Nardini's magical senior season continues at Vernon Hills

There might be a little Harry Houdini in Robby Nardini.

The Vernon Hills senior seems to have a flair for the spectacular. Granted, he's not escaping from straightjackets under water or from locked boxes with his arms chained, but he does draw his fair share of oohs and aahs from crowds.

Nardini is a gamer, both on the football field and on the basketball court. He makes big plays seem routine. He's fun to watch, and he makes you wonder what he'll do next.

In football this fall, Nardini hauled in a beautiful 80-yard touchdown pass while running in full stride. That got the ball rolling on an improbable comeback victory at Wauconda that unfolded over the final three minutes.

"That was my favorite (play of the season)," said Nardini, who is all about the long ball in basketball, too.

His knack for knocking down 3-pointers from all angles, even with defenders in his face, has made him the all-time leader in made 3-pointers at Vernon Hills, where shooting 3-pointers is as encouraged as shooting layups.

"If you've got an open shot, you take it," said Nardini, who abides by that rule to the letter.

The 19-3 Cougars, one of the best and most prolific 3-point shooting teams in Lake County, have made 160 3-pointers in 21 games, or nearly 8 per game. Vernon Hills made a school-record 14 3-pointers earlier this month in a win over Grant.

Nardini, meanwhile, accounts for 73 of the team's makes from downtown, or nearly four per game.

Twice in his career, against Wauconda and Niles North, Nardini has rolled up eight 3-pointers in a game. He wound up with a career-high 39 points in the Niles North game.

"The offense we run, we're actually trying to get to the basket as much as possible and if you can do that, you end up getting wide open 3-point looks off of kick-outs," Nardini said. "We kick the ball out a lot, so we shoot a lot of 3s. I'd say of the 16 guys on our team, 14 can hit 3-pointers consistently.

"We shoot a lot of 3s in practice. We're always working on it, doing these little competitions with it. We all love to shoot them and it's a lot of fun playing that way. It brings a lot of energy to our team."

Nardini, who connects on his 3-pointers at a nearly 40-percent clip, leads the Cougars in scoring at 21.4 points per game. Earlier this month, he was named the most valuable player of the Martin Luther King tournament at Lake Zurich and he surpassed the 1,000-point career mark this season as well.

A starter on the varsity since his sophomore year, Nardini scored his 1,000th point in mid-December against Grayslake Central, where his friend held up a sign in the stands that read, "Big-shot Rob. Mr. 1,000."

For Nardini, the 1,000 points was preceded by thousands of shots in empty gyms and on humble courts outdoors.

"It's always good to get as many shots up as you can," Nardini said. "But if you love basketball, you're going to be doing that anyway. You're going to want to be shooting and playing all the time."

When Nardini works out, he focuses on form. He's broken down his 3-point shot from every possible direction.

"You've got to have a quick release so your shot doesn't get blocked," Nardini said. "You've also got to relax your shoulders and have good back spin and shoot straight up at the basket. I always see people leaning all over the place.

"A good follow-through is also really important. That's probably what I do best. I make sure to follow through no matter if I'm wide open or the shot is being contested."

Lake Zurich heavily contested pretty much every look Nardini had at the basket a couple weeks ago. And the Bears held him to just 2 points on zero field goals, the first time in his career that Nardini failed to finish with at least one field goal in a game.

But like any good shooter, Nardini knows that if sometimes you die by the 3, you can be living by it again in no time if you maintain the right perspective.

"You have to forget (about the misses)," Nardini said. "One thing you can do is to work on getting your teammates involved, try to get to the bucket, find other ways to get yourself going.

"Defenses pressure me (on the perimeter) a lot because they think I'm just going to shoot 3s all day. But I can drive and kick to my teammates and you've got to respect that, too."

Nardini will have the same kind of latitude in his game next year at Wisconsin-Stevens Point. He committed there around Christmas.

"They play a similar style to us (at Vernon Hills) and I like that," said Nardini, who plans to major in physical education so that he can become a coach just like his father. Rob Nardini has coached youth basketball teams for years in Highland Park and is also the freshman girls coach at Vernon Hills.

"I love basketball so much," Nardini said. "And I want to coach it. I want to do something for a career that I really enjoy doing."

Of course, there's always escape artistry. What's not to like about that?

pbabcock@dailyherald.com

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