There are so many things that make Zahra King stand out, that's it's hard to pick just one to focus on.

Looking from outside, you see that the 5-foot 9-inch sophomore guard is consistent. Game in and game out, you know what to expect from her. She has scored double digits points in five of her first seven games. She's averaging 13.4 points per game, shooting 55.9% from the field (5^th in the ACC) and is averaging nearly 2 steals per game. King was a perfect 8-of-8 shooting, scoring 18 points in the team's victory over Winthrop.

When the Mustangs need a stop or a basket, chances are King will be involved.

Head Coach Adia Barnes will tell you that she's the "total package." King is smart, can shoot and has these incredible moves that even make Barnes stop and look.

King herself will share a lot of the little things that go into her game, however, describes her game as being "explosive and smooth."

"It's very New York; I play like a New York hooper," King said.

Everything starts here. It's in how she plays, her hype music and her mentality.

A native of Brooklyn, King started playing basketball at a young age, following in her brother Nate's footsteps. Nate is a year older than his sister Zahra. She did everything he did. They played at St. John's Recreation Center, as well as in the parks.

"I was only playing with boys," Zahra King said. "With boys, they're a little faster, they're a little rougher, more athletic, and so I picked up on stuff that they did."

She also watched a lot of NBA guards and still does. Dallas' Kyrie Irving is one of her favorite players and whatever she saw him do in a game, the very next day King was in the park trying to do the same moves. She tried to emulate everything from his ball handling to the way he creates space and his floater game.  

She also did this with other guards like retired NBAer Dwayne Wade, Sacramento's Russell Westbrook and now she's added New York's Jalen Brunson and reigning NBA MVP from Oklahoma Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.

For King, it's a lot of "watching and mimicking."

"That's how I say my game formulated," King said. "Playing in the parks is gritty, hardcore. You're on the ground a lot, scraping your knees. I never really worried about contact or getting fouled. But you always obviously come up with different creative ways to manipulate the ball. … That's how my game developed.

"My dad always emphasized the ball handle when I was young. He was like, 'You're a guard, so you need to learn how to dribble the ball, and I want you to have a swag when you dribble.' Those are the things that I worked on growing up, and I still work on it. When I do crazy stuff in the games, or what people think is crazy, and they're like, 'How'd you do it?' I am like, 'Well, I've been practicing stuff like this since I was younger, so it comes second nature to me when I do it.'"

Getting better every day
That want to get better every single day is ingrained in King, which makes her a good fit for Barnes and the SMU program. For Barnes, it's all about getting 1% better every day.

Besides practicing and experimenting, King watches lots of basketball. From NBA games to her own. She watches film with her coaches. Before that she'll watch the full game back after it ends, plus the clips of her offensive and defensive performances.

King studies both makes and misses on the offensive side. She's trying to understand the angles. She'll stop the clip and replay it to think about things like where the defender's top foot was and better ways to attack the basket, as well as what she can do to prevent a second defender from stepping over.

King also looks at how the ball bounces off the rim to determine where to position herself for rebounds and different ways to contain her opponent on the defensive end.

Since King arrived on SMU's campus in June as a transfer from Cal, she's gotten better at reading the defense and being able to see, as she said, "the play behind the play." She knows this is still a work in progress.

Another thing King has been working on in her individual training sessions with SMU assistant Salvo Coppa is finishing on balance. She does a spin and fades away from the basket and doesn't wait for her defender to "jump and fly by me."

"That little pump fake could get me another free, open shot without it having to be contested," King said. "Being more patient when I'm finishing at the basket can help me maximize my athleticism."

It's all in the routine
Typically, when you hear that an athlete has a routine you might think about them always tying the laces on the right shoe first or only eating certain foods, however King's routine is different.

It starts the night before with journaling. She visualizes what she seems for herself in the game, her goals, how she feels about everything, including her preparation.

"I re-center and refocus my mind on the game plan, the scout and what we have going on," King said.

Before the game King listens to motivational speeches, something she's been doing since high school. This helps her get locked in and bring the fire and energy for the game.

Next up, she listens to two different types of music. First, it is Disney music while she takes a pre-game nap. She's found that Disney has a lot of affirmations and is lighthearted. It helps her relax and not "feel like the weight of the world is on your shoulders."

Next, to get into game mode, it's only fitting that King goes New York.

She switches to more energetic music during warmups -- what she calls New York Drill, which is a subgenre of hip hop. She listens to Jay Z, Cam'ron, Nas and others.

"Technically, it's not New York Drill music," King said. "New York Drill is more like 2010-2020 kind of music, but I categorize it all as the same, like new New York music and old school New York music. I categorize it as all drill because it's heavy hitter, hard core type of music."

Her routine is definitely working. King feels comfortable at SMU and in Dallas, and especially with Barnes and the program.

King said that SMU's pro-style system and Barnes fit her New York mentality.

"The thing that drew me to coach Adia was her realness," King said. "Being from New York, we don't really sugarcoat things. Knowing that coach Adia has that same mentality. She doesn't have time to sugarcoat things or tell you one thing and not follow through. You ask a question; she'll tell you what it is. That's what I appreciate about her.

"Coach Adia's system is very freeing. I'm very good at one-on-one basketball, because I grew up playing in the parks. I grew up playing in New York, and our main thing is street ball. … Coach Aida allows me to play, and she allows me to hoop the way that I play, obviously with the reads and stuff like that. I'm still getting better with that, making the right decisions, understanding time and score and pace and different things like the little nuances of the game. But she's never, from what I've experienced, tried to pigeonhole me and say, 'Oh, you can't shoot this type of shot.' She encourages my athleticism, me driving to the basket, me playing freely and stuff like that. That's what I really like about it. I feel free while I'm playing."