Her teammates call Kate Kevorken "The Encyclopedia." And she's fine with that.
The senior on the Nevada women's basketball team is the Pack's leading scorer -- but she also claims she's the smartest player on the team.
Kevorken has a 3.96 GPA as a dual major in biology and community health sciences and plans to go to medical school to become an orthopedic surgeon. So she might be right, as she often is.
"I'm the smart one on the team. ... So they give me a really hard time. They call me 'The Encyclopedia' because I pretty much know pretty much anything. Like any question, they know they can ask me directions or any stupid celebrity thing, I have pretty good knowledge," Kevorken said. "I have a really good memory so I remember a lot of things. I'm just curious. I love knowing everything. My mind is in a different direction. I always pay attention to little details."
The guard, who transferred to Nevada from Northern Colorado, is averaging 16.9 points per game, which ranks third in the Western Athletic Conference in scoring. Last season, she averaged 4.7 points per game.
"She's so much more physical and wanting to get contact this year," teammate and classmate Kayla Williams said.
Off the court, Williams said Kevorken is "goofy... But she's fun to be around."
One of three captains for Nevada (3-11), Kevorken has no problem being the target of her teammates' good-natured kidding.
"They make fun of me a lot because I'm easy to make fun of and I don't mind being made fun of," she said. "I'm an easy target for them."
Last season, the 6-foot Kevorken was playing behind post players Shavon Moore and Williams.
She saw an opportunity though, and spent the offseason in Reno, working out with longtime area player development coach Aubrey McCreary, now an assistant with the Cleveland Cavaliers. Kevorken improved her release and her quickness and learned to create her own shot.
"I'm trying to stay consistent. I'm not so worried about my points, I'm worried about helping this team win," Kevorken said. "I know anyone on this team can hit shots, especially if they're open."
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Road to Reno
Kevorken was lightly recruited out of high school. She played at Thousand Oaks High in Southern California for three years before graduating from Westlake High School in Westlake, Calif. She did not play her senior year, though, as her mother, Cindy, was battling breast cancer and Kate helped her father, Mike, take care of her younger siblings, Scott (18) and Nicole (14). Scott plays volleyball at UC Irvine and her parents stay busy trying to attend his home games as well as all of Kate's basketball games. She also has an older sister Megan (23).
Kevorken played soccer and basketball as a child, but embraced basketball at age 14, calling it her passion.
"Before every game I say I'm going to go play for that little girl who fell in love with game when she was 5 years old. Because she's not going to play much longer," Kevorken said.
Her family has a summer house at Lake Tahoe and Kevorken grew up there. But at the time she had no idea there was a university nearby in Reno. She went to Northern Colorado because she wanted to play right away.
After two seasons there, she contacted Nevada coach Jane Albright, hoping to play closer to home.
"I like being just far enough away, but close enough my family can come to games," Kevorken quickly asserts, smiling.
Kevorken has moved to the three-guard spot this season, in order to draw defenders out and open up the lane for Williams.
What's next
She is open to the idea of playing basketball overseas for a year or two, if that opportunity presents itself.
"I never thought about it before this year. I would love to go play overseas and experience it. It's not my life or career goal," she said. "I would love for this not to be the end for me. You play all these years and you never know there will be an end. It's kind of scary."
Although the Wolf Pack has struggled this season, Kevorken said the record will improve as the team learns to play together.
"We've made a lot of improvement over the last couple weeks, whether people see it or not. We've been running the ball a lot more in transition, getting back a lot better," she said. "We're young and haven't played together a lot. The past couple months we've learned who should get the ball, where to pass the ball. The past three games are the best we've played as a team whether we had wins or not."
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