By Steve Kornacki
ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- All great shooters find a court that is special when they are young. It's the place where they'll swish basketballs through nets for hours on end, going into the night at times.
Katelynn Flaherty and her father, Tom, found that place a dozen years ago on a bike ride down a park trail. It was about five miles away from their home in Point Pleasant, New Jersey, and they usually drove there in a car. In the summers, they would toss the basketball into the trunk when they were done and drive about one mile down the road to an Atlantic Ocean beach.
Orchard Park had an asphalt court that was nearly regulation length with fiberglass backboards and nylon nets hanging from the rims. Her father would bring a ladder and nets to replace those that wore out from the constant shooting.
It was part haven, part heaven for the Flahertys, a family with a basketball jones if ever there was one.
Tom played guard at Seton Hall, averaging 11.3 points (1972-76) for a coach named Bill Raftery, who you've undoubtedly heard as a television analyst ("Send it in, BIG FELLA!") on NCAA men's basketball games.
Lynn, her mother, also played guard at The College of New Jersey.
They come to most of Katelynn's games at the University of Michigan, which hosts third-ranked Notre Dame Wednesday night (Nov. 29) in the Big Ten/ACC Challenge. And they got a special treat in a recent game at Louisville, when Katelynn canned a trio of three-point shots in the first 3:55 of play to break the Wolverines' career scoring record that had stood for a quarter-century.
"I was happy that I came out and was initially hitting my shots in that game," said Flaherty, who now has 2,148 points to her college credit. "It was a shot from the top (of the key) after Jillian (Dunston) pitched it back to me. It was one of the easiest shots that I'll probably have all year."
She received texts from several current and former Wolverine basketball players after setting the record, and she found one from Glenn Robinson III of the Indiana Pacers (@GRIII) particularly special: "Congrats! That's big time."
Flaherty said, "That was pretty cool."
She added that plenty of others, including the families of teammates, let her know how special her accomplishment was. Spike Albrecht, the darling of the 2013 Final Four run for Michigan, chimed in from @SpikeAlbrecht: "That's a whole lotta buckets."
Flaherty said, "It's kind of surreal even now thinking about it. I'm literally the scoring leader and I still have all this time to play this season. It's indescribable in a sense, and it kind of shows how my hard work has paid off. If you look at my (5-foot-7) body frame, you wouldn't think I'm a great scorer or that I could compete with the great scorers in the country. So, I think that has a lot to do with it -- hard work and practice."
The record of 2,076 was held by Diane Dietz, who played from 1979-82 and is now the Big Ten Conference's deputy commissioner.
"She's such an inspirational person," Flaherty said of Dietz. "What she's done for the Big Ten and women's basketball and still to be around and be influential is amazing. She's someone I'm up the ranks with, and it's really an honor to be up there with someone like that."
Flaherty needs 159 points to move into the Big Ten's top 10 for career scoring, and she will easily finish No. 5 all-time in the conference if she matches the 746 points from her junior season, when she averaged 20.2 points.
She could realistically finish as high as third or fourth, but the current Big Ten record of 3,093 set by Minnesota's Rachel Banham (2012-16) is probably out of reach. Ohio State's Kelsey Mitchell (2,775) should shatter that record, though, later this season.
Mitchell (27.8) and Flaherty (25.8), both seniors, rank one-two in scoring among NCAA Division I players this season.
"She's a phenomenal scorer," Flaherty said of Mitchell, an opponent since their AAU days.
Flaherty's basketball journey began when her father purchased a lower-height basket when she was in kindergarten. By second grade, she was able to hoist shots to a regulation 10-foot-high target.
"We started going to Orchard Park, about two towns down from where we live, ever since I was in about fourth grade," said Flaherty. "Even when I go home, that's where we go. It's out there in a huge open field, and it's really beautiful.
"Every time we rode our bikes past it, no one would be on the court. So, we said, 'We're going to come here.' It's hard to find courts, especially at night, and it has lights. So, when my dad came home from work, we'd drive over there every single day. It's near the beach. When it rained, my dad would bring a broom and sweep the water off before trying to dry the court with towels.
"We'd go there into late November, wearing sweatshirts and trying to stay warm. I still go there with my dad, and we'll play for two or three hours."
Dad worked there with daughter this summer to improve her passing and play as a point guard, where she's playing this year with career assists leader Siera Thompson graduated. Flaherty is also averaging 4.0 assists and 2.8 rebounds after five games.
Still, it's that shot consistency that sets her apart from the rest.
I asked her what it was about shooting that appeals to her.
"Anyone can be great at shooting," she said, "but it's hard. It appeals to me because you can be great if you put in the time. Luckily, my dad made me put in time when I was so young that it's just become natural to me."
She pushes her shot out almost like a pass, releasing with a quick flick of the right wrist at about shoulder level. What are the keys to her repeating the shooting motion that brings with it consistency?
"I have to make sure my feet are set," said Flaherty. "I have to tell myself to lean into my shot going forward."
Doing so provides the desired momentum and release point.
"My dad taught me how to shoot," she said.
Her father, a high school physical education teacher who was a longtime coach, and her mother both played college basketball.
"My mom was a 5-4 guard and that's why I'm so small," Flaherty said with a smile. "My dad is 6-2 and was a shooting and point guard. He could do everything from what I've seen. My dad can shoot for six or seven hours. He'll say, 'Don't be as crazy as me.' He's 63 now and still playing pickup games. I've never won a one-on-one game against him."
Can she beat him now, though?
"He would say, 'No.' But I think I can. He's older now. But he actually beat me when I was a freshman here. He makes me look stupid because he's so good. But him being my coach was great because we've had a very close relationship. Some people don't like their parent being their coach, but we figured it out. Off the court, he's my dad.
"At least coming home to my mom, who understands the game, she had a sensible approach to try to calm my dad down and tell me it would be OK (when they disagreed about basketball). She was kind of the mediator. And it helped so much that she knew what she was talking about."
She doesn't have siblings and said that's made it easier for her parents to get to her games.
The Jersey influence of home doesn't get lost at Michigan, where coach Kim Barnes Arico brings a background quite similar to Flaherty's. Barnes Arico was the leading scorer as a guard in both her junior and senior seasons at Montclair State University in New Jersey, and she spent her entire life there or in New York before coming to Ann Arbor.
"She's a great teacher of the game and coach," said Flaherty. "She shaped me into the player I am and taught me a lot. She has instilled so much confidence in me, and I think it's nice to have a coach who listens to you and understands your questions. We've formed a great relationship, and she's so open and can really communicate with me. That's what's made me a better player overall."
It all began at Orchard Park and carried Flaherty to a 2,000-point career as a New Jersey high school player that included all-state honors and the 2013 state championship for Point Pleasant Beach. She has reached 2,000 points at Michigan, too, and was the Women's NIT MVP in leading the Wolverines to a national championship.
The journey of a shooter who never tires of wearing out the nets continues daily, come practice, come game time.
