COLLEGE STATION, Texas — College Station High School opened in 2012, but the Lady Cougars basketball team has never had a true big man. Head coach Megan Symank wanted to get the most out of the players she had, so she doubled down on positionless basketball.
"All five can step in and play any of those roles," coach Symank says. "Anyone of them can play point guard if needed so absolutely that’s an advantage to us."
"They can’t always be like someone is gonna be the post all the time because all of us can shoot," senior guard Rebekah Hailey says."We have multiple point guards so all of us can push."
Positionless basketball, small ball, this style of basketball has a handful of different names. Regardless of what you want to call it, it's clear the system has maximized the offensive talent of a roster without a single 6-footer.
"We know they have to respect our shots because we’re a shooting team obviously," junior guard Na'layjah Johnson says."If they try to lock us down on our shooting, we can take it to the basket because we have a lot of foot speed."
The downside of this strategy is guarding bigs in the post, but the Lady Cougars also punish those same bigs on the other end of the court.
"If you get screened and they switch and you’re on a big man, that’s a mismatch," Mia Rivers, a senior guard, says. "You attack them with your strengths."
College Station's biggest strength might be its team speed. As soon as the Lady Cougars grab a defensive rebound, it's an all-out race to the other end of the floor.
"Once we get the ball, we’re out in transition," sophomore guard Aliyah Collins says. "Once we get down the court and we’re beating down their bigs, we already won."
College Station opponent on Thursday night in the state semifinals is Frisco Libery. The Redhawks center is 6'2". College Station will need to play its biggest game of the night in the Alamodome to advance to the 5A State Championship.