Exclusive: Tyler Nickel Talks Getting Out of a Slump and His Mentality While Going Through One – Sports Illustrated

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NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Vanderbilt sharpshooter Tyler Nickel received a cross-court pass from his teammate Duke Miles nearly three minutes into the second half of the SEC Championship Sunday afternoon. Nickel pump faked a shot on the bench-side wing and got Arkansas’ Malique Ewin to bite before draining a three-point shot.
It was a classic Tyler Nickel shot. Finding his spot on the wing, pumping and shooting a rhythm without missing a beat. A staple to his skillset.
That shot was Nickel’s fourth three in the game, where his three-pointer gave Vanderbilt a 49-47 lead. But it was that shot in particular – due to its familiar nature to Commodore fans – that made spectators say, “he’s back.”
Before his performance in the SEC Championship, Nickel was in the middle of a noticeable shooting slump, one that he was not afraid to admit to being in the midst of.
“I did go through a little slump. It’s unfortunate, sometimes they look good and feel good but maybe the legs aren’t there or shots just aren't falling,” Nickel told Vandy On SI after Vanderbilt’s quarterfinal win over No. 5 seed Tennessee.
Before Sunday’s game against Arkansas, Nickel entered the day in a slump where he had not hit four or more threes in a game since the Commodores’ win over Texas A&M on Feb. 14. His shooting percentages in the games where he did hit three threes were not up to his par, either.
But through it all, Nickel never lost confidence in himself. Even watching Nickel warm up before games or even the way in which he shoots the ball during games, he never looked any different in terms of rhythm or shooting form. As a player that prides himself on being a confident shooter, his confidence level never wavered and he was never shy about letting the ball go to the hoop even during his slump.
“My confidence is high, it’s always high. Everybody around me, like the coaches, my teammates and everything just instilled a whole lot of confidence in me by being like, ‘hey we don’t care you’re missing. We think you’re the best shooter in the country, so just let it fly.’ So I’m always letting it fly,” Nickel said.
Nickel also noted that although plenty of shots did not go down during the slump he was experiencing, the feel of the shots never changed. To Nickel, the shots that missed still felt like they were going to drop.
For a sharpshooter like Nickel, going through a slump is not the easiest thing from a mental perspective, either. To a point, for a player to repeat the words “just keep shooting” to himself  ends up not helping that much when a player is doing all he can to return to form.
Of course, Nickel has always had the green light to shoot whenever he wants and will continue to do so. But as Nickel points out, when shots continue to not fall after feeling like a player has done everything he can do to get out of a slump, it can do some damage mentally. At the end of the day, it is about the foundation.
“It’s easy to say ‘don’t worry about it, just keep shooting.’ But when you’re so used to making it at a high clip, it’s always going to mess with you mentally. But really it is just remembering who you are. Remember why you’re a shooter and why the people are trying to get you off the line and stuff like that,” Nickel said as he explained his mentality and how he maintained his confidence in a shooting slump.
That mentality is exactly what carried him through finish line of the SEC Tournament on a note that fans have not seen in three weeks to a month. Though Vanderbilt lost the SEC Championship to the Razorbacks 86-75, the Commodores seemed to have gained their primary shooter back.
That is something that can provide the team a lot of juice and energy heading into the NCAA Tournament and perhaps lead to a deep run.
“Just trust your work at the end of the day. Like I put in too many hours to second guess a shot. I’m just going to keep going,” Nickel told Vandy On SI.
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Graham Baakko is a writer for Vanderbilt Commodores On SI, primarily covering football, basketball and baseball. Graham is a recent graduate from the University of Alabama, where he wrote for The Crimson White, WVUA-FM, WVUA 23 as he covered a variety of Crimson Tide sports. He also covered South Carolina athletics as a sportswriting intern for GamecockCentral.
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