They are both right-handed shooting seniors, both listed at 5-feet-6, he from Detroit, she from Southern California.
Together, their University of Oregon basketball careers could be the composite of a college athletic career, the best of times, and the toughest of times.
He helped his team to the Elite Eight as a freshman and endured a losing record last season.
She’s battled injuries and seen her coach get fired.
They’ve both been voted the most valuable player of their respective teams by their teammates, he last year, she two seasons ago.
And there’s this about Tajuan Porter and Taylor Lilley:
When they bid farewell to McArthur Court at the end of the 2009-10 season, they figure to do so as the most prolific three-point shooters in the history of their respective programs.
However they are remembered — and senior seasons tend to offer career-defining moments — they are certain to be remembered for long, high-arcing shots that swish through the nets.
For Porter, the milestone might come as early as Oregon’s first counting game, on a Friday the 13th of November, against Winston-Salem State in McArthur Court.
He has made 279 three-pointers in his career, just three behind the school record-holder, Orlando Williams, with 282.
For Lilley, the mark won’t be within reach until the calendar has turned over into 2010. She stands fourth on the all-time UO women’s list with 146 three-pointers, but a season of decent health and a new, high-octane offense put her clearly in range of Missy Croshaw’s school record of 189.
In a way, Oregon’s shooting stars — the long rangers, if you will — have been traveling toward those destinies since childhood.
Learning to shoot
Growing up in Detroit, Porter learned to shoot watching his older brother, Terrance, who played collegiately at the University of Detroit and at Wayne State.
“I come from a basketball pedigree,” he said. “Mostly everybody in my family played basketball. I really learned from my brother. He was a great shooter. … Porters are known to be great shooters.”
In one of his brother’s old college media guides, Porter remembers reading a passage in which Terrance was discussing shooting. “He said, ‘My little brother is already connecting from the three-point line and he’s only 7 years old,’ ” Porter recalled.
Back then, Porter shot with two hands, and as he grew older he had to learn to get his left thumb off the ball upon release. At what point in his life did he know that he was a good shooter?
“I still don’t know that,” he said, laughing. “I worked at it. It was repetition. At one point in my career, I felt I was a poor shooter. … I was about 14. I just started doing a nightly routine. I used to sit on my bed and just shoot the ball up in the air, work on my form and technique.
“I used to do that 100 times before I went to bed. Both hands, my right hand and my left hand. I can shoot pretty well with my left hand, too.”
Lilley was about that age — 13 and in the seventh grade, she remembers — when her shooting career was launched.
“I used to shoot terrible,” she said. “Two hands, elbows out, both of them. The ball still tended to go in, but….”
One day, Lilley and her mother saw a former college player, Bryan Finley, giving a one-on-one shooting lesson. “That’s when I decided that’s what I wanted to do,” Lilley said.
One lesson a week turned into more, and Finley became “like my older brother,” working with Lilley through high school and through the summer after her sophomore year at Oregon, before he moved to Hawaii.
“He really worked on the form aspect of it and kept it simple,” she said. “One-handed little form shots, and it was a matter of repetition after that.”
Micaela Cocks, Lilley’s teammate and workout partner, notes that the fact that the young Taylor could put the ball in the basket despite bad form, demonstrates her “eye for the hoop.” The combination of that, Finley’s tutoring and Lilley’s work produced “perfect shooting technique,” Cocks said. “She’s got one of the best shots I’ve ever seen.”
A matter of technique
For Lilley, her shot is “such muscle memory right now” that she doesn’t have to think about it, but there are some focal points. In shooting, she reminds herself to “stay on the right side of my body,” meaning that her hands, as she releases the shot, shouldn’t cross to the left side of her face.
She also reminds herself to “shoot the ball, don’t push it” — the shot should go up, rather than being pushed toward the basket.
“When you start to get tired, you stop focusing on shooting the ball, so it goes up, and instead you short-arm it and start pushing it,” she said.
“The thing I always tell myself is ‘straight and high.’ If I can get the ball high, and as long as it’s straight, the chances of it going in are pretty good.”
If she’s missing shots, Lilley said, chances are that she’ll be leaving them short because she isn’t using her legs enough. Last season, after she missed six games because of injury, she took a marker and wrote “use legs” on her hand before games. “I had to tell myself, ‘Use your legs, use your legs,’ to completely reinforce bending my knees.”
In releasing her shot, Lilley focuses on the rim, but not specifically the front rim or the back rim. “I look at the hoop and that opening in the hoop,” she said.
Porter’s principles of shooting include making sure he’s square to the basket with his right shoulder and right elbow; in his shot, he visualizes his right elbow as the 90-degree right-angle between his hand and his shoulder. “Sometimes it’s not going to be a perfect 90-degree angle because the elbow shifts out to the side a little bit, but as straight as you possibly can,” he said.
“You try to get your elbow and shoulder straight to the rim and follow through. Some people tell me to reach your fingers (of the right hand) in the cookie jar (in the follow-through). I try to flick my wrist and keep my elbow straight and make sure I get enough arc on it.”
Porter also stresses the importance of using the legs — “elevation, and getting off the ground” — in the jump shot. In releasing his shot, Porter focuses on getting the basketball over the front rim, “and then I’m looking at the back of the rim, because the back of the rim is your target. You kind of have to have an eye for all of that. I try to aim for the middle, but you really want to aim for the back of the rim.”
While the women’s three-point line of 19 feet, 9 inches has remained constant throughout Lilley’s career, the three-point line for college men was extended by a foot last season, to 20-9. Porter said that didn’t affect him, and his shooting percentage actually improved slightly, to .393 last season from .387 as a sophomore.
“I don’t think it bothered me, because I never really shot right at the three-point line anyway,” he said.
Which brings up this question, for a shooter: Does he think he should make them all?
“I shoot every one like I’m going to make them all,” Porter said. “I feel like I should make them all, but you’ve got to be realistic. You’re not going to make them all. But you want to make more than you miss, I know that much.”
Such is Porter’s talent as a shooter that he ranks second in school history for career free-throw shooting (.860, 234-of-272); already with more than 1,000 points in his career, if Porter averages 14.6 points per game this season, he’d move to fourth on the all-time UO scoring list, behind Ronnie Lee, Luke Jackson and Anthony Taylor.
Perfect practice
In the summer, Porter will shoot at least three or four times a week, with managers rebounding for him. How many shots? At least 300 to 500 “makes” — made shots — he said, or upward of 750 to 1,000 “makes” depending on the day. He doesn’t just shoot threes, and not just set shots, but mid-range shots, shots off the dribble, and deep threes. He focuses on shooting at game speed.
“When you’re practicing, you try to shoot the same shot every time, game shot, so that if you mess up you know what you’re doing wrong,” he said. “Sometimes I may not hold my follow-through as long as I normally would, or sometimes I may shoot an off-balance shot. There’s always something you can correct on your jump shot if it’s not going in.”
Before he leaves the gym, Porter said, he has to swish a three-pointer. On some days, he makes himself swish a three from every one of Mac Court’s six baskets.
Lilley said she shoots “every day” with Cocks, about 200 shots each time, or least enough shooting so that she averages 700 shots in a week, shooting both mid-range shots and from beyond the arc.
When she was working with Finley, the workouts would be grueling, mentally and physically, Lilley said. She’d have to make 8-of-10 shots from a spot before she could move to the next. If she missed two in a row, she had to start over; if she missed the 10th shot, she had to start over.
Lilley said she and Cocks have also used a version of a shooting drill used by former NBA star Larry Bird — subtract two points for each miss, add a point for each make, toward a goal of 10 or 20 points.
“If you’re missing, you’re digging yourself a hole,” she said.
Lilley’s workout routine with Cocks mirrors Porter’s workouts in this way: Before they leave Mac Court, Lilley and Cocks each have to swish a three, to “bid farewell to the gods of basketball.”
Looking ahead
During the past summer, Lilley said she spent a lot of time working on her shot. At home in California, she also took part in a fitness routine called “cardio barre,” incorporating elements of aerobic training with a ballet barre; she said that’s improved her core and the flexibility in her hamstrings and calves.
She hopes her problems with leg injuries are behind her, and that she’s ready to run with coach Paul Westhead’s fast-paced offense.
“It’s hard, because you have that in the back of your head, but I can’t really worry about that and just move forward,” she said. “Especially with the new coaching staff, it’s kind of like a new start for me, in all areas.”
Scary? “No, not at all,” she said. “There’s not one ounce of me that’s scared. Training with coach Westhead, there’s nothing to be scared about. I trust him as a coach and a person, and he has our team’s best interests.”
Oregon coach Ernie Kent said Porter enters his senior year after a strong summer of work and leadership, and physically stronger at that. “This is definitely his basketball team, first and foremost,” Kent said recently. “He’s probably worked the hardest, of the entire group. … His body has changed the most, believe it or not. He’s put on a lot of muscle, and he’s really done a nice job in putting in his time. His conditioning is superb right now.”
Porter said he’s “excited” about his senior year. “It’s been a long journey,” he said. “It seems like I’ve been here for a long time. I’ve seen it all, and now I’m entering my final year. I think we’re going to be a pretty good team. A lot of people are underestimating us from what went on last year, but everybody’s been in the gym this summer, everybody got better. …”
Both Porter and Lilley want to keep playing basketball as long as they can, and if the NBA and WNBA don’t beckon, they’ll go overseas. After basketball, Lilley wants to become a professional makeup artist, working in movies or fashion or individually. Porter, who has an aunt and uncle in law enforcement in Detroit, can see a similar career for himself, if he doesn’t stay in sports as a coach.
Wherever they go, they’ll have left their names in the Oregon record books.
“I worked at it. It was repetition. At one point in my career, I felt I was a poor shooter. ... I was about 14. I just started doing a nightly routine. I used to sit on my bed and just shoot the ball up in the air, work on my form and technique.”
tAJUAN pORTER
oREGON Men’s basketball GUARD, ON DEVELOPING HIS SHOOTING TOUCH
Oregon’s Big Gunners
Tajuan Porter
Year GP/GS FG-FGA Pct 3pt.FG-FGA Pct FT-FTA Pct Pts. PPG
2006-2007 35/31 161-391 .412 110-252 .437 80-88 .909 512 14.6
2007-2008 32/28 152-393 .387 82-233 .356 59-75 .787 446 13.9
2008-2009 31/30 148-377 .393 86-228 .377 95-109 .872 477 15.4
Total 98/89 461-1161 .397 279-713 .391 234-272 .860 1,435 14.6
Taylor Lilley
Year GP/GS FG-FGA Pct 3pt.FG-FGA Pct FT-FTA Pct Pts PPG
2006-2007 24/3 70-146 .479 39-77 .406 19-27 .731 198 8.3
2007-2008 31/30 145-350 .414 74-214 .346 31-37 .838 395 12.7
2008-2009 22/22 84-200 .420 33-105 .314 20-29 .690 221 10.0
Total 77/55 299-696 .430 146-396 .369 70-93 .753 814 10.6