LISBON FALLS – Doug Sautter looked at the scorebook following a recent Lisbon game and was shocked to see the number of points scored by his junior point guard, Mike Wilkins.

“The other night, he had 20 points and we didn’t realize it. It was in the flow of the game,” the Greyhounds’ coach said. “He’s definitely looking for his offense more, which we need.”

As Sautter’s starting point guard since his freshman year, Wilkins has been first and foremost responsible for helping other people find their offense. The coach, a former point guard himself, would encourage his young floor general to take more shots, but instinct would usually take over.

“I would say that that was his biggest weakness his freshman and sophomore year,” Sautter said. “He wouldn’t shoot at all. He just had the instinct of I’m a point guard. I don’t shoot at all.'”

Wilkins has suppressed that instinct enough to score more points for the Greyhounds this season, but he hasn’t tossed aside what he’s learned in more than two years as a varsity point guard about making his teammates better.

Finding that balance has been a long, sometimes painful process for Wilkins. No position demands more basketball smarts and maturity than point guard, and here he was, barely out of middle school, trying to solve opposing defenses designed to rattle him simply because he was a freshman point guard. Sautter was confident that Wilkins could handle the pressure and had the patience to allow him to make, and learn from, the inevitable mistakes.

“There were kids maybe as good as him, but nothing better, so our feeling was he’s going to make his mistakes, but why not learn on the job and reap the rewards later on down the road,” Sautter said. “The first year was rough. He’d be the first one to tell you. People might have thought I was crazy for putting him in there, but why not? You know you’ve got him for the next three years afterwards. It’s the best of both worlds.”

The biggest adjustment, Wilkins said, was learning about his teammates and doing what a point guard is supposed to do – get them the ball when and where they like it.

“I knew I had the instincts and I knew I could learn more and more,” he said.

Now considered one of the top point guards in the Mountain Valley Conference, Wilkins doesn’t think he’d be where he is today if he had ridden the varsity pine or played JV as a freshman.

Ironically, as he has developed into a smarter player, he’s had to think less on the floor. The result is a more fluid offense for the Greyhounds.

“It’s a lot more natural. I guess I’ve matured more at basketball,” Wilkins said. “If I see a defense, I know what to do. If there’s an advantage, then I know. You just know it. You don’t have to think about it.”

When Wilkins does have to think, he’s often thinking the same thing as his coach. But the best part about it, Sautter said, is that the coach doesn’t panic even on the occasion that he and Wilkins aren’t thinking the exact same thing.

“I’ll wait a second to see what he’s going to do before I’ll make a call. Sometimes it’s something that I may not have called, but he knows what he wants to do,” Sautter said. “I know that’s he’s out there and sees exactly what’s going on. Most of the time, we’re thinking on the same page, and that’s come from three years of being with each other.”