The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Hillmon wants to finish strong
Naz Hillmon was nervous. The 15-year old freshman shuffled her feet slowly as she walked into the gymnasium at her new school in Gates Mills, unsure of her surroundings, her teammates and, yes, even of herself as she approached her first day of basketball practice.
The nerves made Hillmon feel like someone released not butter-
flies, but a flock of Canada geese in her stomach.
How would this new scenario go?
New program, new teammates, unfamiliar school. And how would she fit in? “Jess Janota was just leaving, and I was very nervous about filling her shoes,” said Hillmon of the 6-foot-3 Janota, who was all-Ohio in both volleyball and basketball, and headed to the University of Iowa on a volleyball scholarship.
“I had this speech in my head, ‘I’m not Jess Janota. But I’m here to help any way I can.’ I was so nervous and scared — you have no idea.”
Things have turned out just fine for that once-timid young girl.
When the Gilmour girls basketball team takes the court for a Division II state semifinal at 1 p.m. March 16 against Bellbrook, it will do so with a 6-foot-2 senior forward who is a three-time all-Ohioan who has led the Lancers to three straight final fours, a player who has more points and more rebounds than any female or male player in school history, one who is headed to the University of Michigan on a full-ride athletic scholarship.
“I would not have seen this coming, to be 100 percent, completely honest,” Hillmon said. “I didn’t think I’d come close to this. I didn’t know 1,000 points was possible, or even college. I didn’t know if that was something I could do when I was a freshman.” She’s done it — and more. Earlier this season, Hillmon eclipsed the former school record for points in a career by a girl (1,658) set last year by Emily Kelley. She goes into this weekend’s state tournament having just surpassed 2,000 career points.
She has averaged more than 10 rebounds per game in all four years of high school.
She has robbed many a coach of precious hours of sleep, wondering how to defend her —including Bellbrook coach Jason Tincher, whose team faces Gilmour in a state semifinal this weekend.
“Wow,” he said on a statewide teleconference earlier this week. “I need someone to come help me figure that out.”
But all the points (21.0 per game) and rebounds (14.7 per game) aside, Hillmon relishes other parts of her team just as much — if not more.
Passing the ball and playing defense are among her favorite parts of the game. She loves dishing the ball to teammates for 3-pointers. Emma Gurley, Sarah Bohn and Annika Corcoran have combined for 161 3-pointers this year.
“I do enjoy passing the ball,” Hillmon said. “I think a lot of teams are shocked when I pass. A lot of bigs, even if there are three defenders in the paint, try to go up and finish. I know my teammates can knock down shots. It’s awesome to be able to get them the ball and they hit those shots. I love it.”
Defensively, Hillmon averages three steals per game. The number of shots she alters far outweighs the shots she blocks, and that’s fine with her.
“A lot of what we do is, ‘try not to get beat on defense. But if you do, do it baseline so Naz is there to help,’” Hillmon said. “My teammates are able to gamble on the perimeter knowing I’m back there to get a stop.”
She also relishes the role of being a leader to players such as heralded freshman Athena Hocevar. After all, Hillmon said, it wasn’t that long ago that she was the new freshman starter on a team full of veterans.
Add it all up and the girl who once worried if she’d fit in has developed into the player who in many ways holds everything together for the Lancers.
Growing up as the daughter of former Ohio Ms. Basketball Na’Sheema (Hillmon) Anderson and the niece of former North Carolina Tarheel Jawad Williams, who still plays professional basketball overseas, Hillmon certainly had genes on her side.
But she said she didn’t know the magnitude of her lineage until she started high school and was know more as “Na’Sheema Hillmon’s daughter” more than “Naz Hillmon.”
Things have changed quite a bit.
In many, if not most, girls basketball circles around Northeastern Ohio, Hillmon has elevated to firstname status. Naz. But that’s not important to her or how she wants to be remembered at Gilmour.
“We’ve worked so hard here as a team, I don’t think anyone wants to feel the pain we felt our sophomore year losing to Marion Pleasant in our semifinal game,” Hillmon said. “So, yeah, anything less than a state championship is a major disappointment.”
As for her legacy? It has nothing to do with basketball. “It’s nice to be known as a great player,” she said, “but I hope they remember me as a good person who made them laugh or brought a smile to their face. It’s more about that — my character — than anything else in my four years here.”
In a handful of months, Hillmon will start the acclimation process all over again. She’ll walk into the Crisler Center on the campus of the University of Michigan as a newbie, in front of a whole new group of players on an unfamiliar campus in a brand-new school in a whole different state than she’s used to.
“Yeah, I’m going to be nervous all over again,” she admitted. “Starting over again as a freshman, new language, new people, new campus, it’ll be nerve-racking all over again.”
But if things work out in Ann Arbor they way they did in Gates Mills, it’s safe to say Hillmon will take that.
As would the Michigan Wolverines.