Kenzie Hare is a sharpshooting guard for the Marquette women's basketball team. Here's how she developed her craft.

Kenzie Hare has the look of a natural shooter.

The quick release. The tight rotation of the ball. The unerring confidence that the next three-point attempt is going to splash through the net.

But the sophomore guard for the Marquette women's team had to work her way to that deadeye marksmanship.

“Up until about seventh grade, I was just really, like, scrappy," Hare said. "Like I would get on the ground a bunch. I wore knee pads and the things would break immediately and have to get a new one every two weeks.

"It was not until middle school that I was like, alright, I got to get better at something and it’s going to be shooting. My sister was a great shooter, so I was just like, alright, I’ll just pick up on those things."

Hare is shooting a scorching 27 for 48 (56.3%) on three-pointers, a big reason why the 23rd-ranked Golden Eagles (7-0) are off to a hot start .

"I think it just opens things up," MU teammate Rose Nkumu said of Hare's shooting. "A lot of teams lose her because she moves so much.

"So I think just the ability for us to be able get to the paint, be able to find her and locate her, we know she’s always hunting that shot, so being able to get her the ball on time in her pocket, leads to her hitting those big shots."

Hare learned to get shot off quickly

Hare grew up in a basketball family in Bartlett, Illinois.

Her parents coached Hare on youth teams and her older sister, Kayla, became a sharpshooter who played at Missouri-St. Louis.

Hare dedicated herself to shooting, even with an unconventional form that almost goes across her body. But that process works because she relentlessly drilled it with her AAU coach.

"We did a lot of shooting," Hare said. "A lot of driveway shooting, for sure, and then developing from there.

"My form isn’t really conventional. I don’t know, it just works. I definitely wasn’t taught that. It’s kind of just how it ended up."

A key aspect is Hare's quick release. She can squeeze off a shot in the briefest of windows.

"That’s something we worked on," Hare said. "My AAU coach would set the shooting machine at really fast. So it would come at me and I had to let it go before (the next ball) because it was going to hit me. Especially being kind of a smaller guard. It helps me a lot being able to get it off."

Hare became a prolific scorer at Bartlett High School and then Naperville North for her senior season. She made 398 three-pointers in high school, the 10th-most in Illinois history.

Hare committed to Lisa Stone at St. Louis University, but reopened her recruitment when Stone was fired. MU head coach Megan Duffy quickly pounced on Hare.

Hare also developing all-around game

Hare had a solid freshman season, playing 17.7 minutes off the bench and making 49 of her team-high 158 three-point attempts.

"Everything is moving fast," Duffy said. "The demands of practice, all those things that just go into your day. From class to tutoring to extra film.

"I think sometimes you never feel totally comfortable that freshman year and I think Kenzie really does now. I think she’s confident, she’s poised. She’s added different things to her game other than just being a shooter, too. And I just think she’s turned that corner into that second year."

Hare has been working on pulling up from midrange and also attacking the basket. She gets up a lot of reps in her practice sessions.

"I like to get a lot of game shots," Hare said. "So we’ll work out with my assistant coaches, a lot of coming off stagger screens, drive and kicks. Where I’m moving. Like a flare screen. Of course getting to my spots, catch and shoots. Especially when I’m tired, because it’s really big to hit shots when you’re tired."

Hare traces MU's early success back to a foreign trip the team took to Italy and Greece in the summer.

"We really bonded," she said. "All summer, we worked really hard. Obviously with six new girls it’s tough. You got to connect with them all. You got to see what they bring to the table.

"So that was kind of tough early, but we connected really fast. Especially outside of basketball and getting that to translate to the court. It’s been really good. Especially you see when we move the ball it looks really good."

It might look the best when the ball finds Hare behind the three-point line.

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