Gaming at the free-throw line. (Basketball).

WHILE WATCHING Tom Izzo's Michigan State basketball team win an NCAA championship and then return to the Final Four a year later, I could not help but notice something the Spartans were doing on foul shots. At Clinton High School, we used to call it, "Gaming at the free-throw line."

According to my dictionary, "gaming" is simply the practice of gambling or simulating some kind of game. At Clinton, it was what we did at the free-throw line when we had a number of players who weren't very good shooters.

It proved very successful for us for a number of reasons:

1. It enabled my players to relax and catch a breath.

2. By moving with a purpose, our players were often able to convert missed free throws into easy putback baskets.

3. It made our opponents prepare for one more thing when they played us.

In gaming, we had two basic sets. First was the "X." As soon as the players could legally move, the quickest man would break across the lane and the others would follow (Diag. 1).

This often led the defensive players to follow the offense or cause them to over-balance trying to block out. Either way, the offense gained an advantage.

Our other basic set, the "shoulder touch," would be used against a team that blocked out aggressively. The two offensive men would screen up the second line of defensive players and then roll to the basket (Diag. 2).

We found this frequently caused the bottom defensive players to worry more about the block-out and less about rebounding the basketball.

Note: In any "shoulder touch" set, the down man must roll opposite the second line man.

To get additional movement at the line, we added a call of either "one" or "zero" for the second line of offensive player(s).

"One" would signal the second-line player to go hard into the lane (Diag. 3). "Zero" would have the second-line offensive player going hard to the outside of the lane (Diag. 4).

The coach would usually make this call, depending on who was shooting the free throw and the tendencies of where the rebound would go.

Going right along with our name for foul-line strategies, we would occasionally gamble with a "five down" call whenever we went to the foul line in the final few seconds of a quarter. This meant that we would have four rebounders on the lane, and the shooter would have to play safety -- hustling back on defense after shooting (Diag. 5).

We found that many of the opponents would throw the ball long in trying to beat the clock, and would either throw it out of bounds or have it intercepted by our shooter.

Another opportunity arose when a team would become more concerned about getting the rebound and throwing it deep than about blocking out our rebounders. This would give us a better chance for an easy putback basket on a missed free throw.

A word of caution: Don't overdo the "five down" call: It works best when very little time -- three seconds or less -- remains.

Finally, the two calls may be put together. For example, "X-1" (Diag. 6) or shoulder touch zero (Diag. 7) or "five down-shoulder touch 1-1" (Diag. 8).

Gaming at the line takes very little practice time and the players like it. It increases the odds on picking up some easy baskets.