Buzz Williams Tries to Remedy Hokies' Free Throw Woes, Sees Some Early Results

The Virginia Tech basketball team is one of the worst free throw shooting teams in the entire country. There's no getting around it.

Yet similarly set in stone is the fact that the Hokies also just managed to close out a pair of wins largely on the strength of their performance at the foul line in the last few minutes of the game.

So how on Earth could a squad that's currently sinking just 58.6 percent of its shots at the charity stripe, a mark placing it just decimal points above esteemed programs like Tennessee State (56.3%) or Savannah State (53.2%), somehow turn into a team with ice in its veins? It's still largely a mystery, but it's not for a lack of effort.

"We've literally done everything that is says on the internet you should do when you can't shoot a free throw," said head coach Buzz Williams on Saturday.

Williams has gotten as creative as possible to solve the team's free throw woes, and it seems to finally be paying off.

From the final media timeout against VMI Monday night, the Keydets dared the Hokies to make foul shots, and that's exactly what they did, going 9 of 12 down the stretch. It was the same story against The Citadel last weekend, as they sank 8 of 9 of their freebies from the final media break.

As is the case so often with free throws, Williams says it was a matter of fixing the team's collective mindset.

"It's not as if we hired a free throw consultant at the eight minute media timeout. We made one free throw in the first half and we made in 14 free throws in the second half," Williams said of the team's free throw surge against the Bulldogs. "It's just a mentality thing, and in my opinion mentality is a portion of confidence."

But someone had to find a way to fix the squad's troubles with confidence, and Williams went all out to address the issue.

His first step was to find a way to add meaning to foul shots in practice. Gone were the days of simple repetition, as Buzz added some stakes to the drills.

"In practice, we base everything on wins and losses," said freshman Justin Bibbs. "So we'll split up teams and let's say, a 5-on-5 scrimmage, and whoever wins the scrimmage, they have to confirm the win by free throws. If you miss the free throws, then all that work didn't mean anything."

Williams calls them "confirmation free throws" and the players think they've provided some boost to their mentality when they step to the line.

"We're getting better, we do them like competition free throws every day," said guard Ahmed Hill. "Everybody's getting better with them, getting more comfortable with them, just stepping up now."

The staff also takes careful note on how the players perform on those shots, as part of their extensive charting of practice performance.

"We chart every shot by every player every day," Williams said.

But while each one of the players undoubtedly needs some guidance at the line, with Hill hitting only 63 percent of his shots and guard Adam Smith hovering around 65 percent, there's one player that gets special attention from Williams.

That would be forward Joey van Zegeren. His game has undoubtedly matured this season, but by shooting just 27 percent from the line, he's a major liability for the squad late in games.

"We're doing everything to try to help him," Williams said. "And he wants to do it, but it's hard when you shoot 30 percent to play at the end of the game."

That's led the staff to make van Zegeren a designated player for those "confirmation" shots.

"We're shooting a confirmation free throw by Joey every fourth minute in practice," Williams said. "It's almost comical."

But it's the methods that Williams says the team's started using to simulate a game atmosphere for the redshirt junior that are truly bizarre.

"We turn on music with a speaker that's about the size of this table," Williams said, motioning to the wide plastic table in the Hokies' media room. "We have dancers on the lane line that are led by our players as he's shooting...and he has to make 100 per day outside of practice."

Williams notes that he's shooting 72 percent on those "distracted" shots (a number he can recall from memory in what is perhaps a sign of how often it comes up among the staff) and is hoping to see a corresponding mental shift during games from what he's starting to display in the practice facility.

"It's just a mentality thing. I don't think he's necessarily ever going to be a great free throw shooter," Williams said. "Does he have 'Shaq-itis' or whatever that would be called? I don't know."

Like O'Neal, Van Zegeren's various free throw troubles lead to the inevitable suggestion: why not shoot it granny style? Or underhand? Anything, no matter how undignified, in the name of improving.

Buzz says that would be fine by him.

"You can shoot it however you want," Williams said. "Put on a blindfold, kick it up there, dropkick it, throw it underhanded, shoot a hook, doesn't matter."

Van Zegeren's issues are compounded by the fact that his primary backup, Shane Henry, hasn't been much better at the line.

Henry has imposing athleticism that manifests itself at times in monstruous blocks on even the most simple shots, like the two game-clinching stuffs he notched against the Bulldogs, but he's actually shooting worse than Van Zegeren at just 25 percent.

"When I get to the free throw line I try to focus on knocking them down and just thinking about how it feels in the gym," Henry said. "We just need to focus on that."

While Williams would surely like to leave Henry in the game as things get tight, it's similarly hard to justify at times. He even put walk-on Christian Beyer in the game in his place late against VMI, considering that Beyer hits a more reasonable 75 percent at the line, but that can only last for a few minutes.

But for all the pressure this deficiency puts on Williams' preferred lineup combinations, he's trying to keep a gentle hand.

"Whatever your mentality is, shoot it to make it," Williams said. "Don't aim it in hopes it goes in. You're not shooting a gun, you're shooting a ball. Shoot it to make it."

Slowly but surely, it would seem Williams' approach is working. It's only a two game sample, but he's doing his best to build up his young squad's confidence at the line brick by brick, and it's starting to pay dividends.

"True confidence can only come from your work. That's what I've been saying to them," Williams said.