And, in her opinion, it certainly didn’t do much for the refs’ eyes.
The 6-foot-2 sophomore came off the bench and contributed greatly in UD’s 75-66 victory over Evansville. Making four of the five shots she took, she finished with nine points, nine rebounds, two blocked shots, two steals and an assist.
She dove on the floor for loose balls. Twice she stole the ball from Evansville guards and after one of the turnovers she forced, she led a fast break that further linked her to blinder brethren like Secretariat and Seabiscuit, equine stars who became legends once their vision was redirected.
A standout in Barrington High, which is in a northwest suburb of Chicago, O’Riordan came to UD last season and made a significant impact coming off the bench.
But she struggled early this season, making just two of 18 field goal attempts while turning the ball over five times during a five-game span from mid-November into early December.
“She struggled big time,” UD coach Tamika Williams-Jeter said. “It was the sophomore slump. Liv (sophomore guard Olivia Lueng) dealt with it, too.
“With Molly, it was about getting her not to overthink everything and focus on what she could control. For a while there she was all over the place, asking 100 questions about everything, fidgeting, just not being sure of herself.”
O’Riordan didn’t dispute that:
“Honestly, I did struggle with confidence issues. It’s something I’ve struggled with my whole life.
“I struggled with it in high school and this season early on. I was in my own head a lot, thinking about a turnover I made or a shot I missed, instead of focusing on what was coming up down the court.”
Looking at her high school accomplishments, you wouldn’t know she had any struggles.
She was the team captain her senior year at Barrington High and scored over 1,500 career points there. She was the co-Player of the Year in her conference, won all state honors three years in a row and helped lead her team to the state title game.
This season at UD the problem resurfaced and that’s when O’Riordan said her position coach, Flyers assistant Kalisha Keane, came up with a remedy straight from the racetrack.
“Coach Kal had been working with me to focus only on what’s in front of me and not worry and dwell on something that happened earlier in practice or a game,” O’Riordan said.
“She said I need to wear blinders like a racehorse does. They can only see what’s ahead of them, not what’s around them and behind them.”
Sometimes she said when she’s on the court, Keane will give her a prompt from the sideline and cup her hands like blinders on both sides of her eyes.
On the race track, some of the most famous horses in the sport were equipped with blinders.
Secretariat dominated the thoroughbred world to win the Triple Crown in 1973, a feat highlighted by the colt’s 31-length victory in the Belmont Stakes.
Northern Dancer, also wearing blinders, became the first Canadian horse to win the Kentucky Derby and ended up an icon in Canada.
And Seabiscuit, whose story is told in book and film, became the underdog champion who was a symbol of hope in America during the Great Depression.
Credit: Erik Schelkun
Credit: Erik Schelkun
While O’Riordan’s transformation isn’t quite so dynamic, the Flyers are befitting from her better focus. Over the past four games, she’s made 14 of 20 field goal attempts and averaged 8.2 points per game.
No one is more pleased than Williams-Jeter:
“She’s really turned the corner and is giving us great minutes on both ends of the floor.”
She praised O’Riordan’s play against the Purple Aces, pointing out how she found teammates with pinpoint passes, dove on the court and even led a fast break:
“After that one steal, if she could have gotten one more power dribble, she would have gone coast to coast.
“That idea of keeping the blinders on has worked.”
‘I didn’t even touch the girl’
No sideline prop though could aid her late in the third quarter when she grabbed an offensive rebound away from an Evansville player and promptly went airborne and scored inside.
When her feet again touched the court, she was minus one of her pink shoes.
“On the rebound, the (Evansville) girl just clipped my heel and my shoe came off,” she said with a laugh. “At first I panicked. I didn’t know what to do. The shoe was too tight to wedge my foot back in.”
She finally ran toward the sideline, tossed her shoe to the bench and then took off down the court with one stocking foot. Soon she was battling for a rebound again.
In the fourth quarter her on-court predicament became more problematic.
In a 6 minute, 20 second span near the end of the period, she was whistled for four fouls and fouled out of the game with 30 seconds left.
“I would say literally two, maybe three, of those fouls I committed,” she said with a grin. “The last one I didn’t even touch the girl.”
She claimed one of the other refs agreed with her on the sideline.
Regardless, she fared better than Leung, who played just 12 minutes and 43 seconds. While the 5-foot-10 guard put on an impressive shooting display — making 4 of 6 shots and 3 of 5 three-pointers for 11 points — she also picked up five fouls in that short span.
Credit: Erik Schelkun
Credit: Erik Schelkun
The Flyers were led by two other double-digit performers.
Ajok Madol — the 6-foot-3 forward who played her freshman year at Minnesota before transferring to UD last season — had the first double-double of her college career and finished with 10 points and 10 rebounds.
And the star of the show was senior guard Nayo Lear, who had a career-high 27 points, making nine of 13 field goal attempts and nine free throws.
‘Truly like a family’
The Flyers finished their non-conference schedule 7-5. It’s the best start a UD team has had in the four seasons since Williams-Jeter took over the job.
“We really wanted to get a win before we left for Christmas,” O’Riordan said.
Right after the game, she was heading back to Illinois to spend time with her family. There would be get-togethers at the homes of both sets of her grandparents and there was a cousin gift exchange — “We pick names out of a hat at Thanksgiving,” – that she said would be fun.
While she’s home, she often sees other friends who are playing college basketball, and she said some of their stories make her more appreciative that she’s a Dayton Flyer.
“I hear some of their experiences and I say, ‘I can’t believe you have to go through some of that stuff’,” she said.
She said a lot of programs aren’t as welcoming and coaches don’t have open doors the way the Flyers do under Williams-Jeter:
“Here it’s truly like a family. Every single person on the staff would do anything for you.”
She said when she chose Dayton she was looking for a program like the one she’d had in high school:
“I wanted one I could relate to on a personal level and feel safe and comfortable and not have to worry about repercussions. Here the coaches do everything they can to help you. They want to see that you get better.”
And sometimes the best seeing comes with blinders.
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