By CHRIS COOK
LongwoodLancers.com
There comes a time for every athlete when talent alone carries them only so far, when what once worked on the playground or in high school or even in last week's game is effective no more.
It's a wall that awaits all athletes, even those as talented as
Isaiah Walton.
Longwood's leading scorer can do nearly anything on a basketball court. He can shoot. He can drive. He can dunk, he can defend, and he can finish at the rim. He is a 6-foot-5, 190-pound mismatch waiting to happen, blessed with athleticism that his defenders struggle to match and a smooth shooting stroke that he can uncoil in the blink of an eye.
That talent propelled Walton to a 1,000-point basketball career at Elyria High School and a successful stint at Iowa Western Community College, both of which eventually earned him a scholarship to Longwood.
However, all athletes have their wall, and three years into Walton's college career, there was his, waiting for him to come crashing into it.
On paper, Walton's 2016-17 season at Longwood was a breakout. In his first season as a Lancer, he was one of only two Big South guards to average at least 10.0 points, 3.0 assists and 1.0 steals per game. He was among the top 10 in the conference in assists (3.2), steals (1.8), made field goals (147), free throw percentage (.798) and minutes (31.5). He started 26 games and scored in double figures 21 times, including five 20-point games.
However, numbers don't always tell the whole story.
"Even though he scored a bunch of points, his turnovers, his body language, his signs of frustration kind of overshadowed that," said Longwood head coach Jayson Gee.
Walton is the rare breed of player whose dominance comes in long, potentially game-changing bursts. His success begets more success, and when he finds his zone, he puts up points in a hurry.
However, the downside to Walton's rogue tendencies last season came in the form of turnovers and poor shot selection. Too often did his explosive drives to the basket end with him trapped in the lane or in mid-air, encaged by a mass of defenders eager to swipe away the ball or alter his shot. That style of play became even more of a liability when that rash of injuries forced Walton, a natural scoring guard, to shoulder Longwood's leading point guard duties for the second half of the season. As a result, he led the team with 95 assists but also racked up 130 turnovers.
As the season wore on, those frustrations compounded. What had once made Walton a high-level scorer was more often working against him than for him.
Walton had found his wall, and he would have to find a new way to get over it.
Fast forward to 2017-18, and Walton is largely the same player he was last year. He didn't spend his offseason developing a new unstoppable crossover, nor did he level up his already impressive long-range shooting. He has always been in possession of those skills, as film from any game from the 2016-17 season will demonstrate.
Instead, Walton's way around his own personal wall came in the form of submission to the team and a new approach to the game. What has transformed him from turnover-prone scorer to one of the Big South's top guards in 2017-18 has not been an upgrade in ability, but rather how and when he uses those abilities.
In other words, Walton hasn't become a better ball-handler or shooter or defender. He's become a better basketball player.
"In the past I've had some issues breaking off offense a lot and just trying to score my own," Walton said. "Now I'm just trying to let the game come to me more. I'm actually scoring more doing that because I'll get more turnovers and bad shot selection from trying to speed things up. Basically I've just been able to calm down and let the game come to me. That's what my coaches have been emphasizing to me."
Where last year he took it on himself at times to single-handedly put the ball in the basket, he's now using designed screens to create separation from his defender. Where he once took off for the basket the second he saw an opening, he now waits for his offense to set up to allow for more passing options and better rebounding positions for his teammates.
In Longwood's new offensive system, he's where he's supposed to be when he's supposed to be there, and the Lancers are reaping the benefits.
The newfound approach has transformed Walton from a rogue scorer into one of the Big South's best all-around players. He currently ranks third in the conference with 18.9 points per game and among the league's top five in field goal percentage, free throw percentage, three-point shooting percentage and steals. He is shooting better from all three spots, including a blistering 47.4 percent from three-point range.
"This year we're a really good ball movement team," he said. "My teammates are finding me in good positions, so I give a lot of credit to them. I feel like we're just getting better every game, and we have to keep submitting to that and what coach is telling us to do."
This year Longwood is at its best when Walton is on the floor, as evidenced by his plus-minus rating, which is the second highest on the team behind only defensive stalwart
JaShaun Smith. That metric measures the effectiveness of the team when a specific player is in the game, weighing points scored and points allowed. Through the first eight games, the Lancers are in the black for the 200-plus minutes when Walton is in the lineup, a staunch improvement from last season when they gave up nearly 10 points more per game when he was on the floor.
"I think the biggest thing that has really improved his game is his commitment to want to be better, to being more coachable, to wanting to improve, to be the best he can possibly be," Gee said. "He has a burning desire to help this team be a winning team. All those things have motivated him to get to the level he is now."
Of course, Walton isn't doing it all himself this season. That's because now he doesn't have to, nor does he want to.
Alongside fellow backcourt mates
B.K. Ashe and
Charles Glover, Walton forms one-third of one of the best backcourt trios in the Big South. Those three have combined to average 41.8 points per game, which accounts for nearly 60 percent of Longwood's scoring this season and ranks them as the third-highest scoring guard trio in the conference.
Ashe, Glover and Walton are Longwood's top three in points, assists, made field goals and steals, and together they form the core of a team that is mounting a wall of its own.
"We're a lot better," Walton said of his blossoming chemistry. "We were a brand new team in the offseason; we only had three true returners, so we've learned how to play with each other and learned each other's tendencies. We'll only get better."
Now 3-5 on the season following three straight wins before Longwood's exam break, Walton and the Lancers return to the court Saturday at 1 p.m. against VMI in Lexington, Va.
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