Though no fault of their own, Kael Combs and his Nixa teammates have taken a bit of the thrill away from their dunks, simply because there have been so many.
“I don’t know how many dunks we’re averaging, but it’s got to be about two or three a game,” Combs said. “Everyone has their legs under them and we’re feeling good. But now when I get a break and do a one-handed dunk, nobody really cares because they’ve seen it so much.”
Combs’ dunks may not be rejoiced as much as they were in the past, but they do provide him a reprieve in that he has a sole focus of what to do with the ball. To that end, he went through a mild stretch midway through this season in which he wasn’t looking for his own shot quite as often as coach Jay Osborne would have liked.
“Sometimes, he’s too unselfish,” Osborne said. “He was more assertive (against Joplin on Saturday) and he’s been that way the past few games.”
Last week, indeed, was more to Osborne’s liking, with Combs scoring 16 points at Ozark and 19 versus Joplin.
The junior swingman is trying to walk the fine line between being too unselfish and being assertive.
“Honestly, sometimes I do think I get away from scoring,” Combs said. “I try to get other people involved. But when I’m a little more aggressive and attack the basket, that helps the team out and helps other people get open. Sometimes, though, I feel like I’m doing a little too much.
“I try to balance it as much as I can,” he added. “But sometimes it goes one way or completely the other way.”
Combs enters Tuesday's trip to Branson averaging 13.7 points a game, while shooting 53 percent from the field. He’s considered by most to be one of southwest Missouri’s premier players, but obviously isn’t putting up the same kind of numbers as Catholic’s Zach Howell or Joplin's Always and All Wright.
With Nixa's varied weapons, Osborne isn’t asking any of his players to score in the 20s night in and night out.
“None of our guys are going to average 25 points a game because we’ve got a lot of guys who can score and we share the basketball,” he said. “We’ve got four guys averaging between 10-15 points, that’s pretty hard to defend.”
Nixa, which is striving to reach 20 wins for a third straight season, hasn’t had a player join its 1,000-point club since Chase Allen did so six years ago.
Colin Ruffin entered this week with 845 career points and Combs has 758. They’ve put themselves in position to possibly get to 1,000 points by being contributors for three seasons.
Combs realized even before he began seeing quality minutes as a freshman that winning outweighs individual statistics.
“I’d say after we won the COC championship my seventh-grade year, I figured out it’s more of a team game than just one player,” he said. “I would average five points a game, as long as we’re winning. That’s all that matters to me. I’m a competitor. I’m always going to look for a win.”
Osborne feels Combs is at his best when he is playing well defensively. Through 19 games, Combs had 44 steals and 10 blocks.
“The thing about Kael is when he plays hard on defense, his offense is a lot better. One rubs the other,” Osborne said.
The best-case scenario for Nixa may be for Combs to pick his spots to assert himself, particularly come crunch time.
“When it’s a close game, I’m a little more assertive,” he said. “When the game is on the line, I’m comfortable with the ball in my hands, Colin’s hands or someone like that.”
