Jesse Berry paced slowly to the scorer's table after receiving the nod from coach Billy Taylor, stopping only to brush off his shoes before checking into the game with 15:41 left in the first half against Eastern Illinois.
Five minutes later, the highly talked about freshman shooter from Lafayette dashed under the basket. As he ran, he brushed off a screen and received the dish from guard Jauwan Scaife. Berry pulled up with no hesitation to the right of the key with a hand in his face and knocked it down.
He got his first points in a Cardinal uniform out of the way early, along with the nerves.
"When I first got out there, I was pretty nervous on my first shot, which I missed because I was nervous," Berry said. "But after that shot I felt good. I felt like myself again."
Berry would finish the night with 15 points and 6 rebounds in his college debut during a 77-46 rout of Eastern Illinois.
Berry found a rhythm after his first bucket, knocking down two shots in a row, including his first 3-pointer with a hand in his face. As the ball went through the net, the 3,125 fans in Worthen Arena erupted.
"My teammates tell me all the time, hand-down man-down," he said. "So I kept stunting at him, he put his hands down — I shot the ball."
Taylor said when Berry steps on the court it causes problems for opponents on who to guard. He said teams will have to decide which side of the court teams will have to favor: forward Jarrod Jones underneath or the shooters beyond the arc.
"Teams will have to decide whether they want to double team [Jones], which means they're going to leave some really good shooters on the perimeter," Taylor said. "Or they're going to leave [Jones] one-on-one and stay tighter to some of our perimeter guys, then [Jones] will go to work.
"It's going to force teams to make a decision for what they want to do from a defensive standpoint."
Taylor said he was pleased how Berry came out his first game and played aggressive. If it's a good shot, Taylor said he wants Berry to take it.
"His job is to shoot the ball," Taylor said. "We don't want him to hesitate, and he didn't today."
When asked the same question — if he'll always have the green light — Berry laughed, dropped his head and glanced at his coach with a smile.
"You'll have to ask Coach Taylor," he said.
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