After Tatiana Green hit the pause button on her basketball career, she was dismayed to discover that merely re-pressing “play” did not allow her performance to pick right up where she left off.
But once she began to work her way back, Green returned to her high-level self on the court.
The Bordentown High School senior opted not to play for the Scotties during her sophomore year due to Covid issues. When she returned last year, it took a while to find her groove, and it wasn’t pretty. Especially for Green herself.
Expected to be a big piece of the offense, she scored just 19 points in the first four games. After 10 games the forward was averaging 7.3 points per game, as the effects of her layoff were showing.
“I think it was more of a mental stance than anything,” Green said. “A lot of my skills kind of stuck with me and the conditioning that comes with it. But a lot of stuff was mental. I spent a lot of time being held back because I didn’t know if I was capable of doing certain things.”
After a pep talk from last year’s leading scorer, the since graduated Oshynn Cosom, things began to turn around. Over the season’s final eight games, Green averaged 10.8 points per game and scored in double figures six times.
“She figured out she belonged out there,” coach Bill Lloyd said. “For Tati, the challenge has always been the confidence She had to find the confidence to believe in herself. That’s what she found toward the end of last year. She took her sophomore year off, she was a little bit behind when she came back but she kind of found her stride and took off. I’m hoping she’ll build on that this year.”
All indications are that she will continue to progress. Lloyd says that by the end of last year, Green was making postseason speeches at the team banquet encouraging the returning girls to gear up and get ready for this season. The 5-foot-7 forward has taken a leadership role by the horns, and is ready to be the strong force Bordentown needs in the paint this season.
“I’m expecting a leadership role out of her,” Lloyd said. “All these girls came into practice a half hour early one day. Tati is the one who’s kind of set this culture for us, which is a change from what we’ve had in years past. Girls want to be here, girls want to practice, she’s kind of leading that. She’s the one saying ‘Girls we need to be out there, we need to be better, we need to work harder.’ I love what I’m seeing from her from a leadership standpoint. And from the whole team from a work standpoint.”
Green is making up for lost time as far as she is concerned. Missing that sophomore year still leaves a bad taste.
“I think (sitting out) just had to do with the circumstances that were happening with life,” Green said. “We were in on-line school. I hadn’t been out of the house or anything. I feel due to maybe mental issues I wasn’t capable of coming out and playing another season.”
That feeling didn’t last long.
“I immediately regretted it when the time came and I still regret that decision to this day,” she continued. “I would check on them, and I would just watch them in all the games they filmed. I knew after that; I was one hundred percent coming back. I spent that last summer practicing all that I could.”
It was the first year Green did not play organized basketball since fifth grade, when she joined the Bordentown Area Basketball League (BABL).
She stayed there through eighth grade and had some great times.
I really enjoyed BABL a lot,” she said. “It was just fun playing with my friends. It was like a community. A lot of the coaches were really excited for me. I was really tall. They were all teaching me that I had to use my height, use my arms. I had to jump. They made it a lot of fun.”
Green continued her career at Bordentown Middle School and became a starter in eighth grade, helping the team to an 8-3 record while putting up a solid stat line. In ninth grade, she was one of just two girls to be called up from the freshman to the JV, but Lloyd knew right away she had to work on her confidence.
“I don’t remember much of how she played, but I just knew that, ‘This girl needs to come out of her shell,’” the coach said. “She was timid, and she always questioned herself.”
Taking a year off didn’t help, but midway through last season, Lloyd saw a positive change in Green.
“It was kind of letting her figure it out on her own last year; like ‘Hey, I belong here. I can be successful with this,’” he said. “By the end of the year, she was like, ‘This is my show.’”
With Cosom graduated it truly does become Green’s show. She is the team’s leading returning scorer after averaging around nine points last year, and Lloyd hopes she will provide even more offense this year with the addition of Nottingham transfer Maddy Wylie.
“She’s gonna need to be a primary scorer,” Lloyd said. “She gets her points inside, getting rebounds, doing all the dirty work. We have two weapons in the lane now with Tati and Maddy, and we’re working on our guards getting the entry pass in to them.”
The Scotties will also depend on junior Lily Nucera and senior Madison Mazzilli to provide some offense after seeing ample time last year. And Lloyd hopes some seniors who have not played since they were freshmen can provide support.
“They’re some of our better athletes in the school,” he said. “After freshman year they decided they didn’t want to play basketball. So they’re bringing a lot of athleticism we haven’t had in a while. Not a lot of basketball experience, but they play other sports, they’re winners in other sports. I’m hoping they bring that mentality to basketball.”
Much will center on Green, however, and she knows it.
“I do feel the load is on me,” she said. “I feel like every year, there is somebody that needs to be relied on. I feel that this year some people are relying on me. But with that, I can also say that with the team we have this year, everyone can get involved. We have a lot of girls returning and new girls coming up with us. Having Maddie will help a lot.”
And she feels right at home in her leadership role. “It definitely came naturally,” she said. “A lot of the girls are my friends, sisters even. We’ve had practices over the summer that I organized. Building from that, to starting the season we kind of expected that was how my role would play out. I like getting the other girls involved in other stuff we can do.”
Probably the biggest suggestion given to Green came from Cosom last year, when she suggested that Tatiana was much better than she was playing.
“She told me I really was good and I just needed to get out of my head,” Green said. “She went on this whole long rant about how next year they’re really gonna need me and that I had to step up right away and help her. Oshynn was the only returning varsity starter and she needed help. I needed to learn how to work with her and help her out with all she was doing. Toward the end of the season, I did that.”
She’s looking forward to carrying that positive play right into this season. Green has no use for the pause button anymore.
Tatiana Green is the leading returning scorer for Bordentown Regional High School basketball. (Photo by Bill Lloyd.),
