Doing it all

Ben McCool is the basketball equivalent of a Swiss Army knife.

He can shoot. He can slash. He can finish around the rim. He can defend the perimeter. He can defend in the paint.

“He’s one of the few guys where there’s nothing he can’t do,” said Bucky McMillan, his head coach at Mountain Brook High School.

McCool, now a senior for the Spartans, has assumed a starting role in his final season at Mountain Brook, his second year on the varsity team. 

He developed his guard skills at an early age, but by the time he got to high school, he began to notice that he was frequently one of the tallest players on the floor.

Last year, he was a shooting guard for the Spartans. At 6-foot-1, he towered over many of his matchups. This season, he has transitioned to the center position. Now standing 6-foot-3, he is normally the one surrendering a few inches to his opposition.

He counteracts that with his energy and quickness.

“I try to be really active in the post,” McCool said. “Some people get put in the post and just kind of sit there and screen people. I try to be as active as I possibly can, just going for rebounds and trying to set a screen for my teammates to get a shot.”

McCool said he firmly believes his ability and comfort in handling the basketball is a major asset as well. Having five players with the ability to step outside makes defending the Spartans challenging.

“I really think that’s an advantage,” he said. “I’m not scared to go get the ball. If there’s another big man guarding me, it’s tough for him to guard me out on the perimeter.”

Giving up any size amongst its forwards could give Mountain Brook a disadvantage on the rebounding front, but McCool is conscious of that and focuses on his technique and desire to secure missed shots.

“It’s a skill where you have to put yourself in positions where you can get the ball, but I really think if you really want it bad enough, you go up and get it at its highest peak,” McCool said.

McCool is the only starting senior for the Spartans, and won the Birmingham Tip-Off Club player of the week in early January. McMillan lauded McCool’s humility.

“Ben is never about Ben. As our captain, his selfless, humble attitude has become contagious to the rest of our team and is one of the primary reasons our team has been such a joy to coach and be the true team that they are,” McMillan said.

McMillan recalls telling McCool of his plans for the player’s junior season, instructing the student-athlete on facets of his game to improve and hone and predicting that he could be one of the team’s best players. McCool was not even aware that he would likely make the varsity team for his junior campaign.

“That’s kind of how he is. It rubs off on the team, and that helps you have a very unselfish team,” McMillan said.

McCool remembers sitting in the stands as a middle school student, as Mountain Brook won back-to-back state championships in 2013 and 2014, and dreaming of the moment he would be able to achieve that on his own.

Last season, the Spartans faltered in the opening game at regionals, but McCool is hoping this year is different and that it ends with the program’s third blue map.

“It would mean the whole world to me,” he said. “We’re all focused on getting there.”