Porter doesn't want to admit to chasing scoring record at final four

It's hard to be as humble as Otto Porter is while being as good as Otto Porter is.

It's hard to have all of his ambition, all of his skills and all of his records and accomplishments while being as respectful as he is to everyone he plays with and, even more, everyone he plays against.

But like pretty much everything he does on the basketball court, Porter makes it look easy. He smiles and offers only a soft-spoken sentence or two when asked time after time about something he's done, something he's won, something he wants.

You get the feeling that he mostly keeps what he really thinks to himself.

And he does.

Otto Porter became the all-time leading scorer in Missouri's final four history Thursday. The 34 points he scored against Jefferson in Scott County Central's 78-42 victory brought his four-year total to 164 points, which was good enough to break a record that had stood since 1960. And he's still got another game to play -- Saturday's state championship against Dadeville.

Along the way he passed Poplar Bluff star Tyler Hansbrough, former Southeast Missouri State standout Tim Scheer and even his uncle, Marcus Timmons.

Porter feigned surprise after the game when he faced questions about his latest achievement in front of about 10 reporters.

"That's exciting. I'm shocked. I didn't know anything about it," Porter said. "I was trying to get the 'W' out there, just trying to win that state championship."

He's not lying. Not really. By all evidence presented, the last sentence is true.

But he's not shocked.

He's just not willing to tell a crowd full of more strangers than acquaintances that this was something he wanted.

"He was talking to us about it at the hotel room," said senior Reggie Woodson, who volunteered the information with a big smile and a laugh as soon as he was told Porter claimed to know nothing of the record.

"Yes, ma'am," Woodson said. "He was telling us about it. He was talking to his mom about it."

Woodson looked around for Porter, not to hide what he was sharing, but to make his friend 'fess up.

"He was wanting to go out there and make history and try to break a record," Woodson said.

Porter gave the slightest indication that he knew what had happened when his jumper early in the third quarter gave him the record.

After the ball bounced up off the rim and then down through the hoop, he clenched his right hand into a fist near his waist.

It was no fist pump, but it was not nothing.

Porter has broken records before, most notably his dad's single-game record for rebounds at the final four when he recorded an improbable 35 in last season's Class 1 championship game.

That he might say he wants to break another one, jokingly among friends or to his closest to confidant, is no scandal and no surprise. Who knows if he could be the player he is without that kind of ambition occasionally sneaking into his psyche?

And his friends and teammates are all too happy to help him succeed. After all, he does the same for them.

"We said we'd help him out with that," Woodson said. "I said, 'I might have to break it, too, Bubba.'"

There is no word on what goal he might target next -- on a high school court or beyond. And don't count on hearing one.

"I don't know," Woodson replied when asked why Porter would keep the information he was sharing to himself. "He didn't want to seem like he just big headed and cocky. He's the best player I ever played with and my best friend, for real."

You see, it's hard to be as good as Otto Porter is and to be as humble as Otto Porter is. It's hard to understand how he can want so much and yet not need anything but another trophy in his school's already overstuffed case.

"It means a lot," Porter admitted after saying he was shocked by his achievement. "It's just hard work. I've put in a lot of time to try to help this team and try to lead them to a championship basically. I'm trying to help everybody else out. I just want a championship real bad."

It's hard to be as good as Otto Porter is and get a room full of strangers to understand that.

Rachel Crader is the editor of semoball.com.