Alyssa McCabe is one general who needs to pull rank much more often.
As the point guard on the Niagara College women's basketball team, the 19-year-old Niagara Falls native is the "floor general" responsible for turning those X's and O's from the sidelines into fakes and passes on the court. The Knights' offence runs through McCabe, with the team counting on her to make the right pass to the right person — at just the right time.
That's a lot to ask of any player, let alone a rookie who hadn't played competitively in more than a year. The A.N. Myer Secondary School graduate also needed to adjust her game to the Ontario Colleges Athletic Association (OCAA), a league dominated by guard play.
"It's a lot of guard play, not posts like I was used to," said McCabe, who was five when she began playing basketball in the Niagara Falls Red Raiders development program.
McCabe more than held her own, however. This season she was selected as Niagara's female rookie athlete of the year after averaging 7.9 points per game, five rebounds and a team-high 4.6 assists.
The Knights finished sixth in the OCAA's west division and made the playoffs with an 11-7 record, thanks in part to McCabe's keen court sense.
"Alyssa's quick, athletic, very, very competitive, tenacious, and she really understands the game well," head coach Mike Beccaria said.
McCabe also a great teammate, the type of player who cares more about contributing to the overall success of the team than padding her individual statistics.
"She is an unselfish player, unselfish to a fault. It's really her nature to pass first," Beccaria said.
"Nobody wants to play with a selfish point guard."
That said, the Knights would like to see McCabe become more of an offensive threat in her own right.
"We want the ball in her hands, and we want her to do something," said Beccaria, who like McCabe is entering his second season with the Knights.
The coach said the 5-foot-5 guard is more than capable of upping her offence.
"Her shooting is coming around nicely. I've told her if there are 10 seconds on the shot clock, I want her to take the shot," Beccaria said.
McCabe admitted that becoming more of a shooter in her sophomore season with the Knights will be easier said than done.
"That's my problem. I love to pass. I always pass first. I always think a good pass will set up a better shot," said the daughter of Glen and Theresa McCabe of Niagara Falls.
"I was never really a shooter until this year."
Though she won rookie of the year honours at the college's athletic awards night last month, McCabe was a first-year player in eligibility only. She transferred to Niagara after spending the 2012-13 season as a redshirt freshmen on Brock University's women's basketball team.
Though disappointed that she didn't get playing time for the Badgers, McCabe saw plenty of action on the court nonetheless taking part in the team's practices.
"I still learned a lot. The practices were so intense. It was basically a game every time," she said.
"The coach was always telling us 'If you don't play each other, you won't get better.'"
McCabe left Brock's kinesiology program after one year to enrol in the education assistant program at the college's main campus in Welland.
"I didn't like the university atmosphere."
She intends to remain at Niagara and take a graduate program after completing her two-year program.
McCabe's experience as a redshirt gave her leg up on her fellow rookies on the 2013-14 Knights, but getting into the starting lineup wasn't a slam dunk.
"The job wasn't handed to her. She had to work for it," Beccaria said.
The coach is impressed by how far McCabe has developed in her short time playing at the post-secondary level.
"It's a work in progress, but she has accomplished a lot already. To go from not playing for a year to being a starting point guard is a long way," Beccaria said.
"We're certainly getting there. She has responded very well."
Even if getting there means some more bumps and bruises for the diminutive guard.
"I like to drive to the basket, but sometimes you're going to run into the trees," a chuckling McCabe said of playing against much taller defenders in the paint.
bernd.franke@sunmedia.ca
Source: Welland Tribune
Author: Bernd Franke
Photo: Benrd Franke
