Greenwood siblings gained well-rounded court skills early on

Alex and Braydon Kincaid were clearly listening to the lessons that their father was drilling into them on the basketball court years ago.

Versatility was the primary theme back then, and both are putting their multi-dimensional games on display for Greenwood — Alex as a junior on the girls team and Braydon as a senior for the boys.

“You should never be one-dimensional,” Braydon said, recalling his father’s early coaching. “Your game has to grow, but it has to grow in every way. It can’t just be ballhandling, it can’t just be scoring. It has to be everything as a whole.”

Both have done a good job of putting that into practice during their high school careers.

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During his junior season, Braydon Kincaid paced the Woodmen in assists (3.8 per game), was second in rebounds (4.2 rpg) and blocked shots (16), and third in both scoring (11.1 ppg) and steals (29).

Alex has shown similar versatility. As a sophomore, she led the Woodmen in steals (2.6 per game) and assists (1.8 apg) while ranking second in points, rebounds and blocked shots.

Though she did score 8.3 points a game, she believes she could have been a bit more assertive at times instead of overthinking the game and being too unselfish.

“My dad always tells me just to go play and don’t think about it,” Alex said, “and I think last year that’s what a lot of it was, especially mentally. It was, ‘Oh, run this play, run this,’ and this year I’ve really stepped up to realize, ‘Just score, just play.’”

That idea got implemented right away this season. In last week’s season opener against Bloomington North, Alex poured in a career-high 33 points on 11-of-22, hitting nine free throws and a pair of 3-pointers.

And lest you think the scoring burst caused her to abandon her do-everything roots, Kincaid also finished that game with five rebounds, four assists and eight steals. She followed with 10 points, seven boards, six assists and six steals in a win over Greenfield-Central.

“She has a lot of basketball savvy,” Woodmen girls coach Bill Torgerson said. “She’s played a lot of basketball games, so she has experience that you can’t teach.”

Greenwood’s boys didn’t officially start practicing until Monday, but first-year coach Joe Bradburn saw similar traits in Braydon during the summer.

“What strikes me about Braydon is I think he has a high basketball IQ,” Bradburn said. “He understands what I’m trying to teach, but he projects it and relays it to his teammates, which is invaluable.”

The Woodmen return four senior starters from a team that finished a disappointing 11-13 season last year. Braydon Kincaid notes that he, much like his sister, will be making an effort to be more assertive this year, but he knows he doesn’t face a ton of pressure to score every night.

“I don’t need to force anything,” he said, “because we have five people on the court that can score the ball.”

Both Kincaids have demonstrated the ability to help their respective teams in whatever way is needed — and their new coaches have quickly grown to appreciate the well-balanced skill set that each of the siblings possesses.

“It seems like something’s going right,” Torgerson said. “Somebody, or more than one somebody, knows what they’re doing when it comes to basketball at their house.”

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Doing it all

Braydon and Alex Kincaid have displayed a variety of skills during their basketball careers at Greenwood. A look at their year-by-year stats:

Braydon Kincaid

Year;PPG;RPG;APG;SPG

2014-15;4.9;2.1;1.5;0.5

2015-16;12.6;4.3;4.0;1.2

2016;17;11.1;4.8;3.8.1.3

Alex Kincaid

Year;PPG;RPG;APG;SPG

2015-16;8.8;5.8;1.5;1.8

2016-17;8.3;4.2;1.8;2.6

2017-18*;21.5;6.0;5.0;7.0

* – through two games

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