Brittney Sykes’ eyes widened recalling the statements from head coach Quentin Hillsman three years ago. Standing with fellow freshman Brianna Butler at the time, their new head coach’s instructions were clear, and directed at Butler.

“’I don’t care if (the opponent) has their hand in your face,’” Sykes remembered Hillsman saying. “‘You shoot the ball.’”

Hillsman delivered his demands at the soft-spoken, 5-foot-11 then-freshman whose recruiting pitch was predicated on her taking 300 3s and making one-third of them. She wasn’t used to taking every shot, only certain ones in space.

But Hillsman admired Butler’s high release. He applauded her smooth stroke that lent itself to consistency. He believed she was the best shooter in the country.

The message became increasingly clear: Don’t shoot, don’t play.

That’s how Butler became the country’s most prolific 3-point shooter.

“I just took into it,” Butler said of her specialized role. “I’ve always been able to shoot, and I was just putting up more shots.”

She heeded her coach’s vision, and the senior guard has logged more minutes than any Syracuse player in the last four years en route to becoming the NCAA Division I active leader in career 3s. Butler has the three best 3-point shooting seasons, by field goals made, in program history. With three makes from behind the arc for No. 18 SU (22-6, 12-3 Atlantic Coast) against Boston College (14-13, 2-12) on Thursday at 7 p.m., she’ll surpass her own high watermark.

Shooting had always been her calling card, but never to Hillsman’s extreme. Butler had to assimilate herself to the Orange’s offense before becoming its catalyst. That meant believing a contested 3 was more valuable than driving to the basket.

Hillsman identified Butler as a reluctant shooter coming into his program, and in turn she only put up six shots in her collegiate debut. She attempted more than 10 shots in only eight of 32 starts as a freshman.

But the stat sheet speaks to Butler’s evolvement, how an initial shooting hesitancy confined her to average seven points per game as a starter. Now she’s averaging 15 shots per game to complement her 14 points a game.

Her role doesn’t come without its perils, and Butler’s abundance of shots taken has led her to miss an NCAA-worst 216 3-point attempts. But Hillsman never steered her away.

“I think it should be easy,” Hillsman said of being a shooter. “If you were a player and the coach said, ‘Shoot the ball every time you touch it and I don’t care if you make it or not,’ I don’t see that being pressure.

“If my coach told me to shoot the ball every time, I wouldn’t ever have an assist. Ever.”

 

Larry E. Reid Jr. | Staff Photographer

 

Despite assists actually leading to points, Hillsman demands Butler be on the receiving end, not giving. He references former Orlando Magic forward Dennis Scott as Butler’s NBA comparison. Scott led the league in 3s in the 1995-96 season but averaged less than three assists per game. Butler averages less than two.

They’re both high-release shooters who can roll out four to five makes in a row, SU’s head coach said. Butler prefers instead to pattern her game off childhood icon Ray Allen and reigning NBA MVP Stephen Curry.

Both specialize behind the arc, but what piques Butler’s interest is what comes before the shot. She studies how they read screens and set themselves to shoot in traffic.

“The hardest part … is when a team’s really overplaying you for shooting,” Butler said. “They see you as a 3-point shooter so they try and run you off your spot and make you have to do other things off the dribble to get the 3-point shot off.”

In Syracuse’s “program-changing” win over then-No. 10 Florida State on Thursday, Butler wove around a Bria Day screen to her left that blocked guard Emiah Bingley. The senior set her feet at the top of the arc, staring down 6-foot-5 center Kai James, and unleashed her shot just above James’ outstretched right arm.

Butler banked the ball through the net. It capped off a 12-point, 4-for-7 3-point shooting performance in the first quarter. But she didn’t make any of her eight attempts the rest of the game.

Butler’s performance was just an average one by the game’s end. At halftime it was good, but after the first quarter it was great. It’s the life of a shooter, and it’s the only one Hillsman’s ever wanted her to live.

“Coach had so much faith in her shot and he knew the potential she had to be a pure shooter and the shooter she is now,” Sykes said. “That credibility behind the number 13 is just forever going to be in the books.”

Published on February 25, 2016 at 1:43 am

Contact Connor: cgrossma@syr.edu | @connorgrossman