A ‘Sellars’ market: Senior hopes to culminate player evolution with state title | Sports
ASHLAND The scene was established at Lexington Catholic past March.
The 2020-21 period experienced been delayed and faced cancellations owing to an ongoing pandemic.
Ashland, nonetheless experience the effects of an unfinished, undefeated season the 12 months right before, went to central Kentucky to experience No. 2 North Laurel and future Wildcat Reed Sheppard.
The matchup speedily turned a person-sided in the Tomcats’ favor as the Jaguars couldn’t obtain an remedy for Ethan Sellars. The guard burned North Laurel with his scorching taking pictures at the rear of the arc, hitting 7 of 10 from prolonged variety and scoring 37 points as Ashland handed the Jaguars their very first reduction of the year.
For Sellars, the contest intended even a lot more. It marked a turning point in his evolution as a basketball player.
“It’s just one of the points when I was youthful,” Sellars explained. “I was not as self-assured as I am now. Mentor (Jason) Mays held telling me I necessary to have more confidence about myself. In that game, I realized that Reed Sheppard and Colin Porter would go at it, and for us to be thriving, I felt I needed to go out there and verify some thing. Colin did a excellent occupation of getting me the ball.”
Mays explained Sellars’s talent has usually been there, but the senior might convey it in diverse techniques. The fourth-calendar year mentor admitted he first attempted to micromanage Sellars when he initial arrived at Ashland. After he permit the guard express who he is on the floor, his match elevated to new heights.
“He does factors on the basketball courtroom that no coach can train,” Mays mentioned. “He’s obtained an instinct to make uncanny athletic performs that make you scratch your head. He can complete at the rim. He’s bought a quirky very little hook shot when he gets any individual on his back again in the write-up and he’s bought a different release on his jumper. An off-stability shot is not a negative shot for him.
“He’s acquired a moxie about him that you have to let exist,” he included. “During his 1st two years, I’ve tried to dampen that. You have to permit him be who he is. I genuinely figured out to value him as a individual and a participant, acknowledge who he is on and off the floor, and which is when he grew to become a upcoming-amount participant.”
Sellars said competitiveness and charisma were by now instilled in him by his family members tree. He has been guided by his relatives’ participation in that custom, which will go on when the Tomcats when they make their third trip to the Sweet Sixteen with Sellars in uniform — the only exception was the 2020 pandemic cancellation — at Rupp Arena tonight towards Covington Catholic.
“I’ve developed up in an Ashland relatives,” Sellars claimed. “My terrific-grandfather, my grandfather and anyone on down went to Ashland. I engage in for a little something even larger than basketball. I enjoy for every person that’s come ahead of me and most people in this neighborhood. I understood that we could acquire a location, but under no circumstances imagined that we would get four in a row.”
He also has the respect and notice of his teammates. Junior Tucker Conway’s recreation resembles Sellars as he attained much more minutes and a commencing function in quite a few online games this period.
Conway hits 55% (70 of 128) of his tries from behind the arc to complement Sellars’s 44% 3-point prowess.
“He was a sophomore and I was a freshman during the undefeated season,” Conway mentioned. “He does so numerous matters that are unseen and not on a stat sheet. He shoots lights-out. He operates and stretches the flooring as he sets up in the corners. In the North Laurel recreation, he was completely ready to shoot and completely ready to play. I’ve figured out so much viewing him above the years.
“He doesn’t treatment how several factors he scores,” Conway ongoing, “whether it is zero or 50. He wants to earn at the conclude of the day. He’s a single of my preferred teammates because he’s been a staff male from Working day 1.”
The player Sellars is nowadays would be unrecognizable to the lanky shooter that ventured on to the varsity team as a freshman, he claimed.
Sellars never ever performed on the junior varsity group and experienced to accelerate his basketball progress swiftly when Cole Villers tore an ACL prior to the 2018-19 year. Sellars experienced to take around some of the point guard responsibilities as a freshman.
“I went from participating in freshman basketball to getting my tail kicked in varsity games,” he said. “I was a authentic cocky child when I was young. When I received to the varsity, I acquired to humble myself proper absent. Mentor Mays known as it consuming from a fire hose. In follow, I could discover from terrific players like Chase Villers and Devaunte (Robinson).
“I had to function definitely tricky. I was super skinny. I had to place on a lot of muscle. The initial 12 months confirmed me that I wasn’t as superior as I believed I was.”
Ashland created its to start with physical appearance at the point out event since 2002 that year and Sellars helped the Tomcats protected their initial Sweet Sixteen victory in 18 years with a 58-50 gain around Owensboro.
“We went to State that to start with 12 months,” Sellars claimed, “and I try to remember strolling out on that flooring. I was truly nervous and my palms were perspiring. I could scarcely wander, but at the time we had the idea, it felt like I was just taking part in basketball yet again.
“At the recreation in opposition to Owensboro, I remember which is where by I bought my 1st specialized. I bear in mind coach hugging me and stating I’m far better that that.”
It was a rare instant for Sellars simply because the senior doesn’t like to exhibit a great deal emotion on the court. His participate in speaks for alone, and he feels this demeanor gives him a mental edge on his opponent.
“I retain all my feelings inside of of me,” Sellars stated. “I really don’t truly speak to the refs or everything. … You really don’t see me celebrating a complete ton. I just want to focus on the video game. If I strike two significant photographs and I get fired up about it, I know I’m inclined to go on and overlook 3 extra. I enable my emotions go afterwards. I can smile soon after the game.”
Mays reported he requires satisfaction that the Tomcats never focus on any detrimental conversations on the courtroom. Sellars sets that case in point, but his coach by no means desires that to be interpreted as getting the softer route.
“Selly is much much better than he appears,” Mays mentioned. “I’ve viewed him flat-out place guys on their bottom with an offensive move, then the guy’s on the bench scratching his head asking yourself what just transpired. He can get his position across without the need of possessing to articulate it on the courtroom.”
Sellars leaves the cerebral method on the flooring. Conway and the relaxation of the crew see a different side of Sellars in the locker home.
“He’s a amusing dude,” Conway claimed. “He constantly builds me up when I get annoyed in myself. It’s not just me. He tries to construct up everyone. It’s the a single issue I have appreciated the most about Ethan.”
Sellars etched his identify in Ashland’s 1,000-point club versus Peninsula Catholic on Dec. 10. The tally keeps mounting for the reason that he has expanded his video game in his ultimate marketing campaign.
No longer just a jump shooter, Sellars now embraces make contact with within as a substitute of settling for the lengthy ball.
“It can make it much easier mainly because now I uncover my rhythm by really attacking the basket,” Sellars stated, “and obtaining to the cost-free throw line. Defenses have to regard my driving potential and th
at makes it possible for me to get into my bounce shot.”
Sellars shot just 37 totally free throws for the duration of his junior calendar year. His total this year has skyrocketed to 85, the most on the staff, and he helps make the most of his opportunities. He hits 85.9% of his attempts at the line.
“I was uncomplicated to guard very last 12 months,” Sellars reported. “I would strike the 3s, but I was also a a single-dimensional participant. For the duration of the offseason, I expended significantly less time on spot-up 3s and primarily attacked the rim.”
Sellars has also been the steady and continual drive for the Tomcats this time as Porter and Villers battled injuries and time away from the lineup.
Sellars wished to fight the adversity head-on and his teammates did the similar.
“I understood I had to phase up into a leadership role,” Sellars stated. “I’m not a vocal leader. I’m a leader by case in point. It’s more challenging, specially for the more youthful guys, when you have two of the very best gamers in the point out out of follow and not participating in. I had to notify the fellas that we can nonetheless acquire these games. Colin and Cole are the two most significant parts of our method. We can’t give up just simply because they’re out.”
Extra Mays: “He’s been all the things (this year). He’s our top scorer this 12 months. If we did not have Ethan, we effortlessly shed 10 online games. He was the glue that held this ship jointly.”
Sellars has put in his athletic vocation on the major phase. He will be enjoying in his 3rd roundball state tournament and will possible do the same in his ultimate time on the tennis staff as a doubles participant.
He’s hoping his high school basketball career extends 4 far more video games right before he heads to engage in at Cedarville University, but the knowledge of wearing an Ashland jersey will previous a life time.
“This software has been all the things to me,” Sellars explained. “When I talked to my moms and dads about whether or not I preferred to participate in school basketball or not, it was difficult for me simply because I have something to play for at Ashland.
“I play for my brothers,” he concluded. “This group has been so terrific to me and my loved ones. No make a difference where I go, I know that I’ll often be welcomed again. Enjoying for Ashland just means a thing different. It is a little something that will normally be in my coronary heart.”
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