Her Calling Card Is Defense
1/18/2019 4:53:00 PM | Women's Basketball
Richards Still Looking for Confidence in Shooting
By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
When schools like Baylor, Texas, South Carolina and Michigan were recruiting DiDi Richards three or four years ago, they didn't see a shut-down perimeter defender.
What they saw was a 6-foot-1 wing that could score in a variety of ways, finishing as Cypress Ranch High School's all-time leading scorer (male or female) with 2,251 career points. Baylor coach Kim Mulkey described her as a shooting guard that "can shoot the 3, get to the rim and has a smooth mid-range game. She can handle the ball and attacks well in transition."
Fast-forward a couple years, and she paints a far different picture. While she's trying to regain her once-unshakable confidence on the offensive end, Richards has developed into the best perimeter defender for the second-ranked Lady Bears (14-1, 4-0).
"Let me give kudos to DiDi Richards," Mulkey said after Richards held UConn All-American Katie Lou Samuelson to 12 points and 4-of-16 shooting in Baylor's 68-57 win over the then-No. 1 Huskies. "That kid defended Samuelson with every ounce of energy she had. DiDi has the length, she's active, she made Samuelson work for every shot."
Richards admits that it wasn't just her defending Samuelson that night. "She would get by me, and Juicy (Landrum) was right there or (Lauren Cox) was right there. It was a lot on my help defense, because I bite for a lot of things like head fakes or jabs. So, it was really the team defense that game, for sure."
But, redshirt freshman guard Trinity Oliver says the Lady Bears wouldn't be where they are today "without DiDi and her energy and stopping the best players the other team has."
It's a thankless task some days. Other than blocks and steals, defense doesn't show up in the box score. Richards is second on the team in steals (18) and third in blocks (12) and also crashes the boards on both ends.
"Especially with Coach Mulkey, you kind of have to (take pride in your defense)," Richards said. "I'm pretty sure people that didn't take pride in their defense, now that they're at Baylor, you take pride in your defense."
Richards remembers the moment when defense became her main priority. Tasked with defending one of Texas' top scoring threats, she held Ariel Atkins to just one 3-pointer and 3-of-11 shooting overall in an 81-56 rout of the Longhorns.
"That's the reason I was on the court was to guard Ariel," she said. "Building up to that game, it was like defense, defense, defense. We had to play transition defense, because UT was fast, they got up and down the court. So, that was the day when I was like, 'OK, if I want to stay on this court, I've got to really take defense into consideration.'''
Back in high school, she played defense only "because it was part of the game." She was definitely a score-first player, averaging 22.4 points as a junior and 18.5 as a senior, earning Jordan Brand Classic and McDonald's All-America honors and TABC 6A Player of the Year in Texas.
That's what made it so difficult to understand when Richards completely lost confidence in her shooting touch. Last season, she averaged 5.1 points, 4.3 rebounds and 1.6 assists per game and shot 47.1 percent from the floor.
Moving into a starting role this season, she bumped up her averages to 6.1 points and 4.0 assists per game and is shooting 50.0 percent from the floor. In Wednesday's 94-68 win at Kansas, she was 6-of-7 from the floor and scored a career-high 14 points.
"You never know going into a game where the (defensive) help is going to come from," Mulkey said. "Kalani (Brown) did a tremendous job of recognizing it, and DiDi and her were on the same page. Every time they cut off of DiDi, she just found a gap and Kalani found her."
It was the first sign that her confidence might be coming back.
A lot of times this season, teams have sagged off Richards to help on Brown or Cox inside, leaving her wide open. And she still wouldn't take the shot.
"DiDi doesn't lack for confidence," Mulkey said. "She gets down on herself if she misses a shot or two. I tell her to keep shooting it. It's also our job to put her in position where they can't slack off on her. If that's go post her up, do some things creatively, because she has to be in the game for us. She's that good defensively."
Even when she had shut-down games defensively, Richards said she would go home at night crying.
"I can't be on the court if they're going to take away our leading scorer," she said. "To this day, I'm like, 'Dad, I don't know what I'm doing.' Because in high school and everywhere else, I could shoot. It's just when I got here, I guess I lost confidence. It's definitely something I'm working on, for sure. Coach Mulkey and coach (Bill) Brock are trying to build it back up."
With her length, quickness and athleticism, Richards has the ability to defend taller players like the 6-3 Samuelson and smaller players like 5-5 Chrislyn Carr from Texas Tech, who scored 19 points but hit 7-of-29 overall and 4-of-17 from outside the arc.
"Against the smaller players, I for sure use my length," she said. "I give them a step. I use my arms to make sure they know your shot's not open, but I'm still back. That's one thing I've learned from guarding Chloe (Jackson) or Moon (Ursin) in practice. I had to learn to sag off of them, where with (Cox) I eat that space up because I know I can take away their dribble. The little guards are so fast, I just give them some space and use my length."
Riding a six-game winning streak, the Lady Bears host West Virginia (12-4, 3-2) at 4 p.m. Sunday at the Ferrell Center.
"We have so much chemistry, and we just got six new players. It doesn't make sense how we connected so quickly, but it's something that's exciting to see," Richards said. "We all enjoy that we're winning and we're playing as good as we are and we're shocking the world."
Baylor Bear Insider
When schools like Baylor, Texas, South Carolina and Michigan were recruiting DiDi Richards three or four years ago, they didn't see a shut-down perimeter defender.
What they saw was a 6-foot-1 wing that could score in a variety of ways, finishing as Cypress Ranch High School's all-time leading scorer (male or female) with 2,251 career points. Baylor coach Kim Mulkey described her as a shooting guard that "can shoot the 3, get to the rim and has a smooth mid-range game. She can handle the ball and attacks well in transition."
Fast-forward a couple years, and she paints a far different picture. While she's trying to regain her once-unshakable confidence on the offensive end, Richards has developed into the best perimeter defender for the second-ranked Lady Bears (14-1, 4-0).
"Let me give kudos to DiDi Richards," Mulkey said after Richards held UConn All-American Katie Lou Samuelson to 12 points and 4-of-16 shooting in Baylor's 68-57 win over the then-No. 1 Huskies. "That kid defended Samuelson with every ounce of energy she had. DiDi has the length, she's active, she made Samuelson work for every shot."
Richards admits that it wasn't just her defending Samuelson that night. "She would get by me, and Juicy (Landrum) was right there or (Lauren Cox) was right there. It was a lot on my help defense, because I bite for a lot of things like head fakes or jabs. So, it was really the team defense that game, for sure."
But, redshirt freshman guard Trinity Oliver says the Lady Bears wouldn't be where they are today "without DiDi and her energy and stopping the best players the other team has."
It's a thankless task some days. Other than blocks and steals, defense doesn't show up in the box score. Richards is second on the team in steals (18) and third in blocks (12) and also crashes the boards on both ends.
"Especially with Coach Mulkey, you kind of have to (take pride in your defense)," Richards said. "I'm pretty sure people that didn't take pride in their defense, now that they're at Baylor, you take pride in your defense."
Richards remembers the moment when defense became her main priority. Tasked with defending one of Texas' top scoring threats, she held Ariel Atkins to just one 3-pointer and 3-of-11 shooting overall in an 81-56 rout of the Longhorns.
"That's the reason I was on the court was to guard Ariel," she said. "Building up to that game, it was like defense, defense, defense. We had to play transition defense, because UT was fast, they got up and down the court. So, that was the day when I was like, 'OK, if I want to stay on this court, I've got to really take defense into consideration.'''
Back in high school, she played defense only "because it was part of the game." She was definitely a score-first player, averaging 22.4 points as a junior and 18.5 as a senior, earning Jordan Brand Classic and McDonald's All-America honors and TABC 6A Player of the Year in Texas.
That's what made it so difficult to understand when Richards completely lost confidence in her shooting touch. Last season, she averaged 5.1 points, 4.3 rebounds and 1.6 assists per game and shot 47.1 percent from the floor.
Moving into a starting role this season, she bumped up her averages to 6.1 points and 4.0 assists per game and is shooting 50.0 percent from the floor. In Wednesday's 94-68 win at Kansas, she was 6-of-7 from the floor and scored a career-high 14 points.
"You never know going into a game where the (defensive) help is going to come from," Mulkey said. "Kalani (Brown) did a tremendous job of recognizing it, and DiDi and her were on the same page. Every time they cut off of DiDi, she just found a gap and Kalani found her."
It was the first sign that her confidence might be coming back.
A lot of times this season, teams have sagged off Richards to help on Brown or Cox inside, leaving her wide open. And she still wouldn't take the shot.
"DiDi doesn't lack for confidence," Mulkey said. "She gets down on herself if she misses a shot or two. I tell her to keep shooting it. It's also our job to put her in position where they can't slack off on her. If that's go post her up, do some things creatively, because she has to be in the game for us. She's that good defensively."
Even when she had shut-down games defensively, Richards said she would go home at night crying.
"I can't be on the court if they're going to take away our leading scorer," she said. "To this day, I'm like, 'Dad, I don't know what I'm doing.' Because in high school and everywhere else, I could shoot. It's just when I got here, I guess I lost confidence. It's definitely something I'm working on, for sure. Coach Mulkey and coach (Bill) Brock are trying to build it back up."
With her length, quickness and athleticism, Richards has the ability to defend taller players like the 6-3 Samuelson and smaller players like 5-5 Chrislyn Carr from Texas Tech, who scored 19 points but hit 7-of-29 overall and 4-of-17 from outside the arc.
"Against the smaller players, I for sure use my length," she said. "I give them a step. I use my arms to make sure they know your shot's not open, but I'm still back. That's one thing I've learned from guarding Chloe (Jackson) or Moon (Ursin) in practice. I had to learn to sag off of them, where with (Cox) I eat that space up because I know I can take away their dribble. The little guards are so fast, I just give them some space and use my length."
Riding a six-game winning streak, the Lady Bears host West Virginia (12-4, 3-2) at 4 p.m. Sunday at the Ferrell Center.
"We have so much chemistry, and we just got six new players. It doesn't make sense how we connected so quickly, but it's something that's exciting to see," Richards said. "We all enjoy that we're winning and we're playing as good as we are and we're shocking the world."
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