty. It's like rebounding. You can't teach it."

You can sure work on it, though. Since his prep years, Kentucky senior Wayne Turner has dedicated himself to stopping opponents. "My high school coach told me that it's good to have offense, but you have to be able to defend," Turner says.

That might as well have been Rick Pitino or Tubby Smith talking. In the past decade, Kentucky basketball has been synonymous with chaos-inducing pressure. Turner has embodied that as much as anybody. He wants to put in the extra time on those step-slides. He has devoted himself to learning more about playing off the ball. He knows how to provide help when teammates lose track of their assignments. At a time when college teams are obsessed with getting easy baskets in transition, relentless pressure at the point is vital--the better to create turnovers. At Kentucky, Turner keys the whole assault.

"He is by far one of the most tenacious defenders I have ever seen," teammate Saul Smith says. "He harasses the ball, puts a hand in your face and makes it harder for a guard to run his offense. He's 6-2, 190 and is ripped. He has one of the best bodies on the team. He's so strong."

But being a good defender doesn't require being a steals machine. Through Kentucky's first 23 games entering the week, Turner had a modest 27. His influence is more evident in a more important category--field-goal percentage defense, of which the Wildcats are holding teams to 37.8 percent. That starts with Turner. "When he's playing well, he gets everybody going," Kentucky forward Scott Padgett says. "He'll get a deflection that leads to a fast break, and we're off."

Turner came to Kentucky with a reputation for scoring. He averaged 36.1 points a game as a senior at Beaver Country Day in Boston and was expected to be a classic 1990s lead guard, capable of handling the ball and creating plenty of scoring chances for everybody--especially himself. But Turner struggled early with his outside shot and was forced to find a different role. So, he turned to defense. His commitment has been so thorough that he now sounds like a coach when he discusses it.

"The best defense is pressure defense," Turner says. "You have to hawk a person from baseline to baseline. You have to do that to stay here. You're not going to stop a guy every single time, but you have to believe you can stop him.

"You have to watch out for screens. If a teammate is being beaten, you have to rotate over and help out. It's about sustaining your defensive stance off the ball, being low and anticipating. It's all about being at the right place your coach wants you to be. You have to have good peripheral vision to see the man and the ball at the same time."

Great quickness and fast hands help, too. "when you drive to the basket to shoot, he gets his hand on the ball," Utah point Andre Miller says. "There aren't many guys with hands quick enough to reach in and knock the ball away like he can."