Utes Seek a Balance in Improving Free-Throw Shooting
Speaking of free throws, coach Jim Boylen has had to alter his teaching strategy a little bit.
While he made the Utes run a variety of sprints when they missed certain free throws during practice earlier in the season, he has had to quit doing so, to avoid wearing out a team that is dangerously thin.
"I can't burn my guys' legs out," he said. "Earlier in the year, it was '17s' and 'down-and-backs.' ... I can't do that now, so we're doing push-ups."
Boylen said he has evaluated all of his players' form on free throws, and changed only a few of them -- including freshman guard Carlon Brown, junior center Luke Nevill (he held the ball too low before attempting a shot, Boylen said) and even junior guard Tyler Kepkay, the best foul shooter of the bunch.
"The more moving parts, the more room there is for something to break down," Boylen said. "It's like a car, a machine. So I try to shorten my guys' shots up, and get them on their toes and all of that. So if I see something mechanically wrong, I change it right away."
Kepkay, he said, was holding the ball against his stomach before he shot -- something Boylen believed led to Kepkay having a tendency to shift his balance ever-so-slightly backward as he shot. Kepkay is shooting 84.4 percent from the line this season, even after his crucial miss in the overtime loss at New Mexico the other night.
Past evaluation and practice, though, there isn't much Boylen feels he can do to improve free-throw shooting.
"If you over-talk about it? Now it's in their head," he said. "If you under-talk about it, you feel like you're not doing your job. If you put them in pressure situations and they make them in practice, what are you supposed to do? To me, you keep putting them in pressure situations, and it's going to kick in."
While he made the Utes run a variety of sprints when they missed certain free throws during practice earlier in the season, he has had to quit doing so, to avoid wearing out a team that is dangerously thin.
"I can't burn my guys' legs out," he said. "Earlier in the year, it was '17s' and 'down-and-backs.' ... I can't do that now, so we're doing push-ups."
Boylen said he has evaluated all of his players' form on free throws, and changed only a few of them -- including freshman guard Carlon Brown, junior center Luke Nevill (he held the ball too low before attempting a shot, Boylen said) and even junior guard Tyler Kepkay, the best foul shooter of the bunch.
"The more moving parts, the more room there is for something to break down," Boylen said. "It's like a car, a machine. So I try to shorten my guys' shots up, and get them on their toes and all of that. So if I see something mechanically wrong, I change it right away."
Kepkay, he said, was holding the ball against his stomach before he shot -- something Boylen believed led to Kepkay having a tendency to shift his balance ever-so-slightly backward as he shot. Kepkay is shooting 84.4 percent from the line this season, even after his crucial miss in the overtime loss at New Mexico the other night.
Past evaluation and practice, though, there isn't much Boylen feels he can do to improve free-throw shooting.
"If you over-talk about it? Now it's in their head," he said. "If you under-talk about it, you feel like you're not doing your job. If you put them in pressure situations and they make them in practice, what are you supposed to do? To me, you keep putting them in pressure situations, and it's going to kick in."
posted by www.sltrib.com @ 2:36 PM |
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