Basketball bonds UT's Brooke McCarty, mom
Opinion // Jenny Dial Creech
Jenny Dial Creech , Houston Chronicle March 22, 2017 Updated: March 23, 2017 9:21 a.m.
1of10Texas guard Brooke McCarty (11) pulls her teammates together during a second-round game against North Carolina State in the NCAA women's college basketball tournament Sunday, March 19, 2017, in Austin, Texas. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)Photo: Eric Gay/Associated Press
2of10Houston Chronicle's Jenny Dial headshot for your Author Page on the redesigned Chron.com Friday, July 6, 2012, in Houston.Photo: James Nielsen, Staff
3of10HOUSTON PLAYERS IN THE WOMEN'S SWEET 16Brooke McCarty, TexasMcCarty, the Big 12 Player of the year, hails from Clear Springs. In the regular season, the junior averaged 14.3 points and 3.5 assists per game. Photo: Peter G. Aiken/Getty Images
4of10HOUSTON PLAYERS IN THE WOMEN'S SWEET 16Kelsey Lang, TexasThe 6-5 center from The Woodlands has been an inside presence for the Longhorns this season with 9.2 points and 7.5 rebounds per game. Photo: Tim Clayton - Corbis/Corbis via Getty Images
5of10HOUSTON PLAYERS IN THE WOMEN'S SWEET 16Briana Taylor, TexasThe senior guard from Dekaney High School averages 4.9 points and 4.2 rebounds per outing for the Longhorns. Photo: Eric Gay, Associated Press
6of10HOUSTON PLAYERS IN THE WOMEN'S SWEET 16Jordan Hosey, TexasHosey, a sophomore from Manvel, averages 2.6 points for the Longhorns this season.Photo: Alonzo Adams, FRE
7of10HOUSTON PLAYERS IN THE WOMEN'S SWEET 16Brianna Turner, Notre DameTurner helped lead the Irish to the Sweet Sixteen with her 15.3 points and 7.1 rebounds per outing, but will miss the rest of the tournament with a torn ACL. Photo: Robert Franklin, Associated Press
8of10HOUSTON PLAYERS IN THE WOMEN'S SWEET 16Dominique Dillingham, Mississippi StateThe senior guard from Klein Collins High School scores 7.1 points per game for the Bulldogs. Photo: Gary McCullough, AP
9of10HOUSTON PLAYERS IN THE WOMEN'S SWEET 16Teaira McCowan, Mississippi StateThe 6-7 center from Brenham is a force in the paint for the Bulldogs with 8.2 points and 6.9 rebounds per game. Photo: Rainier Ehrhardt, Associated Press
10of10HOUSTON PLAYERS IN THE WOMEN'S SWEET 16Tiffany Davis, South CarolinaThe Westbury Christian alum went through season ending knee injuries her freshman and junior seasons with the Gamecocks. As a senior this year, she has played in 17 games off the bench.Photo: Sean Rayford, Associated Press
In the middle of a practice with 9- and 10-year-olds in a community gym in Madisonville, Lisa Garrett was interrupted.
"Mom!" a small voice belonging to her 4-year old daughter Brooke McCarty, called out. "Mom, look, I can dribble."
The tiny little girl with doe-like brown eyes looked up at her mom beaming, basketball in hand, and waited.
"You can dribble?" Garrett said. "OK, let me see."
Garrett thought the exchange was adorable but wasn't expecting anything.
Then McCarty started bouncing the ball with one hand and walking around.
Garrett was shocked.
"She could really dribble," Garrett said. "And she wasn't travelling.
"So I said, 'Hmm, do you want to play basketball?' "
McCarty, the standout point guard for Texas, hasn't put down a ball since.
And she hasn't stopped praising her mom for teaching her the sport since, either.
Garrett, who played in high school at Madisonville and in junior college before playing at West Texas State, always has loved basketball.
When her two children - McCarty and her brother, Tyler - were young, Garrett didn't want to force them into the sport.
"I signed them up for everything," she said. "I wanted them to find their own way, find their passions."
For McCarty, it was basketball from the start.
Big 12 Player of the Year
On Friday, the No. 3 seed Longhorns will face No. 2 Stanford at 8 p.m. in Lexington, Ky. in the Sweet 16. Garrett will be in attendance, as usual, rooting for her daughter.
McCarty has been making headlines since her time at Clear Springs. At 5-4, her small frame draws attention.
This year, as a junior, she made a leap and went from good to great, earning Big 12 Player of the Year honors.
Garrett has watched it all happen from the beginning.
"I knew she had a special talent for it when she was little," Garrett said. "I didn't know everything it would lead to."
Garrett and McCarty have a mother-daughter bond that extends from the norm.
They have shared the love of basketball since McCarty was a toddler, and it has grown since then.
They talk about the "normal" stuff, too - the weather, McCarty's classes, weekend plans - but they've always been able to talk about basketball.
McCarty could have been in the same boat with other girls her age, watching and emulating male players in college or the NBA.
Instead, her basketball education started with a woman who played the game and played it well.
Garrett stands at around 5-5. Like McCarty, she was a point guard in high school and in college.
She never possessed size but relied on her ballhandling, her quickness and her IQ of the game.
Those were lessons she instilled in her daughter at the beginning.
When McCarty started showing interest in the sport, she couldn't make a basket. There was no 4-year-old team for her join so she could learn and develop.
So Garrett put her with 5- and 6-year-olds on another team she coached. She worked on ballhandling and running with McCarty, who would then run down the court and pass it to a tall-for-her-age 6-year old who could score.
By the end of that first season, McCarty could make a basket.
Size not an issue
Garrett, a single mother, moved with her two kids to League City when McCarty was 9. She would go on to play for local youth teams, then AAU, then Clear Springs High School.
"I saw her for the first time in seventh grade," Clear Springs coach Pam Crawford said. "I knew then how good she could be. You watched her and immediately forgot about her size. She had such vision and speed. She was disciplined and smart."
Crawford would soon find out where that came from.
"She learned from her mom," Crawford said.
She added that the skill set McCarty possessed was based on fundamentals. McCarty always managed her size well and knew how to use her small frame to her advantage.
"She learned well," Crawford said. "She was at ease and comfortable. It was clear she learned things the right way."
Garrett won't take credit for McCarty's basketball know-how.
"She has mastered the game, and she's worked so hard," she said of her daughter.
But she will acknowledge that her love of basketball was passed on to her children. And she's thrilled about it.
"It's awesome to share that with her," Garrett said. "I would have never known my daughter would love the game like I do.
"And it's a really special thing we can share."
On Friday in Kentucky as McCarty tries to lead the Longhorns past the Cardinal, Garrett will be heard in the stands.
She's unapologetically loud as she cheers on her daughter.
And she should be.
Her cheers, her advice, her passion have all shaped Brooke McCarty.
Basketball has shaped their mother-daughter bond.
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Jenny Dial Creech, a native of San Antonio and a graduate of the University of Oklahoma, started at the Houston Chronicle in 2005 as a high school sports reporter. She has since covered an array of beats and served as an assistant sports editor and senior editor of Texas Sports Nation. Creech is the president of the Association for Women in Sports Media and was awarded the 2015 APSE Diversity Fellowship. In addition to her role at the Houston Chronicle, Creech also works with several high school and college journalists at Columbia University journalism conferences and workshops.
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