Extra work pays off for Myles Stute in Friday's bounce back performance
More than 45 minutes after Tuesday’s game, Myles Stute could be found back out on the court. He wasn’t there to talk with fans or sign autographs. He was there to get his mind right.
In a 65-53 win over Notre Dame, Stute only had one point. He shot 0-for-5 from the floor and 0-for-4 from three-point range. So he took some extra time to work on shooting from various spots on the floor and finished out with some free throws before heading back to the locker room.
When he got back to the locker room, head coach Lamont Paris came up to him and provided some encouragement to try and help him out.
“I grabbed him and I said, ‘Whatever you do, don’t let this fester and think too much about it. It’s going to be a new day tomorrow,” Paris said. “It’s going to be a new game the next time we toss it up, and you’re going to be Myles Stute. And we’ll go out there and just play.’ So that’s what he did today.”
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In his first chance to bounce back, the veteran guard wasted no time putting the past behind him. Just 17 seconds into Friday’s matchup versus George Washington, Stute hit a mid-range jumper to open the scoring.
And he proved to be just fine. He finished with 11 points on 5-of-11 shooting in 29 minutes. He also had four rebounds and three assists.
“Myles is a very mature guy and he is as much of a professional as you can be as a college student that I’ve been around in a long time,” Paris said. “He takes this seriously. He also wants to hear the truth when you coach. Young people today don’t always want to hear the truth. I mean, I don’t always want to hear the truth, I don’t think.
“But he wants to hear the truth when it comes to basketball. He told me to lay it on him about some of the things defensively. But he’s a hard worker. He’s very professional about the way he goes about his business and his preparation.”
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Stute was one of four Gamecocks to finish with double-digit points in a dominating 89-67 win over the Revolutionaries.
Even with one bad game, Stute is still off to a great start with the Gamecocks. So far in his first year in Columbia, he’s averaging 10.2 points per game, the highest of his career. And he’s doing it on 45.7 percent shooting.
Just goes to show hard work does pay off one way or another.
