Dec. 26, 2003

by Johnny Moore
Blue Devil Weekly

DURHAM, N.C. - The funny about a good shooter in basketball is that people basically remember only two things about you -- the made shots and the missed shots. And if either one seems to be the most dominant at a certain time, then you are either a great shooter or a bad shooter. There is no in-between.

Blue Devil sophomore guard J.J. Redick is going through that adjustment right now. Last year fans thought of Redick as one of the finest shooters in the school's history. His amazing shooting spree against N. C. State in the final of the ACC Tournament propelled the Devils to their fifth consecutive tournament title.

But this year, with a few misses here and there, those same fans are beginning to wonder about Redick's shooting.

What's interesting is that Redick is not that far off statistically from where he was shooting last year. Entering the holiday break, Redick was 37-of-101 from the field for 36.6 percent. Last year as a rookie he hit 42.3 percent of his shots. From three-point range, Redick hit 39.9 percent of his shots last year, compared to 32.8 percent in nine games this year.

In the cold north of Alaska, Redick found a very cold shooting touch, hitting just 11-of-35 shots from the floor in the three games of the Great Alaska Shootout, prompting the declaration of his so-called shooting slump.

"It's been a very frustrating experience," said Redick, who made just 4-of-18 three-pointers in Alaska. "Since Alaska I think I have been taking good shots. For the most part I took good shots, a lot of them feel good and a lot of them are just not falling for me. I will keep the confidence and keep shooting. I know eventually I'm going to break out of this slump."

Through this shooting slump, Redick has found ways to make sure his Blue Devils still win the game. In the Devils' 69-51 win over Princeton he hit just 5-of-14 from the floor but still scored 17 points, the second highest total on the team. He also dished out two assists, pulled down five rebounds and went 4-for-4 from the free throw line.

"I feel like I'm doing more and at the same time I feel comfortable doing more," Redick explained. "I feel comfortable on the defensive end. I feel comfortable getting rebounds. I don't really feel like I'm doing anything extra that would affect my shot. I feel like my shot should still be going and it's just not going."

He plays on a team with two assistant coaches, Johnny Dawkins and Chris Collins, who were two of the best shooters in college basketball during their days.

"Both of them and Coach Krzyzewski are telling me to keep shooting," said Redick. "Those guys believe in me, they know what I am capable of and they are telling me to keep shooting."

So Redick has continued to shoot the ball. He found some of his touch coming back the week after exams. In the Devils' 89-61 win over Texas at Madison Square Garden, Redick hit 5-of-9 from the floor, including 4-of-6 from three-point range, for a game-high 20 points.

"For instance, in the first half of the game against Princeton I hit a couple of threes in a row and then I missed five or six in a row," explained Redick. "But all of them felt good, most of them were a little short or a little long. I honestly think that as long as I'm either short or long, I' m not going to be real worried. It's when I start missing to the right or left all the time that I'll be worried. I'll think there is something wrong with my shot. When I'm missing short or long it is just a little depth perception."

Redick's shot from the free throw line has not left him, as he has hit an amazing 33 free throw without a miss this year, and 42 in a row dating back to last year. Dawkins, the Devils' leading all-time scorer, who shot over 50 percent from the floor for his career, knows what kind of shooter Redick is and will be.

"I want to go on record and say that he is one of the best shooters I've ever seen in my life," said Dawkins. "Like any great player or great shooter, you go through moments like this that try you. I think in the end what we will see is a much stronger and much improved player because of what he is going through now. He is having to find ways (to score), where before he could always just rely on the fact that he could catch it and his shot was automatic. As he goes through this phase of his career as a sophomore, as he continues to grow, as you have these segments in your career he will be able to look back and see how he worked through this time in his career and made himself a better player."

Redick is one of those pure basketball players who knows he must play all phases of the game in order to be a successful player. He was an outstanding rebounder in high school as well as a scorer and has improved this season on the defensive end of the floor each and every game. He feels his shots will start going down.

"He's right there," said Krzyzewski. "I'm not really concerned about it. As long as he's taking good shots he'll hit them. The thing that shows he's matured even more as a basketball player is he is really playing well defensively."