PHOTOS COURTESY ANDREW VINING
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The gunslinger hits one, two three-pointers in the first quarter. By the third, the broadcast announcers are unfazed. "In," they say, rather meekly, as if they'd seen this all
before. And of course they have. With the very last seconds being squeezed out of the opening period, the gunslinger gets the ball again, fakes one way, makes a wraparound
dribble the other, drives the defender back with a jab step, then steps back and lets one fly from at least three feet behind the line.
"Goood!!"
The announcers are impressed, this time. They also are impressed by game's end, when the gunslinger has delivered eight threes in all for Marshall High School.
"She's a natural shooter," says the local superintendent of schools, Andrew Vining.
Vining could go on, but out of humility does not. He is talking about his own daughter, Jenny, after all.
Ask the gunslinger how things got this way, however, and Jenny Vining has a story to tell. It's in the blood, she says. And the town, she swears, is so small, there's nothing
better on a Friday or Saturday night than having keys to the gym, hanging out and playing pickup basketball all night. It doesn't even matter that everyone in the gym except
her is a guy.
"I don't get picked last," Vining says.
She says this almost matter of factly, as if it is supposed to make perfect sense, which apparently it does in Marshall, Ark.
Vining's always surrounded by defenders |
Marshall is 98 miles and a few shades of civilization almost due north of Little Rock. The population sign there lists a scant 1,300 inhabitants. Still, it will be the site of an
extraordinary event on Wednesday, Nov. 8, the day Jenny Vining will, amid teammates, classmates, friends and family in the school library, sign a National Letter of Intent to
play basketball at the University of Oklahoma. Her doing so will make her a singular sensation - the first Division I women's basketball player from the school.
The gunslinger even is blazing trails for the Vining clan, which is a pretty impressive accomplishment in itself. Brothers Drew, 22, and Justin, 19, preceded her in basketball
feats at Marshall. Justin plans to coach, following in his father's footsteps. And Andrew Vining actually followed his own father's. When Jenny's coach at Marshall, Mat Stewart,
calls Bill Vining "a coaching legend here in Arkansas," it's not just the stuff of hyperbole.
To view a basketball game at Ouachita Baptist University in Arkadelphia, Ark., one would do so at Bill Vining Arena. The facility is named for the men's basketball coach who
logged 520 victories between 1955 and 1989. Bill Vining also served on the U.S. Olympic Selection Committee in 1976, coached at the Olympic Trials in 1968, 1972 and 1976,
and teamed with esteemed former Louisville coach Denny Crum to guide the U.S. team at the World University Games in 1977.
Visits to grandpa's inevitably led to the Ouachita gym. There, Jenny Vining says she learned how to "see" the game from her grandfather. "Being able to read defenses," Vining
says, rattling off the lessons. "Seeing with the eyes and not just doing things. Learning not just about myself, but also about my teammates."
The stroke, the beautiful stroke that produced 118 threes last season and 22.5 points per game against every conceivable defense designed to disable it, was a gift, Jenny
Vining says, from her father. Andrew Vining also has served as a check against her balance. The two have spent hours in front of basketball videos, many of them hers and
many of the sessions earning critique of daughter from father.
Some daughters don't suffer criticism from their fathers very well, but the gunslinger has grown to crave it.
"I like it a lot," Vining says. "I don't like not hearing about it if I did something wrong. I've always been brought up to do things the right way. My father, my coach - they 
Vining made 118 threes last season |
wouldn't criticize me if they didn't think I couldn't be better. That's the way I've always looked at it. When they stop criticizing, tha's when I need to worry because it means they
think I've reached my limitations. I look at it as a compliment."
Some version of this - not to mention the torrent of three-pointers - must have been music to the ears of Oklahoma coach Sherri Coale. During an unofficial visit last April,
Coale made her first 2007 scholarship offer to Vining, who immediately accepted. Few others knew about the small-town girl with the big-time stroke. Vining played club
basketball, but her team rarely ventured out of the region. Andrew Vining sent game tapes to a handful of schools and he and his daughter communicated with those she liked.
In the end, Arkansas, Arkansas State, Mississippi, Mississippi State, Oklahoma State and Vanderbilt were the only other schools in the mix.
When Coale offered, sweet visions must have been dancing in the heads of both player and coach - mainly, of defenses deciding between shifting forces inside to contain last year's national freshman sensation, Courtney Paris, or outside to squelch Vining. Coale also had to have known that the player she recruited was far from the one who will report for duty next fall. Stewart says he has to make Vining leave the gym, so strong is her drive to improve. And she indeed made some startling transformations between her sophomore and junior seasons. Though she may not look it, Vining is stronger and can bench 125 pounds. She also is more assertive off the dribble, never seems to miss pull-up jump shots and finishes well in traffic.
Inadvertently, the defenses designed to stop Vining have made her a better player. Most opponents employ a box-and-one (four defenders in a zone, the other assigned
specifically to Vining). Others even resorted to a triangle-and-two, with the two stuck to Vining like humidity on a summer afternoon in the swamp.
"At first it was frustrating," Vining says. "Now it's expected. I've played against (double teams) so many years, it's what I know as a defense. It's helped me get better as a
ballhandling and penetrator. I didn't want to be just another skinny, little white girl shooting threes from the corner."
The gunslinger in Vining often renders her willing to initiate action. The analytical side of her, so imbued in her by her grandfather, has made Vining a brilliant student of her
own mistakes. During her sophomore year, she made a doosey against heated rival Bergman. Late during the second of three overtimes, Vining had a free throw that may have
sealed the win for Marshall. Bergman called time to put her on ice. During the timeout, Stewart discussed his team's own timeout situation.
Missed free throw led to valuable lesson |
"I'm going to get in trouble for saying this," Vining says, "but the coaching staff reminded us that we didn't have any timeouts left."
Stewart concurs, explaining, "I told the team at least three times in the huddle that we had no timeouts left and then I cupped Jenny's face in my hands and told her as we were
breaking the huddle that we had none left as I looked her in the eyes. I think she was so excited that I felt I had to say it one more time."
Vining missed the free throw and, during the scramble for the rebound, went to the floor, snatched the ball and called for a timeout that Marshall didn't have. She was assessed
a technical foul that disqualified her from the game. Bergman went on to tie the game and, with Vining out for Marshall, won in the third overtime.
"That game really ate at her," Stewart says, and she apologized to me so much that I finally had to tell her not to ever mention it again or I'd make her run."
Vining says she played the next game against Bergman "with a chip on my shoulder." That game happened to be during the district finals and Marshall hadn't beaten Bergman,
Stewart believes, for nearly 20 years. Vining snapped that string, scoring 26 points and driving the length of the court for the game-winning layup with two seconds remaining,
drawing a foul and slamming the door by making the free throw.
Two years later, Vining considers the business unfinished.
"Bergman is our biggest rival," she explains. "We've beat them more than anyone. We've won the district championship the last two years, they've won conference the last two
years. We beat them in regionals. Both schools want to be the first to sweep. This year, we're going to do it."
Vining is asked if her statement amounts to a guarantee.
"Yes," she says without hesitation.
In word or deed, the gunslinger remains quick on the trigger.
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Glenn Nelson is the publisher of HoopGurlz.com and the editor-in-chief of Scout Media (www.Scout.com), an online sports network and magazine-publishing company and subsidiary of Fox Interactive Media. Glenn also founded and coached
the Dragons and Northwest HoopGurlz select girls basketball teams. He previously was a longtime, national-award-winning basketball columnist and writer for The Seattle
Times. His work also has appeared in several national magazines and books. He is co-author of "Rising Stars: The Ten Best Players in the NBA" (Rosen Publishing, 2002). He
can be reached at hoopgurlz@comcast.net.
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