Every team needs a go-to guy. But the best teams have options to spare. ESPN The Magazine profiles Ryan Mendez, Chris Duhon, Andre Hutson and Sergio McClain.

Every bit the brainy Stanford type, Ryan Mendez knows what folks really mean when they toss that "pure shooter" label his way. Can't drive, can't board, can't pass, right? Well, yeah, at least that's how it was for the first three seasons of his career. "I used to stand around the three-point line all game long, afraid to make a mistake," he says.

No more. After an off-season of working on everything but his outside shot, the Cardinal's starting small forward (11 ppg, 38% on threes) now penetrates, dishes to the Collins twins and gets his butt to the line, where he shoots a D1-best 95%. In the process, he and lead gunner Casey Jacobsen have helped transform Stand-ford into a dynamic force that can improvise in the halfcourt and run in the open court. "We've learned how to put the ball on the floor and create," coach Mike Montgomery says. "That's helped our confidence a great deal."

The 6'7" Mendez has solidified his game with help from an unlikely tutor: ever-perky Olympic gymnast Kerri Strug, a classmate and one of his closest friends. When Jacobsen stole his starting 2-spot as a frosh last season, Mendez says his career hit a new low (previous low: having to redshirt his third year following surgery to relieve tendinitis in his left knee). Strug, overshadowed herself by Kim Zmeskal and Dominique Moceanu before her ankle-hobbled flip in the '96 Olympics, could relate -- and she helped rebuild his confidence. "He didn't always have that killer instinct," she says. "But this year, he believes in himself a lot more."

It was Mendez who grabbed a huge offensive rebound and hit four clutch free throws to seal the Cardinal's second-round win over St. Joseph's. Should Stanford find its way to Minneapolis, Strug will make the journey to revel in her reclamation project -- and maybe to put in some more work. Says Mendez: "If we're not playing for the national championship, I'll be devastated."

This article appears in the April 2 issue of ESPN The Magazine. E-mail Scott Burton at scott.burton@espnmag.com.