Wake Forest Athletics
Howard: A Late Bloomer?
2/27/2001 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Feb. 27, 2001
By Jay Reddick
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. - When you watch Josh Howard play basketball, whether he's grabbing another offensive rebound, blocking an opponent's 3-point shot or swishing one of his own, it's hard to think of him as a shy, unassuming sophomore.
Yet in many ways, that's exactly what he is.
He's among the ACC leaders in at least five different categories, but ask him about taking control at the end of games and you'll hear, "I'd rather Rob (Robert O'Kelley) had the ball sometimes."
You laugh nervously at that comment, wondering if he's serious, but then he continues: "If the shot clock gets down, I'll take the shot, but if it comes down to the end of the game, I'd rather have some experience handling the ball. I respect him for that, because he's won two games for us late. He came up big in the clutch."
And you realize Howard is just respecting his elders, like any good Southern gentleman. Howard respects his opponents too, but that doesn't stop him from showing them one of the most complete basketball arsenals in the ACC.
Through Feb. 20, Howard led Wake Forest in scoring (14.2 points), field-goal percentage (.510), and steals (47). In games against ACC opponents, you can add blocks (1.2) and rebounds (6.6) to that list. Experts from Dave Odom to Mike Krzyzewski to Dick Vitale have trumpeted him for All-ACC recognition.
His quickness and natural leaping ability have certainly aided his rise, but he said the latest addition to his game - his outside shot - came when he learned to slow down.
"My outside shot has been a big difference," Howard said. "What I'm doing now is, instead of coming off screens too fast, I just show up and face up first. The coaches say I've been moving too fast, and I can still beat people to the spot to get my shot off."
Howard also credits plenty of summer work on his shot technique with helping him to hit eight 3-pointers in one six-game stretch - nearly half as many as he hit in his previous 55 games.
"One benefit for me is that I worked in a recreation center (at Carver) this summer," Howard said. "I have a friend at N.C. Central who is very competitive, and he would come over for 3-point shooting contests. Once I realized how well I could shoot, I just kept on with it."
The emphasis on shooting helped him at the free-throw line also, where he has a 73.1 percent success rate in ACC games compared to 55.1 percent a year ago.
The rise in his overall game has turned him into one of the team's true go-to players, but he is still insistent on spreading the wealth, especially to the senior class. In fact, he says that dichotomy is what led to the Deacons' recent stretch of six losses in eight games.
"It's crazy that they look to me as a leader, because I'm looking for it out of them too, so we bump heads," Howard said. "That's what happened when we went through that little rough spurt. Now, I'll say some stuff but won't go too far."
Howard said another thing that has re-emerged for the Deacons since the slump is the simple joy of playing basketball.
"We work together real well," Howard said. "We've come back to enjoying practice like we did at the beginning of the season. You can see it in people's faces. It's crunch time now. We need to come together like we did last year, and we're doing that."
Howard describes himself as a late bloomer in basketball terms. He said nobody knew who he was until late in his sophomore year at Glenn High School in Kernersville. It wasn't long, though, before he gave fans and scouts plenty of reasons to notice him - he won the Frank Spencer Award for the best player in northwest North Carolina in both his junior and senior seasons. He was first-team all-state as a senior, when he shot 70 percent from the floor.
Even then, he wasn't quite good enough to satisfy himself or ACC schools. After a year at Hargrave Military Academy in Virginia, he felt ready.
He had no idea how ready he was, though. Ask him now if he expected to be this good this quickly, and a long, loud "nooooo" escapes Howard's lips before you can even finish the question.
"I wasn't really expecting it," Howard said. "I worked hard in the weight room this past summer, and that helped a lot. I've still got room for improvement."
That improvement begins, he said, with continued strength training. At 6-foot-6, 191 pounds, Howard is a wing who is often asked to bang with the big boys.
"Strength is the biggest thing to work on," Howard said. "It's gotten better, but everybody else's has, too. You're going to get bumped, you just have to take the bump and keep control. Practices get real physical. Coming through the lane with Raf (Vidaurreta) and (Josh) Shoemaker, you've got to be strong. They toughened me up a whole lot."
As for the future, Howard is considering a career in community service, perhaps as a teacher, after his playing days are done. And when he brings those learned leadership skills onto the court with him next year, the ACC may never be the same.
