Dec. 24—A few days before Gonzaga’s nonconference home game against Nicholls State and Bucknell, Graham Ike and Braden Huff decided to work more on their short game after practice at the Volkar Center.
Huff and Ike took out their clubs – regulation-sized Nike basketballs in this case – walked to the first hole – or free throw line – and began.
Gonzaga players normally split up to separate baskets and adhere to individual free throw routines, but every now and then Ike and Huff like to make things interesting and test their accuracy from the line in “free throw golf.” .
There are no tee boxes, no pitching wedges and thankfully no bunkers in this iteration, but there are other elements of the popular pastime. Ike and Huff play a traditional 18 holes, hold a scorecard and employ a conventional scoring method.
Swishes are scored as minus-2, free throws made that hit any part of the rim are scored as minus-1, and free throws made that ricochet off the back rim/backboard are counted as zero. Any missed free throw is scored as plus-1.
Sitting next to each other at a post-match press conference on December 18, Ike and Huff relived their last match – an 18-hole thriller that came down to a few decisive shots on the back nine last.
“A classic,” Huff said. “An absolute classic.”
“Yesterday was a good fight,” Ike said.
“We had a good battle,” Huff admitted.
“I feel like we need to play more if we want to keep shooting free throws like this,” Ike said.
“I’m just saying it was a good fight the other day. I won’t talk too much about it,” Huff said, sporting a wry smile.
The final verdict?
“I’m just an honest man,” Ike laughs. “He won on the 18th hole yesterday. It happens.”
Overall, free throws have been a point of pride for Gonzaga, and one the 14th-ranked Zags have no problem talking about after 12 games. As a team, Gonzaga makes 81.1 percent of its free throws, ranking No. 7 nationally, No. 1 among the top 25 teams and No. 1 in the West Coast Conference.
That percentage could be misleading if the Zags weren’t attempting free throws at a high rate, but they performed relatively well in that column as well. GU ranks in the top third nationally (No. 104), averaging 21.4 free throw attempts per game. The Zags are No. 1 in the WCC and No. 47 in the NCAA with 17.2 free throws made per game.
History suggests that Gonzaga’s percentages will stabilize before the end of the season – only four teams in the country over the last four seasons have finished at 80% or better from the line – but for more than a third of the season , the 2024-25 Zags are on track to post one of their highest free throw percentages in the Mark Few era.
GU’s 26th-year coach couldn’t necessarily point to anything tangible that led to better accuracy, suggesting the team hasn’t refined its approach to working on free throws at training. Few noticed the addition of transfer guard Khalif Battle, a career 86.3 percent shooter who came six free throws away from tying Derek Raivio’s program record of consecutive makes to open a season, certainly didn’t do any harm.
“No, I think it’s fair overall,” Few said. “Obviously when you have a guy who, I don’t know how many he’s won in a row – 48 or something like that, 50 – it helps your percentages.”
Battle, who made 140 consecutive free throws in one practice, according to more than one account, made 50 in a row to open the year before missing his first Dec. 15 against Connecticut at Madison Square Garden. By Battle’s standards, the last three games would amount to a major funk, with the guard going just 7 of 10 from the line against UConn, Nicholls State and Bucknell.
“I’ve actually seen him miss a few in a row,” senior guard Nolan Hickman said. “I pointed it out to him, but KB is like that. He tries to act like nothing happened.”
However, the battle is just one aspect of GU’s team-wide free throw improvement. The sixth-year guard who previously played at Butler, Temple and Arkansas is shooting free throws with a career-best mark (92.5%), but he’s also one of five rotation players on the roster who can say as much.
“Huff worked hard in the offseason because he wasn’t great last year,” Few said. “I think Graham struggled a little bit at the beginning of the year, but Graham is a good free throw shooter. I think Ryan (Nembhard) worked hard on that too.”
Sophomore forward Ben Gregg and Nembhard had the most impressive jumps from year to year, when considering both percentage and volume. Gregg’s attempts increased from 2.4 to 3.6 per game. The fifth-year senior who shot less than 35 percent from the line in his first two seasons and 72.9 percent last year is now connecting at a rate of 83.7 percent. Nembhard is averaging nearly one extra attempt per game and is converting at 86.7% after making 75.2% last season.
As Few mentioned, Huff has made a concerted effort to increase his percentage after shooting 55.4 percent from the line last year. The sophomore attempted just 12 free throws in 12 games, but he only missed twice, bringing his season percentage to 83.3 percent.
“For me individually, I think last year was kind of a big mental block,” Huff said. “It was just in my head and I was just having a hard time getting through it. So I did a lot of work in the offseason, got some confidence back and cut down my routine. Now it feels good. Everyone did it, well, which is good for us.
Ike, GU’s leader in attempts at 5.9 per game, converts at a solid 75.4 percent rate. Winger Michael Ajayi improved his personal percentage from 70.9% to 75.0%, albeit on 3.3 fewer attempts than last year, while still being the focal point of Pepperdine’s offense most of the time. evenings.
“I think after a little drill or practice session I will get 10 to 20 free throws,” Ajayi said. “I’ll do 10 in a row, five in a row to move on to the next drill. Then at the end, I’ll try to do at least 25 to 50 free throws after each practice, just trying to develop my memory muscular.
Hickman, who has not missed four free throw attempts this season, said coaches generally trust Gonzaga players to work independently on free throws, without requiring them to make or attempt a certain number before leaving the gym.
“He’s pretty much the one telling us we need to get free throws,” Hickman said. “It’s never really an obligation.”
The results indicate that Gonzaga’s methods – working on free throws between drills, working on free throws outside of scheduled practice times or occasional rounds of free throw golf – have been effective.
Even if Gonzaga’s current percentage drops to 75% by the end of the season, that would still mean one of the seven best performances of Few’s tenure. The 2005-06 Zags, led by Raivio and Adam Morrison, had the highest mark of a poorly coached team at 78.2 percent, but teams shooting below 75 percent have been the norm at GU, and five have completed below 70%.
Through 12 games, the 2024-25 Zags are on track – tied, if you will – to finish among the best free throw shooting teams in recent memory, and still may not have reached their ceiling.
“I hope this trend continues to increase and I think it’s a good sign,” Few said. “Very good sign.”
