Money in the Bank: Adam Haluska at the Line

Feb. 16, 2007

IOWA CITY – Any coach, player or fan knows how important hitting free throws are. It can make or break a game. Not many basketball players have mastered the free throw, especially at the college level. One particular Hawkeye has: senior guard Adam Haluska.

The Hawkeyes fan-favorite has steadily gotten better every year behind the charity stripe. Haluska shot 76 percent his freshman year, 80 percent his sophomore year, 84 percent his junior year, and this year he has drained 88 percent behind the line.

“I have the same stroke, it is a little different now, I used to take three dribbles, now I just kind of take the ball and shoot it,” said Haluska. “I try and get into a rhythm, when I get to the line so many times it starts to look familiar and I just try to knock them down.”

Thursday night Haluska made 16-of-18 free throws as Iowa topped the Northwestern Wildcats, 66-58. His 16 made free throws tied for fourth best for a single game in Hawkeye history. His 16 points from the charity stripe proved to be the difference in the game and now Iowa packs its bags and its 7-5 record in Big Ten Conference play for date Saturday at Michigan State.

A win over the Spartans – another road victory in league play – would provide yet another boost to the Hawkeyes’ argument for participation in the NCAA’s post-season party.

While he was his always-productive at the line against the Cats, Haluska struggled a bit elsewhere on the offensive end. He only made five shots of 19 field goal attempts and just three of 13 attempts from behind the arc to finish with a game-high 29 points. But that’s what shooters — and Haluska is a shooter — do.

They keep firing away and firing away. Not because they’re cavalier, but because the shooter and their coach know that, sooner or later, the shots will fall. “We don’t ever want him to not shoot…we just want him to take ‘good shots’,” said Alford.

It’s different at the stripe, however. There, the shot is always the same — it doesn’t change and there are no defenders in your face. It’s there where routine and muscle memory take over.

“He rushed a few shots tonight, he did not shoot the ball well, a year or two ago he would have finished with 12 or 13 points” said Iowa head coach Steve Alford. “He scores 29 points and made five shots, that’s learning to score the basketball in other ways and he did that tonight.”

“I thought we did a pretty good job with Haluska, but even when he doesn’t shoot the ball well he still dominated because he was getting fouled and getting to the line and he doesn’t miss there often” said Northwestern head coach Bill Carmody.

Getting Haluska to the free throw line seems to be pivotal in the outcome of Iowa winning or losing. In Iowa’s previous game against Wisconsin, Haluska only made it to the line twice making one of the two. Iowa lost to the Badgers 74-62. In a win against Minnesota he went 8-of-8 from the charity stripe and in the upset of Indiana he went 10-for-11.

Haluska’s athleticism is a big reason he has visited the line so many times throughout the season. He moves into the defender and shoots off-balanced drawing the defender to go into him as he shoots. Several times this year he has made the off-balanced shot after being fouled.

“He got to the line 18 times, he got six rebounds, and he’s learning how to draw fouls. That’s what’s impressive with Adam,” said Alford. “The evolution of how he learned to move without the ball and when he gets the basketball, when the shots not going can he create offense and I thought he did a good job with that.”

“I thought the biggest thing was just trying to go to the basket, obviously my shot wasn’t going down” said Haluska. “I tried to get to the basket and draw some contact to get to the free throw line.”