Point Man: Pickett Grows Up On the Job
2/21/2008 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
By Scott Latta
UA Media Relations
It’s one of the crucial, unseen parts of a basketball player’s game. It can separate the superior players from the weak, the talented players from the middle of the pack. It’s court vision, and for Rico Pickett and the rest of Alabama’s point guards, it can mean the difference in scoring and turning the ball over, in winning and in losing.
If playing point guard is akin to being a quarterback, then court vision is the equivalent of a passer’s ability to see a play unfold from the pocket. From the second Pickett gets the ball in the backcourt, his mind starts firing as his eyes dart from left to right searching for the answers to a series of critical questions.
First, the opposing defense: Is the opponent in man-to-man, or in zone?
“If it’s zone,” Pickett said, “you’ve got to slow it up. You can’t rush to them because they’re all sitting there waiting on you. In man you can go right to the offense but in zone you have to set back and let it play out a little more.”
Second, the personnel: Is Richard Hendrix on the floor, and if not, who is the next-best option?
“My first thing is always, if Richard’s on the court, to try to look for him first before anything else,” Pickett said. “If he’s not it doesn’t really affect it, I just know I have to go to somebody like Alonzo [Gee] or [Mykal] Riley. Not that I have to go to them but if Richard’s not out there they are usually the ones I’m looking for first.”
There are a number of variables that affect Pickett’s, or any point guard’s, ability to use court vision. Is the guard under full-court pressure? How much time is on the clock? What’s the score? Who is in foul trouble? Who is hot, and who needs the ball the most?
Through his first 18 games, Pickett has separated himself from Alabama’s other two point guards, sophomore Mikhail Torrance and junior Brandon Hollinger, in all but solidifying the starting point guard spot in the absence of injured all-American Ronald Steele, who is redshirting this season.
His court vision has not gone unnoticed by Alabama coach Mark Gottfried, who recognized not only Pickett’s ability to see plays unfold in front of him, but his improvement game-to-game.
“I think Rico has gotten better by the week,” Gottfried said. “It just seems like he just keeps getting better and better. He’s more comfortable in the games. I think he’s done a very good job for a freshman with our team. We’ve played a difficult schedule which has made it a little harder for him. Sometimes if you’d have known you were going to have a freshman starting point guard, maybe your schedule would have been just a little different. So he’s had some challenges and I think he’s responded really well.”
If high school accolades are any indication, it should come as no surprise that Pickett has adjusted so well to the college game. He finished his career at Decatur High School as the school’s all-time leading scorer, averaging almost 19 points per game his senior year while leading his team to the state’s Final Four. For his work he was named to the 2007 Final Four All-Tournament Team and was named an Alabama-Mississippi all-star.
After growing up an Alabama fan all his life, Pickett turned down offers from a number of schools before committing to the Capstone. Once he arrived on campus, he said, there was one main player who took him under his wing.
“First and foremost it was Richard,” Pickett said. “Richard took me under his wing before anybody, then Ron [Steele], then Alonzo one after another.”
What makes Pickett’s ascension to the starting point guard position more impressive is Steele’s absence in the lineup, which has put more pressure on Pickett, Torrance and Hollinger to man the position in his absence. Had Steele been healthy this season, it would have allowed more time for Pickett to develop under his tutelage.
Without him, Pickett’s role is magnified, and instead of maturing in practices or in a smaller role, he now has to do it in a starting position while trying to replace a nationally-recognized all-American.
“My role changed a lot because coming in I knew I was going to be a backup point guard and now I have an opportunity to start and be a leader on this team and try and lead this team to be as best as we can be,” Pickett said.
Making the experience more difficult, Gottfried said, is Alabama’s schedule, which was not set up to teach court vision to a freshman point guard. In many games, Pickett has gone against juniors or seniors while being forced to learn on the job just 18 years old and one year removed from high school basketball.
“What’s happened is that some of the teams that we’ve played, our young guards like Rico, a lot of times you’re looking out there and you are seeing a freshman versus a senior,” Gottfried said. “And it’s happened to us by chance a bunch this year. And it makes it a lot more difficult for a young player when your third or fourth college basketball game you’re playing against a guy that’s played 100 college basketball games. That necessarily wasn’t by design. It’s just happened. But it seems like it’s happened a lot this year.”
Away from the court, Pickett is one of five siblings in his family, with two baby brothers being born in the past two years. He speaks to his father multiple times per day, he said, and his mother almost every day. It helps not being far from his home in Decatur, but also having the total support of his teammates, who have watched and helped him mature early on in his college career.
“They’re behind me,” Pickett said. “They believe in me and everybody’s up and keeping my confidence up and is 100 percent behind me.”
