SE: Ranke Looks to Become More Complete Scorer in Sophomore Campaign for K-State WBB
Oct 30, 2018 | Women's Basketball, Sports Extra
By Corbin McGuire
Rachel Ranke feels like she only gave opponents a taste of her scoring abilities last season. In 2018-19, K-State's sophomore guard wants to hand out the full course.
"I kind of was just one-dimensional last year," she said at K-State's media day. "I pretty much stayed outside on the 3-point line, but this year I definitely want to score on all three levels."
Last season, Ranke averaged 11.5 points a game and landed a spot on the Big 12 All-Freshman Team because of it. However, of her 392 points, 267 of them, roughly 68 percent, came from behind the 3-point line.
Her focus since then has to become more balanced as a scorer. So far, K-State head coach Jeff Mittie said he has seen it become a reality.
"Overall, I think her game is much better than it was a year ago. She's such a great shooter, but I didn't want her to get labeled as a shooter. Her and I had multiple conversations about how I think there's more to your game than just shooting the basketball from the perimeter," he said. "She has worked hard to develop the other parts of her game."
Scoring in different ways is not completely foreign to Ranke, either. As a standout at Eastview High School in Burnsville, Minnesota, she only scored 47 percent of her 1,559 career points from beyond the arc.
"In high school I was more of a three-level scorer," Ranke said. "Last year I was kind of one-dimensional with the 3-point shot. I think this year it's obviously going to be taken away (more) so I'm going to have to learn to find other ways to score.
"This offseason, I worked a lot more on dribble pull-ups and shot fakes at the 3-point line and shots off the dribble on the 3-point line, so obviously I'm tuning my game around the 3-point line. I think that'll be beneficial, getting into the paint, finding other ways to score."
Ranke started to rediscover those other scoring avenues over the summer. Since practices started in late September, she said going up against K-State's male practice players has allowed her to test them out.
"When we have been working on some of our offensive sets, I have been getting inside with hook shots over the top of our guys, who are a lot more physical inside," she said. "It has been helpful to have them push on us and it has allowed me to become more aggressive and physical with them as well, finishing either over the top of them or getting around for an up-and-under finish."
"She had an excellent controlled scrimmage where she really showed off a pretty good arsenal, both at the arc and inside the arc," Mittie added, "which you didn't see a year ago."
Ranke used this summer as a way to fine-tune her game as well.
She said she visited the Ice Family Basketball Center more often and took advantage of the resources inside. Notably, Ranke said she worked a lot on the "gun," a shooting machine that passes to players who want to get shots up by themselves.
"When I come in I usually set up the gun and shoot. I mix it up with 3-point shots and pull-up jumpers and midrange, all that stuff," she said, adding with a smile: "I haven't evolved on my floater game yet but I'm working on it."
Also, thanks to the shot tracker system K-State uses, Ranke said she was able to figure out what spots on the floor she shoots better at than others. It gave her a narrowed focus of where she needed to get more shots up in order to raise her overall shooting numbers, which were 32 percent from 3-point range and 34 percent from the field last season.
"My left side of the floor shooting is definitely not as strong as my right side, so that's one thing I've been working on as well," she said, as K-State hosts Fort Hays State in an exhibition on Thursday at 7 p.m. "It definitely helps."
Rachel Ranke feels like she only gave opponents a taste of her scoring abilities last season. In 2018-19, K-State's sophomore guard wants to hand out the full course.
"I kind of was just one-dimensional last year," she said at K-State's media day. "I pretty much stayed outside on the 3-point line, but this year I definitely want to score on all three levels."
Last season, Ranke averaged 11.5 points a game and landed a spot on the Big 12 All-Freshman Team because of it. However, of her 392 points, 267 of them, roughly 68 percent, came from behind the 3-point line.
Her focus since then has to become more balanced as a scorer. So far, K-State head coach Jeff Mittie said he has seen it become a reality.
"Overall, I think her game is much better than it was a year ago. She's such a great shooter, but I didn't want her to get labeled as a shooter. Her and I had multiple conversations about how I think there's more to your game than just shooting the basketball from the perimeter," he said. "She has worked hard to develop the other parts of her game."
Scoring in different ways is not completely foreign to Ranke, either. As a standout at Eastview High School in Burnsville, Minnesota, she only scored 47 percent of her 1,559 career points from beyond the arc.
"In high school I was more of a three-level scorer," Ranke said. "Last year I was kind of one-dimensional with the 3-point shot. I think this year it's obviously going to be taken away (more) so I'm going to have to learn to find other ways to score.
"This offseason, I worked a lot more on dribble pull-ups and shot fakes at the 3-point line and shots off the dribble on the 3-point line, so obviously I'm tuning my game around the 3-point line. I think that'll be beneficial, getting into the paint, finding other ways to score."
Ranke started to rediscover those other scoring avenues over the summer. Since practices started in late September, she said going up against K-State's male practice players has allowed her to test them out.
"When we have been working on some of our offensive sets, I have been getting inside with hook shots over the top of our guys, who are a lot more physical inside," she said. "It has been helpful to have them push on us and it has allowed me to become more aggressive and physical with them as well, finishing either over the top of them or getting around for an up-and-under finish."
"She had an excellent controlled scrimmage where she really showed off a pretty good arsenal, both at the arc and inside the arc," Mittie added, "which you didn't see a year ago."
Ranke used this summer as a way to fine-tune her game as well.
She said she visited the Ice Family Basketball Center more often and took advantage of the resources inside. Notably, Ranke said she worked a lot on the "gun," a shooting machine that passes to players who want to get shots up by themselves.
"When I come in I usually set up the gun and shoot. I mix it up with 3-point shots and pull-up jumpers and midrange, all that stuff," she said, adding with a smile: "I haven't evolved on my floater game yet but I'm working on it."
Also, thanks to the shot tracker system K-State uses, Ranke said she was able to figure out what spots on the floor she shoots better at than others. It gave her a narrowed focus of where she needed to get more shots up in order to raise her overall shooting numbers, which were 32 percent from 3-point range and 34 percent from the field last season.
"My left side of the floor shooting is definitely not as strong as my right side, so that's one thing I've been working on as well," she said, as K-State hosts Fort Hays State in an exhibition on Thursday at 7 p.m. "It definitely helps."
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