WSR Full Court Report

But could you knock them down in pressure situations instead of an empty gym with no one watching?

I'm sure Miller is doing all he can to get the players to focus and knock them down, especially in crunch time. Still, there is only so much he can do. Stick to the same process every time and for the love of FT's, take your time! you have 10 seconds.

My routine at the line was always the same - deep breath, 3 dribbles, deep breath again, bend the knees and shoot.

The weird thing is, the players we expect to knock them down are struggling but the one's we expect to miss, don't.

I was also a pretty fair FT shooter in the day. I was usually always the one to shoot when the other team committed a technical foul on every team I was on.

When my boys were playing HS BB we always had FT contests on our court at home. They couldn't beat me. I once hit 77 in a row. This is what I learned about shooting Free Throws. And at that point I wasn't even seriously practicing.

For me, the first thing was learning the right mechanics. I studied all the great FT shooters from Bill Sharmen to Mike Newlin to Calvin Murphy. I have never seen a great shooter with bad form or mechanics. Never. By great, I mean the high eighties or over 90%.

Armed with that understanding, I knew that I would improve my chances by being great at that, and though it sounds a bit immodest, I did.

Even today, I believe I can make most average shooters better by an analysis of their form. Except Shaq. His hands are just so disproportionate to the size of the ball.

For instance, had it been me, I would have worked at correcting Jesse Perry's horrible form.
He is OK, but the flying right elbow is atrocious. But there is another, psychological reason. I truly believe great FT shooters are awarded MORE FTs by the refs. If Perry was an 80% FT shooter, I believe he would go to the line MORE. Sounds counterintuitive doesn't it? But I think that refs reward better FT shooters with more opportunities. It's a totally subconscious thing, but if you're a bad FT shooter, the mindset is, "you shoot so badly, why should you be rewarded?"

As the PAC 12 tourney unfolds and then the NCAAs, try my theory out. Perry gets a lot of contact down low. So did Williams. But Williams went to the line much more often. Williams was like silk from anywhere. It was like, "you're a good shooter -- you've earned it."

LOL. Blk Mtn. i know exactly what you are all talking about. What should happen is run sprints..stop and concentrate on the FT shooting. That way you are mimicking a game. If I were to do that I am sure I'd shot over. 90%. (lol).

I was a horrible free throw shooter. I was also a horrible shooter. I was a great rebounder as long as I was playing people who were at least 6 inches shorter and three years younger. I could not dribble or pass and was a walking turnover machine. I am pretty certain that I never once was where I was supposed to be in the very simple offense we ran at Sabino Junior High School in 1979 and I was always totally befuddled by what the coach was trying to tell me. In my peer group, I have always been one of the slowest and least athletic people. I was at that a age a tweener. Not quite tall enough to play forward and not skilled enough to play guard. A buddy of mine used to routinely beat me at H-O-R-S-E by making simple lay-ups.

I practiced what seemed like millions of free throws and coach patiently tried to teach me the proper mechanics and form...and I always worked hard and listened and did my best but I am living proof that hard work and proper mechanics mean almost nothing if you are not tall and athletic in Basketball.

Nick Anderson missing the free throws against Houston in first game of the championship series 1995 still proves that you can be good, but when it counts you need steel nerves too. He didn't have them.

Tewa,

Completely agree, I think even Nick would have to agree to that. It was an epic fail. Without any fear of overstatement I have never seen some one choke quite as bad as that.
And let me add that even though I was rooting for Houston against Orlando back then, and I disliked Anderson because I thought he was an overrated player going back to his Illinois days, that even I could not imagine he would crash so utterly and couldn't grasp how his career imploded afterwards..

The guy went from a fair free throw shooter to one that could not be trusted to even play in the final minutes of games within almost seconds............