When Katie Barker was younger, she complained the wind would blow her shots offline.
Now shooting in college gyms, she has a new problem: too many people shooting at once.
So Barker found a solution, and 40 minutes before every game, she warms up alone on the opposite basket of her teammates.
“It’s just more space,” she said.
Beginnings
Barker was introduced to basketball in a unique way: by shooting around on a mini hoop supported by a punching bag in her neighbor’s basement. She was 3 years old and already working on paying her way through college.
From there, it was her father, Bill Barker, who took the reins. Bill played college basketball at Division-II Winona State and ensured that Katie and her brother would not develop bad shooting habits as a child.
“My dad was always on us to use good form and not just throw it at the rim,” Katie said.
The foundation of a good jump shot was there, but it took a while for Katie to be allowed to prove it in a game. She was a post player until the seventh grade.
As she entered high school, however, her jump shot became her identity.
She left Cary Grove High School in Cary, Illinois, as the school’s record holder for career 3-pointers made, which made her a perfect fit for the shooting-heavy program Ohio coach Bob Boldon was building in Athens.
After redshirting her freshman season in 2015-16, Katie announced her arrival in The Convo this year with a career-high 18 points against Binghamton on Dec. 19, 15 of which came in a five-minute span.
“When you hear the crowd erupt, it’s a great feeling,” she said.
Obsession with the craft
There were hours of glamour-less work between the punching bag and the school record. There were more hours still between the school record and the explosion against Binghamton.
After Katie tore her meniscus during her sophomore season in high school, she decided to abandon her life as a three-sport athlete and focus on basketball.
And more specifically, to dedicate additional time to perfect the craft her father engrained in her as a child: her jump shot.
In the summer, she would play pick up basketball with the boys in her neighborhood to work on getting her shot off faster. During winter, she would put gloves on and find trashcans to use as screens. People who recognized her as they drove by would honk their horns and wave.
Still relatively unknown in Athens, she's notable around the Mid-American Conference as the second-most accurate 3-point shooter (first on the team at 42.6 percent). Now her concern is outworking every possible competitor.
“It takes a lot,” Katie said. “Putting in the time when nobody else is putting in the time. On Friday nights when other people are out, you come in and shoot.”
Kickers’ mentalities
After any Ohio practice, some players lag behind to continue working on their shooting. This is not atypical.
But on some days, they all stay. There’s an intensity to the session that goes beyond practice. There is counting, and it’s a contest to see who can make the most 3-point shots in a row.
Boldon is aware of the contest, and he enjoys watching the lively, competitive spirit generated by his players. But as he watches his players go through multiple stretches of making consecutive shots, he wonders why they can make 20-consecutive shots in practice but can't replicate that success in games.
He broke it down as a limited-opportunity problem. Because of the limited opportunities players like Katie get to shoot in games, each time she finds herself open in the corner, there is extra pressure involved.
“We have too many good players to play kids that miss shots,” Boldon said. Thus, missed shots mean fewer minutes.
For Katie, an important part of being prepared for her opportunities is staying in rhythm. Although preparing for an incoming pass is more than a step-by-step physical process, it’s a mental battle as well.
“Much like field goal kickers, (shooters) are really good at their craft and they get one chance,” Boldon said. “How they prepare for that one chance, and then how they move on from that chance to the next chance is a challenge.”
For Katie, she goes back to practicing outside in a suburb of Chicago. Gloves on, trash-can screeners aplenty.
“It was super frustrating to see the wind blow your ball,” she said. “Playing outside developed me more mentally as a player than anything.”
