The more Miami won in the NBA playoffs, the more fans and friends reached out to Travis Riesop to tell him how surprised they were at how well Tyler Herro was playing.
“Me, I was thinking, ‘He’s always been that way. Why did you just figure that out?” said Riesop, Herro’s coach at Whitnall High School in Greenfield, Wisconsin.
Herro scored over 2,000 points and averaged 32.9 points per game his senior season before heading to Kentucky where he averaged 14 points, 4.5 rebounds and 2.5 assists per game in his only season. He was the 13th pick in the 2019 NBA Draft and emerged as a national star during the NBA bubble.
“I got asked a lot if I was surprised at what he did,” Riesop said. “I have always felt like as Tyler gets more acclimated and gets more comfortable and has a defined role he just gets better. The stuff I read about the chemistry the Heat had was something he thrives off of. He did in high school and he did at Kentucky.
“He could not have gone to a better organization for him. They just had a lot of gritty guys with chips on their shoulders wanting to prove they were damn good basketball players. For him it was just the perfect scenario and he played huge minutes and became a problem to guard for a lot of guys.”
Herro scored in double figures in 20 straight playoffs games. He became the youngest player ever to start a NBA Finals game. He set a record for 3-pointers by a rookie in the playoffs and became just the sixth rookie to score over 300 playoff points. He became the first player 20 or younger to score 37 points in a conference final. In the 21 playoff games he averaged 16.5 points, 4.0 rebounds and 3.0 assists per game.
“He has that sneaky athleticism. He is like a predator in the weeds just sitting and waiting for his opportunity. If he sees success, then his confidence really goes through the roof,” Riesop said. “If you watch and he makes one or two shots, he gets on a roll and you can just see that energy. You could see it at Kentucky.”
Riesop said Herro’s rise has been like a fairy tale. Two years ago he was playing in high school, played a year at UK, got drafted and then was in the NBA bubble where he helped the Heat reach the championship series.
“It was a pretty surreal experience,” Riesop said. “People talk to me about having a Division I player on my team. My dad coached and knows a lot of guys that had maybe one D-1 player in their whole careers. I had one in my first year of coaching and now he’s a NBA player. How awesome is that? But Tyler is also a great role model for kids in our community.”
Herro was not exactly a folk hero when he reneged on his verbal commitment to Wisconsin and then left the state to play at Kentucky. He was booed during his senior season regularly by opposing fans.
“The community of Whitnall always had his back. Our school and community were really excited for him,” Riesop said. “It (fan hatred) is just water under the bridge. It’s hard to say you dislike him. Not a lot of guys from our home state do what he has. He’s never been in trouble. He just played basketball and is damn good at it.
“I think true basketball fans are now admiring how good a player he is with the way he performed during his rookie year and then elevated his play at the end.”
Riesop said there’s one other reason even Wisconsin fans are now gravitating more to Herro’s success.
“He’s really a likable guy and Kentucky fans already knew that,” Herro’s high school coach said. “You don’t look at him and say he’s way too cocky. He has a little smirk but he credits teammates all the time for his success. I feel like he just tries to soak in all the experience and he just enjoys what he’s doing. At Kentucky they had a lot of stars and he played his role but at the end in the big games he did more. Now he’s started to showcase even more of what he can do in the NBA.”
