Seeing It Happen
Visualization and meditation are prominent elements in Jared McCain's toolbox
Meredith Rieder, GoDuke The Magazine
Jared McCain knocks down a dagger three from the left corner in front of Duke’s bench. The Crazies inside Cameron Indoor Stadium erupt in pure elation as the Blue Devils wrap up yet another victory at the historic college basketball venue. In the privacy of the home locker room, it’s unabashed joy shared by each member of The Brotherhood. McCain has plans to repay his family and everybody who has helped him to get to this point. He’s constantly working and picturing himself reaching new goals and doing it all while taking in each moment with joyous ease.
At least that’s how the rookie sharpshooter visualizes it happening. Coupled with an incredible work ethic and innate talent, McCain’s practice of visualization has the freshman guard shooting 41.5 percent from long range, averaging 12.1 points per game and the Blue Devils ranked No. 12 nationally with a 14-4 record.
“The visualization and manifesting everything in my life came probably my senior year (of high school),” said McCain. “I watched a movie with my mom when I was younger called The Secret. It talks about the law of attraction and really believing in yourself and seeing your future before it happens, and I’ve just been doing it ever since. It’s fun. It’s fun visualizing me hitting shots in big games.”
McCain talked briefly earlier in the season about his commitment to visualization after he knocked down a crucial three-pointer to extend Duke’s lead down the stretch in the thrilling 78-70 win over No. 10 Baylor inside Madison Square Garden. McCain finished the night with 21 points on 7-of-11 shooting and frustrated the Bears’ guards all night with his tireless defense.
“I visualized that exact shot I hit in the Baylor game before it happened,” McCain said.
The mental aspect of McCain’s game isn’t new to him, but like everything with basketball, he has worked hard at honing it. McCain is self-aware — he knows he isn’t the fastest player or one who can jump the highest — but his desire to work and succeed is where he is confident he can’t be beat. He won’t be outworked.
“I’m definitely not the most athletic jumping-wise, laterally or anything like that, not the fastest, but I just learned to work hard and find those moments when I can work harder than someone else,” McCain said.
McCain, of course, grew up with basketball, joining a team at age four after he passed his dad’s test of making a basket on a 10-foot rim. He played up with his brother, Jayce, who is four years older, for much of his childhood, which also has proven to be beneficial as his career continued.
It wasn’t all smooth sailing though. The first points McCain ever scored were on the wrong basket. It was all uphill from that point on.
McCain, despite playing competitively at such an early age, didn’t specialize in basketball. He loved baseball as a kid, and he also played soccer and some football.
“Baseball was one of my favorite sports when I was younger,” McCain said. “I actually have a drawing where I wanted to play in the MLB and basketball was my second sport. I picked basketball in eighth grade.”
Coincidentally or not, eighth grade is also when he realized he was getting pretty good at the game invented by James Naismith in 1891.
Another source of motivation came from seeing first-hand how much recognition his cousin, Devin Askew, was getting and McCain thought to himself, “Oh, if he can do it. I can do it.” Askew went to play at Kentucky and is now a senior guard for the Cal Bears.
McCain moved from Sacramento down to Los Angeles to live with Askew, working out with his cousin hoping to match his success. Along the way, McCain learned working hard was going to be his ticket to success.
“I was working out with (my cousin) and I learned that working is the easiest way to get where I wanted to go,” McCain said. “The hard work will always pay off. I started watching a lot of Kobe stuff and just learning that mentality of working harder than everybody else.”
McCain’s work ethic — you can catch him in the gym after practice working on his game individually — along with his other three classmates jumped out immediately to head coach Jon Scheyer. It was during the summer workouts when the second-year head coach realized he had an exceptional group with McCain being a leader among them.
“The motivation they have is greater than any freshman class I’ve been around in terms of being hungry and being hard-working,” said Scheyer. “It’s very rare that you have a whole group of individuals that come in and are in the gym every day at 6 a.m. They want to come in and work. They want to learn.”
With talent, drive and the full support of his family, McCain continued to develop his game and started turning heads and getting college offers the summer of his sophomore year.
“Covid was my freshman year for summer basketball,” McCain said. “I came back for U16 my sophomore year summer and that’s when I started getting the offers and that’s when I was like ‘Wow, I think I’m good at this, really good at this.’”
After starting to dabble in yoga and meditation a couple of years prior, McCain committed to the practice in high school. It started to help the physical side of his game and has since evolved into allowing him to be present and centered in his everyday life.
“I have really tight hips, so I knew with yoga it was going to help me physically,” McCain said. “Once I started reading more about it and listening to how they speak about yoga it was more the breathing and being centered and finding balance in your life off the mat. That’s been one of the hardest things to do, I think — find the breath and being present off the mat, but I think I’ve gotten really good at being present. That’s my biggest accomplishment.”
McCain doesn’t have a set schedule of when he goes through the processes, rather it happens organically throughout his days. Everything from when he’s in the shower to brushing his teeth and of course every night when he’s going to bed. That’s when he visualizes all the fun things that could happen. On basketball gamedays McCain turns his focus to the game in front of him.
“On gamedays, I do take some time to visualize, close my eyes and lock into the game and what I think is going to happen,” McCain said. “Making a defensive play, hearing the crowd, really specific things, coming back into the locker room after the game and celebrating, just different things like that.”
McCain’s focus on remaining centered and practicing gratitude for every day — a major theme within yoga — has allowed the young 19-year-old to be incredibly grounded. And perhaps, his strongest gift is his commitment to being his authentic self. That’s central to McCain. He can’t imagine being any other way.
“Just being myself has always been key for me and huge for me,” McCain said. “I write it down in my journal every single morning. I think the question is – ‘What are three things that will make today great?’ The first thing I write down is just being myself. That’s been huge for me, especially coming to Duke and being put into in new environments, always trying to be myself.”
Scheyer recognizes the challenges of being a young player and especially what can happen when the Blue Devils lose a game. It hasn’t phased McCain and the other younger players in Scheyer’s eyes, and that persistence and fortitude are paying dividends.
“College basketball can be so up and down,” said Scheyer. “And I think Jared heard it early on, just the reaction that people can have of Duke losing. And for us to be in some big-time games right away, and we didn't play our best in a couple of those. We didn't finish in two of them. We have two wins right there and we didn't finish. But we went through some stuff together. I give them credit for just putting their heads down and working.”
When you sit down and speak with McCain, you leave a little in awe. This young man is so mature and confident in who he is and what he is capable of you find yourself asking, “How is this young man able to brush off the comments people make about him painting his nails or those who criticize him about spending time on TikTok?” – where, we must note, he has over two million followers.
The answer isn’t simple. But his family is certainly paramount to how McCain landed at Duke.
Who was there when the 6-3 guard was working to follow in his cousin’s footsteps? None other than his older brother.
“My brother has always been my biggest supporter and he’s always told me, ‘It’s gonna happen. You’re going to get your moment,’” McCain said.
His parents were steadfast in their support of anything he did, including him painting his nails. He always felt their love, allowing him just to be himself. His family is the backbone to his success, and he is fortunate enough to have them close by now with Jayce serving as a graduate assistant for the program and his parents moving to the area to be around both of their sons.
“It’s been the best thing that can happen for me,” McCain said about having his family here. “Having my brother with the team talking to me and encouraging me. There’s obviously ups and downs as a freshman so just having him here to be able to instill confidence in me at all times has been (the best). He’ll drop anything to help me, and I thank him so much for that.”
McCain has plans to repay his family and everybody who has helped him to get to this point. He’s constantly working and picturing himself reaching new goals and doing it all while taking in each moment with joyous ease.
This story originally appeared in the 15.6 issue of GoDuke The Magazine – January 2024. Dedicated to sharing the stories of Duke student-athletes, present and past, GoDuke The Magazine is published for Duke Athletics by LEARFIELD with editorial offices at 3100 Tower Blvd., Suite 404, Durham, NC 27707. To subscribe, join the Iron Dukes or call 336-831-0767.