It's no wonder his number is 33.
Whenever the UNM men's basketball team is in dire need of a 3-point field goal, all head coach Steve Alford has to do is draw up a double-screen play for Chad Toppert.
The sharp-shooting guard does the rest, nimbly navigating through a maze of picks.
"The offense that we have with coach Alford is awesome for me as a shooter, because he focuses on setting a lot of screens," Toppert said. "He's taught me how to read the screens and read where my man's at - if he's going to shoot the gap on the screen, then I can flare back and get my shot up. Or, if he's trailing me, I can curl it. Any way the defense plays me, I should be able to get a shot off."
But these instincts didn't just develop overnight; they've taken years to accrue.
"It's pretty easy to see how I've developed as a player," Toppert said. "I used to be a little, skinny senior, and now I'm a lot bigger. My game has developed, as well."
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Before coming to UNM, Toppert made his first appearance at The Pit during the 2004 New Mexico State Championship AAAA semifinals, where Toppert and Albuquerque Academy lost to the eventual-champion Capital Jaguars.
"It was a great experience. It was great to get my feet wet," Toppert said. "Now, I'm able to look back at all the games I've played here. It's been a great run."
And gun.
After shooting only 32.6 percent from 3-point range his freshman year, how did Toppert evolve into a long-range specialist?
"After my first season, I became more confident," Toppert said. "When I was a freshman, I was nervous, and now I'm just relaxed. I'm able to do what I do best, which is shoot the ball."
Toppert is one of the most efficient shooters in the NCAA.
Last year, he was No. 2 in the country in 3-point shooting percentage, draining 48 percent of his attempts, or 85 of 177.
Toppert said some of his teammates compare his feathery-soft touch to a Duke Blue Devil legend known for his 3-point prowess.
"I've heard a few comparisons between J.J. (Redick) and me," he said. "Curtis (Dennis) likes to tell me that I'm better than J.J. - that I could take him. That just shows the confidence my teammates have in me."
But is Toppert a better shooter than Redick?
"J.J. was an amazing shooter," Toppert said humbly. "I like to think I'm a good shooter."
Granted, Toppert hasn't attempted or made nearly as many 3-pointers as Redick - Redick made an NCAA-record 457 and attempted 1,128 - but unless Toppert concludes this season shooting less than 36 percent from behind the arc - he has made 45.7 percent of his attempts in his career thus far - he will finish his career with a better 3-point percentage than Redick, who shot 40.5 percent in his career at Duke.
Still, at 6-feet-7-inches, Toppert doesn't fit the typical mold of a shooting guard. He said he is working diligently on his interior presence.
"I'm a big guard," he said. "Anytime I get it down (in the paint), I need to capitalize on going against the smaller guards. Right now, I'm just working on doing other things because teams are going to read where I'm at, and they're not going to give me as many good looks."
And if he wants to reach the 1,000-point plateau - Toppert has 700 career points - he'll need enough good looks to score 300 points, meaning he'll need to average about 9.7 points per game in UNM's 31 games.
But Toppert said "if it happens, it happens; if it doesn't, it doesn't."
"That would be an accomplishment," he said. "It's an elite group of players that have reached that feat. If you think about all that stuff - if you think about me leading the nation in 3-point shooting and all that - it's not going to happen."
One thing Toppert doesn't have to think about is shooting. He already has a reputation for it.
"Scott Galetti gave me a new nickname the other day - 'Mr. Money in the Bank,'" he said.
