THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, February 13, 1995 TAG: 9502130132
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Column
SOURCE: Bob Molinaro
LENGTH: Medium: 99 lines
When the pep bands play and the fans scream and the players roar, college basketball becomes an entertaining, sweat-soaked symphony.
But, in recent years, something has been missing from this sweet harmony of sounds.
What's missing is string music.
It's been replaced by the clank of ball hitting rim. By mortar shots, bricks and backboard breakers. By the sounds of silence (airballs). By the groans of the crowd following missed free throws.
Don't even mention free-throw shooting around college coaches unless you want to ruin their day. Poor free-throw shooting, says William and Mary coach Charlie Woollum, is nothing less than ``a national epidemic.''
But, then, shooting the basketball in general is becoming a lost art in America. Used to be, a kid would hoist up a shot and say, ``Nothing but net.''
Nowadays, that should be changed to ``Nothing but nyet.'' ``The thing that excites them today,'' says Old Dominion coach Jeff Capel, ``is going to the playground and dunking on people.''
Former ODU coach Paul Webb runs a series of summer basketball camps for kids of all ages.
``You ask them how many outside shots they think they should take each day in order to become a better shooter,'' Webb says. ``A boy will raise his hand and say, `Twenty-five.' Another will say, `Thirty.' ''
Webb tells them, ``Try 200. Try 300.''
``They don't understand,'' he says, ``the importance of repetition.''
What the kids understand are the MTV-style video highlights that are one long blur of shake-and-bake and slam-dunk. They want to be like Michael Jordan without the good practice habits. Lest you think the coaches are being too tough on the kids, check out the statistics offered by the NCAA.
Shooting accuracy is down in college hoops for the sixth year in a row. The nationwide field goal percentage is in the neighborhood of 44. That's not Mr. Robinson's neighborhood. That's more like Al Bundy's neighborhood.
As for three-point shooting, at midseason that was down to 34.2 percent, which would be an all-time low.
Free-throw accuracy - if you'll pardon the expression - is a brick or two shy of 66 percent. Not since 1958 has the country shot so poorly from the foul line.
An epidemic, indeed.
While these statistics may not interrupt the public's enjoyment of the sport, they drive coaches to distraction.
``When kids go home for the summer,'' says Woollum, ``they've got to practice foul shooting like they practice everything else.''
The evidence would seem to indicate that they aren't. As a team, William and Mary shoots 63 percent from the line. ``That's horrible,'' Woollum says.
Not to pick on the Tribe, but in its six-point loss last week to James Madison, William and Mary made only 27 of 76 field-goal attempts, including an alarming 2 for 17 from three-point range.
At one time or another, every team puts up ``sadistics'' like that. Georgetown, in a recent loss to Boston College, missed 28 of 34 3-pointers. Players have been getting more 3-point happy each year. But defenses are catching up.
``There are still a lot of good shooters out there, but coaches have developed new techniques to stop three-pointers,'' says Pete Strickland, former ODU assistant now with Oliver Purnell at Dayton.
Strickland suggests that the 35-second shot clock also plays a role in declining accuracy.
``It makes you take more hurried shots than when the clock was 45 seconds,'' he says.
Here's another theory behind ineffectual shooting: Muscle-bound athletes. Some players spend more time holding a barbell than a basketball. It shows.
``Athletes today are bigger and stronger,'' says Capel, whose team leads the CAA in free-throw percentage, at 71. ``But strength doesn't necessarily help your shooting touch.''
``If you don't shoot as much as you lift,'' says Strickland, ``your muscles get tight.''
Many athletes are creations of a style that puts more emphasis on rugged, physical play than on deft shooting. As a result, says Strickland, ``Glass eaters who aren't working on their shooting enough are getting to the line more.''
And missing more.
One player who puts the free back in free throw is ODU's Petey Sessoms, an 85 percent shooter.
``Confidence,'' says Sessoms, is the key to success from the line.
But practice is vital, too. Repetition is a simple concept that is missed by a lot of glass eaters, as well as point guards.
``Guys used to go out and shoot 100 free throws in a row,'' Woollum says. ``Now, everybody plays in games.''
They bring that go-go style to a college game that is more wide open than ever. We can thank the 3-point shot for that.
But the trey, along with the free throw, also exposes weaknesses. Today's college players fire from long distances. They have great shooting range.
What many of them don't have, even from 15 feet away, is making range.
When the pep bands play and the fans scream and the players roar, college basketball becomes an entertaining, sweat-soaked symphony. by CNB