Taking Her Shot
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In his first extended action, freshman Noah Reimers gained 60 yards and ripped off two touchdown jaunts against Brown. (which completed an Ocean State sweep) “the end of the pre- also afforded Reimers the opportunity to season.” Six Ivy strut his stuff: the 5-foot-11, 200-pounder games loomed, in- from Virginia delivered with 60 yards on cluding all the top eight carries, including touchdown jaunts contenders. The of 16 and 27 yards. outcomes would The following Friday, another night game determine whether yielded another blowout, this one over out- during next year’s manned Georgetown, 45-0. The Crimson preseason Murphy scored six touchdowns, all on the ground, would invoke as in- S TION the most impressive being Stanton’s 37- spiration the names A yard, second-quarter scamper. Reimers got Hosch, Stanton, and into the end zone thrice on short runs and OMMUINC Koran. C flashed some nifty open-field moves, once ETIC hl even hurdling a would-be Hoya tackler. The TidbitS: With the AT D R defense made another fumble-forcing sack victory at Rhode A RV A (by lineman Miles McCollum ’17) followed Island, Harvard is H by a runback (by Koran). And in what was 117-23-2 in season openers….The win over ed on the 2015 roster: California leads the becoming a signature, there was for the Brown brought Murphy’s record in Ivy way with 19; Texas is next (12), followed by third straight week a punt block, this one by openers to 17-5….The Georgetown vic- Ohio (11) and Georgia (nine). Traditional defensive back Tanner Lee ’18. tory ran the Crimson’s mark in home night suppliers Massachusetts and New Jersey Murphy pronounced this walkover games to 11-0….Thirty states are represent- have furnished six each. vdick Friedman Tummala wasn’t done. During the next two points with just under a minute remain- Taking Her Shot five minutes, she made a steal, a free throw, ing, she again held the ball, but instead of Post-surgery, a top athlete and then the go-ahead three in Harvard’s shooting, she went to the hoop, drew the reestablishes herself. 75-69 win. “I was in shock,” she said of her defense, and passed to Erin McDonnell ’15, performance and the comeback. “People who hit the game-winning three. In baSketball, a three-point play (a three- in the locker room [were] crying because Tummala likes creating scoring oppor- point shot or a two-point shot, plus a free they had never experienced a game so dev- tunities for her teammates, but she also throw) is an accomplishment. A four-point astatingly weird.” But women’s basketball recognizes that passing opens up her own play (a three-pointer and a free throw) is coach Kathy Delaney-Smith took the per- arsenal. “That’s what helps with my scor- rare. A five-point play is virtually impos- formance in stride: “I’m never surprised ing abilities,” she said, “because people sible—but that’s what the Harvard women’s when Shilpa does that,” she said. “I believe aren’t necessarily sure if I’m going to at- basketball team accomplished last January, she just loves pressure.” tack to create or attack for myself.” Or, as and Shilpa Tummala ’16 initiated the action. In fact, Tummala’s scoring itself was was the case against Dartmouth, attack The Crimson trailed Dartmouth by 14 deeply surprising. Having suffered severe from three. points late in the second half, and Harvard shoulder injuries during her first two years The five-foot-eleven player also makes needed a comeback to avoid a 0-2 start in of college play, her very presence on the use of her size: she is bigger than most conference play to preserve its chance at court was amazing. shooting guards in women’s basketball. an Ivy League championship. According to her even taller brother, Sai, a Enter Tummala. After scoring a layup to The crimSon gUard regards excellent six-foot-six forward on the University of cut the deficit to 12, she held the ball be- three-point scoring as a byproduct not just Hawaii men’s basketball team, this enables yond the three-point line with just under of shooting but of complementary skills her to be more “aggressive” and “use her six minutes remaining. Temi Fagbenle ’15 like dribbling and passing as well. Grow- body to get to the basket.” It also means set a screen to initiate a pick and roll, but ing up in Arizona, she modeled her game that she can shoot over shorter defenders. instead of driving to the hoop, Tummala after the Phoenix Suns’ Steve Nash, an elite Yet for Tummala, the key to great shoot- did what she does best: letting it fly from point guard who was considered one of the ing is repetition. Growing up, she dragged three-point range. The ball went in. Then NBA’s most creative passers and an excellent her father, Sekhar, outside daily to work the whistle blew, and everyone stopped. shooter. Tummala is a similar dual threat, on her shot. They would start with layups Dartmouth had fouled Fagbenle, send- capable of taking her shot or driving to the and continue to take one step back, build ing the center to the foul line. The three basket and finding open teammates. Several her strength, and hone her form. To this counted, as did the free throws, slicing the weeks after defeating Dartmouth, for exam- day, her father’s guidance remains influ- deficit to seven. ple, when the Crimson trailed Columbia by ential. “When I’m at the free-throw line, I www.gocrimson.com Harvard Magazine 33 Reprinted from Harvard Magazine. For more information, contact Harvard Magazine, Inc. at 617-495-5746 JOHN HARVARD'S JOURNAL literally hear his voice,” Tummala explains. placed second in a national high-school In part because she missed so much “Bend your knees, make sure you bend three-point contest at the 2012 NCAA Fi- time due to injury, Tummala’s statistics your knees. Make sure your elbow is in. nal Four. But after suffering season-ending last year—5.8 points and 2.9 rebounds per Make sure it’s at a 90-degree angle. Feet shoulder injuries during her freshman and game—were not gaudy. But the numbers shoulder-width apart.” sophomore years at Harvard, she couldn’t belie her impact: she hit three-pointers This attention to detail and repetition lift a basketball, let alone shoot, with her in 19 of Harvard’s last 23 games, many of becomes even more important from three- right hand. The situation was so bleak that them crucial, including a go-ahead basket point range (almost six feet further from her parents broached the possibility of her against Yale. “She lost almost three years of the basket); given the greater distance and quitting, but the sharpshooter refused, em- the transition from high school to Division heightened stakes, there is both a smaller phasizing, as her father recalled, that “bas- I college basketball,” Delaney-Smith noted, margin of error and, as Tum- “and then she still ended up mala said, “more pressure to being a starter for us.” succeed.” Consequently, she focuses intensely on her me- Shilpa Tummala A neUrobiology concentrator chanics, including the details with a secondary concentration her father emphasized. For in chemistry, Tummala spent every shot, she also squares this past summer research- her body with the basket, and ing her neuro-oncology thesis, positions the ball in her shoot- taking the MCAT (she plans to ing pocket (a space just to the apply to medical school), and right of her torso, and above working out in Cambridge. She her waist). She jumps straight and her brother also traveled to up and down, releases the ball India with Crossover Basketball quickly, and follows through. & Scholars Academy, a nonprof- Executing this technique suc- it that uses basketball to create cessfully depends heavily on educational opportunities and leg strength, particularly in community change. Reflecting late-game scenarios when on her undergraduate experi- shooters tire, so leg exercises ence last spring, she said, “The designed to help her jump and day I stepped on Harvard’s explode through her release [campus], I was like, ‘Okay, this are part of her regular routine. is who I want to be when I leave She has also trained her this place.’ I’m a junior, and I’m mind. She thinks the best already that person.” three-point shooters—like Now, as the start of her senior reigning NBA MVP Steph season approaches, Tummala is Curry—benefit from a bad as healthy as she has been as a short-term memory (they college basketball player and quickly forget misses), confi- is poised to make an enormous dence, and above all the ability impact on the court. “I couldn’t to get into a rhythm. “I don’t be more excited about her se- want to sound Confucius-y,” she said, “but ketball is a major part of her life.” nior year,” said Delaney-Smith. “I’ve seen you really want to become ‘one’ with the Instead she went back to work. In the wonderful, quiet leadership. I’ve seen a se- ball.” This doesn’t always happen, she em- spring of her sophomore year, when her nior emerge with the drive to change things phasizes, but by practicing visualization right arm was in a sling, she began prac- here in our program.” exercises and exploring ways to involve her ticing dribbling and shooting left-handed.