Southeast Missourian boys basketball Player of the Year: Lane Below

There are countless basketball players that have improved themselves on an individual level from one season to the next.

They become a better ball handler, their shot becomes quicker, they make themselves physically stronger and faster. The list of ways goes on and on.

And there is no question that Advance senior Lane Below is one of those players.

But Below -- the only returning starter for Advance and one of a handful that had any varsity experience -- went a step further and took a team that many didn't expect to compete for a district title to the Class 2 state quarterfinals.

He ensured that his teammates put in the work necessary to build a team that could make a run in the playoffs.

He elevated each of his teammates during games to unexpected heights.

And maybe most important, Below, the Southeast Missourian Player of the Year, embraced the role that coach Bubba Wheetley most needed him to fill.

"He had to be our leader," Wheetley said. "He had to take care of the basketball and make good decisions out here for these other kids. I didn't want him to do too much, and I knew at times and I told him, 'I'm sure you will. As a shooter there's going to be times you take some bad shots, but that happens when you're a shooter.'

"But when the game's on the line, he wanted the ball, and I knew he would want the ball. I just told him he had to get these other kids involved. 'You've got to get our offense [going], get in transition and get down the floor and get these other kids ... you know, they have got to be involved in the game.' And he was very good at that. That's what I really told him going in, 'Play your game. I'm not going to hold you back. I'm going to let you play.'"

The 6-foot guard was a key contributor to his team as a junior but shared the duty of being the team's top scorer with Ethan Barr.

"It was a big change obviously from last year, but I was ready," Below said. "I was ready for it. I mean, I didn't mind taking on that role, and Bubba believed in me. That was the main thing. When you have your coach believing in you, it gives you confidence, and I didn't ever really lack any confidence playing this season."

Advance senior Lane Below averaged 27.3 points and 5.2 assists per game in helping the Hornets to the Class 2 quarterfinals. (Fred Lynch)

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During the summer following his junior season, Below played for the SEMO Swarm AAU basketball team and began working out with basketball trainer Charles Williams in Cape Girardeau twice a week for an hour and 15 minutes.

"There was just a lot of stuff to like tighten my ball handling up and get my shot off quicker," Below said about his individual workouts with Williams. "A lot of stuff that, just little details that'll help just give you an edge. He helped me just too, mentally, having the mindset that you can't be stopped, to come out and be aggressive and be the main guy. I don't really know how to describe it."

He came to Williams with a list of goals that he wanted to achieve during his final season at Advance, which included becoming a student of the game, learning how to be a better leader and ultimately making it to the final four.

"One of the things that I tried to teach Lane was how to be more positive and look for the positive in everything," Williams said. "To get mentally stronger, with him playing and playing the type of talent that he played and have the responsibility of leading the team. He took it well.

"We broke down defenses and just pretty much studied different types of defense. The main thing was just giving him the focus of how to prepare for defenses, which made him mentally stronger. I would always put him in different situations and say, 'If you're in this situation, what do you do?' And to be honest with you, he excelled at it and he took it to heart, and when he went out on the court he just knew he could read it. He could tell what they were trying to achieve out of it and he knew exactly where to go. He had a great year, and like I told him, he hasn't even scratched the surface of his talent yet."

They would set up several chairs as defenders and Williams taught Below what the "hot spots" or weak areas of a certain type of defense were and how to put himself in a position to attack those.

Below gave teams fits with this new knowledge this year. Opponents were aware of his prolific scoring ability, but he was extremely difficult to slow down -- something his teammates understood.

"When he was on the floor, these kids, there was no jealousy there," Wheetley said. "A lot of times you run into that when you've got a kid like him getting all the recognition. But these kids, they all bought in. They knew who we needed to go to when we had to, and like I said, he didn't try to do too much. When the game was on the line, I told him there was going to be times I'm going to you and you've got to take over, and he did."

He averaged 27.3 points per game and shot 54 percent from the field and 43 percent from behind the arc.

He made 208 free throws, shooting 85 percent from the charity stripe.

"I mean, he would just attack and take it to the basket," Wheetley said. "I mean, he was on the free-throw line 12 or 15 times. He shot 12 or 15 free throws a game most of the time. Mentally strong, wasn't scared of anybody. He wasn't scared of who guarded him -- it didn't matter. He handled the ball well and handled pressure well."

Below put up big scoring numbers, but his 5.2 assists per game cement the idea that it wasn't for lack of including his teammates.

"He knew with that responsibility that he had to be able to make his team better with what he's learned," Williams said. "That's one of the things that I try to teach kids is that being a prolific scorer like that you also have the responsibility to make the players around you better. That's one of the biggest things that he accepted. Not only being a scorer but just being a leader and teaching some of the things that I've taught him on how to read a defense, and he would share that knowledge with his team."

Below called as many of his teammates as possible or sent out group text messages to the players urging them to get in the gym and shoot during the summer.

"That's hard to do," Wheetley said. "That's really hard to do, to get these kids in the gym, but he did. He worked on that all last year through the summer, and I was always on him 'You've got to help me.' These kids will not do it. You almost have to make them. But yeah, he was a good leader. ... I wish I had another one like him."

There were times when Below would go alone to Advance's old high school gym.

He didn't have a strict regiment of what he'd do while he was there, but rather worked on what he felt was necessary at that moment.

"Really just whatever I was struggling with," Below said. "If my ball handling was loose, I'd work on some ball-handling drills. But I always shot when I went to the gym on The Gun. Just however many shots I felt I needed or until I got tired.

"A lot of times if I don't want to go to the new gym I've got a key to our old gym. I'll go by myself, and it just relaxes me. If I have a bad game or something I just go in there and relax and shoot, calm down if I'm mad. I always have found it's really relaxing, whatever's going on in life in general, if I go to the gym it clears my mind."

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Below's development along with the progress of his teammates took the Hornets well beyond many people's preseason expectations.

"I don't think anybody really gave us a shot all season, but the difference in this year and last year was guys putting up shots every single day after practice," Below said. "I feel like this group had the most heart of any team I'd been on in high school, and everybody just really wanted to win. Once we started rolling it was a goal to win the district regardless of what anybody thought. We knew that we could do it, and we wanted to do it. Once we got past there we obviously wanted to get to Columbia [Missouri], but we still had a good run and probably overachieved for what we were expected to do this year."

After falling to Oran in the district finals in each of the past three years, Advance finally accomplished that task when it defeated the Eagles 88-79 on Feb. 27 to win the Class 2 District 3 championship.

Below put up 40 points against the Eagles that night, just nine days after he scored 49 against them in a 76-61 win on senior night.

His versatility was a problem for Oran, especially after top defender Chance Tenkhoff saw his season end with a broken leg.

"When Chance [Tenkhoff] went out it really hurt us because if I guard [Below] he could post me up and then I could get in foul trouble," Oran senior Seth Ressel said, "and if we had one of our big men guarding him he was too fast for them."

Ressel, who had faced Below several times throughout his career, noticed a difference in their meetings last season.

"He took control more," Ressel said. "When things were going wrong he said, 'Give me the ball,' and then he created things. He created some good things for his team this year and they went really, really far."

Also noticeable was a lack of emotion on Below's face during games, including during the title game.

Some players show their frustration when they're called for a foul, others celebrate a pivotal made basket -- but not often, if ever, was that the case with Below.

"I was definitely more poised, and I think a lot of it has to do with maturity and growing as a player," Below said. "Not getting flustered about certain situations. The game's going to have ups and downs. You've just got to stay calm throughout the whole process."

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Overcoming Oran was just one step in the chase for the state title that eluded him.

Competing in the state tournament is a goal for many high school athletes, but for Below it meant that he'd have reached something that his dad Luke Below, who went to state twice at Scott County Central and was part of a state championship team, had done better than him.

"He always told me I beat him individually, like getting individual awards, but I needed to get to the state tournament to beat him as a basketball player, I guess," Below said with a smile.

The Hornets moved on to the Class 2 state quarterfinals by defeating New Haven 63-52 in the sectional round then suffered a devastating 46-45 loss to Thayer in the quarterfinals on a last second 3-pointer.

That shot came just seconds after Advance senior Austin Miller had knocked down his fifth 3-pointer of the game to give the Hornets a two-point lead.

"To be honest with you, I think about it every day," Below said. "I watch that game tape a lot. I mean, I've probably watched it ... legitimately probably 15 times since the game.

"I know it's not going to change but still just, 'What if you did this? What if you did that? What if I did this?' But yeah, I think about it every day and I probably will for the rest of my life."

Below's high school career didn't end with the state championship he dreamed of, but it's also not the end of his basketball career.

He plans to play basketball in college somewhere but hasn't decided where that will be yet, and he eventually wants to become a college basketball coach.

"I just know we're going to miss him," Wheetley said. "It just makes the job so much easier for a coach when you've got a kid like that and you can just step back and let them play. That's what you want to do, just let them play."