Oakland Mills girls basketball coach Seth Willingham arrived at practice the other day a little numb from a trip to the dentist's office for a routine cleaning.
Yet, his star guard, senior Miriam McKenzie, would have gladly traded places with her coach, with an extraction of her wisdom teeth and a root canal thrown in for good measure, rather than talk about her career.
"I'm kind of uncomfortable talking about myself," McKenzie said.
That's putting it mildly, according to her teammates.
"She's never really liked the spotlight," said Gabi Barnes, who, like McKenzie, is a senior co-captain. "She's more of a team player, and you can definitely tell that. But she just likes to do her thing and play basketball."
Good thing, then, that McKenzie's game speaks so loudly. Heading into yesterday's first-round victory over Hammond in the Class 2A South regional playoffs, McKenzie had posted some of the area's most impressive numbers.
The 5-foot-8 guard was averaging 27 points and 12.6 rebounds. McKenzie had managed a double double in all but three of Oakland Mills' 20 games this season, with scoring in double digits in all but one.
McKenzie, a second-team All-Metro guard last season, has three triple doubles this season, including a 40-point, 16-rebound, 13-steal masterpiece against Long Reach, and became the school's all-time leading scorer, with 1,625 points, surpassing 2001 graduate Rayna DuBose.
"I didn't know [about the triple doubles]," McKenzie said. "They just told me and I went, 'Cool.' "
Willingham, who is in his fourth year as Scorpions coach, says McKenzie's strength lies in her ability to create her own shot, as well as being adept at shooting with both hands, a skill she learned as a child when the right-hander broke her dominant hand.
"Some people are great shooters, and some people can just get to the basket but can't shoot very well. She's a very well-rounded player," Willingham said.
Said Barnes: "She's confident enough to take it to the hoop. No matter if there's a 6-foot girl on her or a smaller guard, she's confident in her game and she knows what she can do."
Willingham said McKenzie's reticence was a problem for him at first because a coach usually likes his best player to take more of a vocal leadership role.
"We had our differences," Willingham said. "She needed to work on fundamental things. But one thing that we had in common is we both hate to lose. That got us through. She kind of understood where I was coming from."
Willingham said McKenzie and Barnes form a kind of "good cop, bad cop" rotation as the team's leaders, with Barnes being the talkative enforcer and McKenzie leading by example.
And while McKenzie's previous two varsity seasons largely consisted of - as Willingham puts it - "get the ball to Miriam and watch Miriam play," the No. 15 Scorpions are better equipped to take advantage of double and triple teams against McKenzie because as Barnes, Monet Nias and Nicole Hill have stepped up their offense.
That improvement might be enough to get Oakland Mills, seeded third in 2A South, through the region and in position to capture the school's second girls state championship and its first since 1998.
Willingham said he'll be interested to see how much better McKenzie will be as a player when she gets to Loyola College, where she has signed to play.
"I can't wait to see when she's surrounded by other ballplayers, because it's only going to open her up more," Willingham said. "I'm expecting big things out of her in college. She's going to be a great ballplayer."
Just don't expect her to talk much about it.
milton.kent@baltsun.com