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Mar 7 '19
GAINESVILLE, Fla. Adidas Stan Smith Online Sale . -- Desperate to improve Floridas free-throw shooting last season, coach Mike White tried a little bit of everything.He tweaked some of his players mechanics. He increased repetitions in practice. He had guys shoot while tired, winded and with some team accountability at stake. He even considered bringing in a sports psychologist.I didnt want it to become more mental than it already was, White said Tuesday.So he waited until the offseason.Thats when White brought in renowned sports psychologist Spencer Wood to work with the Gators this summer.If you can train your mind, use different methods to understand how to stay in that place -- whatever that place is for you or whatever that trigger word is for you -- or get you back into that place of calm, or confident, those type things, I think it can help you with the rest of your game as well, said White, whos in his second season in Gainesville.So far, its made a noticeable difference for Florida (2-0), which plays St. Bonaventure (1-0) in Lakeland on Thursday night.After ranking 323rd (out of 346 NCAA teams) from the foul line last season, shooting a meager 64.7 percent, Florida is up to 78.6 percent from there this season. Two games are hardly enough of a sample size to make White a believer, but he wants to think there is improvement.You hope that moving forward we can be in the same mindset, White said. Im not sure its fixed. I dont want to sit here and think were a great free-throwing shooting team. But what weve seen the first two games is what weve been in practice. You want that to continue, of course. Our guys are in a pretty good place.White said feedback was positive, especially from center John Egbunu, point guard Kasey Hill and forward Justin Leon. Egbunu (53.2 percent), Hill (53.8) and Leon (46.2) were among Floridas worst foul shooters last season. All three are above 70 percent through two games.Leon said Wood worked with players to find their hype meter on a scale of 1 to 10, telling them they needed to play defense at a more frantic pace than offense, especially at the line.He gave me a lot of different breathing patterns, Leon added. So thats really been working for me. ... Its good to see it impact the game. That means the stuff weve been doing is working and it shows weve taken to the time to put the effort in the gym.Woods resume includes a number of college and professional teams. He even worked with the Gators previously, getting invited by former Florida coach Billy Donovan before the 2010 season and helping that team deal with the psychological aspects of trying to get back to the NCAA Tournament after a two-year absence. The Gators, led by Chandler Parsons, Kenny Boynton and Erving Walker, returned to the tournament.White blamed free-throw shooting for his team missing the NCAA Tournament last season. The Gators blew several leads, failing to put teams away late from the line, and had double-digit misses in 10 games.The Gators look considerably more confident this season. If not for newcomer Canyon Barry missing three of his first four underhanded free throws in the opener because of nerves, the Gators would have shot at least 80 percent from the charity stripe in both games.Very nice, very nice, White said. Knock on wood we continue shooting it this way. We have in practice. We just hope we continue to see that carry over. You can see it their body languages, a little more confident at the foul line. ... Its a big factor for us. It kept up out of the NCAA Tournament last year, single-handily, and hopefully this year we continue shooting like this.---More AP college basketball: http://collegebasketball.ap.org ;Adidas Stan Smith Australia . Terms of the deal were not immediately available. The 26-year-old finished last season with Clevelands Triple-A affiliate in Columbus after signing with the Indians in August. Buy Adidas Stan Smith Australia . Emery skated the length of the ice and fought an unwilling Holtby during the third period of the Flyers 7-0 loss Friday night in Philadelphia. He was given 29 penalty minutes, including a game misconduct. But Emery did not face even a disciplinary hearing with NHL senior vice president of player safety Brendan Shanahan because rules 46. http://www.cheapstansmithaustralia.com/ . Goals from Jerome Boateng, Franck Ribery and Thomas Mueller extended Bayerns unbeaten run to a record 37 matches. "This record is incredible," Bayern coach Pep Guardiola said. Test cricket is experiencing a period of unpredictability that was missing from the game for many years. For more than two decades, first West Indies and then Australia dominated the Test rankings. Now its anyones guess who will be on top from one week to the next.At one point during the concurrent England v Pakistan, Australia v Sri Lanka and India v West Indies Test series recently, it was possible for any one of four teams to head the rankings. In the end it was a surprisingly resilient Pakistan who grabbed the honour.Its definitely better for Test cricket to have the current situation, where many teams are vying for top ranking. During the period West Indies and then Australia dominated, many series suffered from being predictable, and while some of the cricket was of a high standard, much of it was one-sided.People often complained to me that West Indies matches back then were boring. As I explained, Its hard to have batting diversity if theres no variety in the bowling. Their four-man pace attack was highly effective under all conditions but it didnt leave much room for a batsmans imagination.However, during West Indies reign there was occasionally some spirited opposition, with a feisty Pakistan, led by the redoubtable Imran Khan, pushing West Indies to the limit. Australias extended period of dominance caused the administrators such consternation that they came up with the ill-conceived plan for a one-off match against a World XI. This became a complete farce when that 2005 Test was classed as official.During their period of domination, both West Indies and Australia produced teams of such high quality that a couple of them would have to rank in the top ten of all time. The current standard is well off that pace, but the likelihood of upset victories and quick changes of fortune partly compensates for the slippage in skill level. The decline in standard is partly responsible for the regular failures of teams when they travel overseas. The ratio of away Test wins, except in the caase of tours to the Caribbean, Bangladesh and Zimbabwe, is extremely low. Adidas Stan Smith Australia Sale. .Much of the blame for these overseas failures can be sheeted home to batsmen struggling in foreign conditions. This is hard to fathom when players tour more regularly than in the past, whether it be with a national team or as T20 entrepreneurs. Then again, it is more difficult for young players to acclimatise to overseas conditions, as there are generally very few tour matches before a Test series commences.Computer rankings have never been a satisfactory method of judging teams, but during the reign of both West Indies and Australia, you didnt need an Apple Mac to know who was No. 1. Now, with the standings changing regularly, it would be preferable to decide the Test champions by playing a dedicated series of matches.Such a championship has been discussed for nearly three decades and there has already been one false start. Hopefully, with plans being discussed to rationalise the cricket schedule, the second coming of the World Test Championship will eventuate.If that comes to pass, the ICC must ensure it doesnt become a farce with home-town pitches being prepared. A home-town final could result in a pitch that produces either a one-sided contest or a boring batathon, whereby a drawn match will win the Championship by default.Many Australian Sheffield Shield finals have degenerated into the latter category, with the home team only needing to draw to confirm its place at the top table.The suggestion that Lords be a permanent home for the final is a good one, as this should provide a fair surface and the chance of crowds worthy of such an occasion.The ingredients are in place for a worthwhile World Test Championship with so many teams staking a claim. Its up to the administrators to make sure this much-needed promotion of Test cricket doesnt become yet another spilled chance. ' ' '
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