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Penn's poor free-throw shooting has not cost thePenn's poor free-throw shooting has not cost themen's basketball team an Ivy League game - yet Foul shots look so easy. There are no hands in your face, no defender to fake out. It is just you, the basketball and the hoop, just like in your driveway when you were little. Most players develop a routine surrounding their trips to the line -- arrange the ball in your hands just so, dribble the ball so many times, bend your knees and put up the shot. It's mechanical. Or at least it should be. "It's two easy points," Penn guard Donald Moxley said. "It's probably one of the easier shots to make in the game -- at least on paper. But you can't take it for granted." And so far this season, the Penn men's basketball team has found that free throws are not necessarily free. "It should be routine, all mental," center Tim Krug said. "I have mental problems." According to both Moxley and Krug, free-throw shooting was not stressed in practice at the beginning of the season. Instead, Penn just hoped its free-throw shooting would get better by itself. But it didn't. And the Quakers, though atop the Ivy League standings, are in the conference's foul-shooting cellar, having made just 57.6 percent of their shots thus far. The Quakers have tried just about everything in an attempt to improve their performances from the line. Penn coach Fran Dunphy has begun to impose penalties, like suicide runs, on the worst offenders. "[Free-throw shooting] has been a focal point," Moxley said. "It really does win or lose games for you." Moxley is one of a few standouts in Penn's otherwise poor performance from the free-throw line. He says he dribbles five times, then pictures the ball going over the front of the rim. Concentration is the key, according to Moxley. "It takes a lot of mental preparation," Moxley said. "After preparation comes concentration. Free-throw shooting is a matter of concentration." Toughening up the standards required in practice seems to have helped. The Quakers have been steadily improving from the line in game situations. In fact, Penn's best free-throw shooting performance of the season came Monday night against Lafayette. "It's funny how basketball is," swingman Ira Bowman said. "You practice a lot, and you tend to go into games confident, and then all of a sudden you're missing shots. It's something you've got to keep plugging away at and sooner or later your percentages will pick up." When the Quakers faced off against Princeton January 6, the situation was very different. Penn shot only 35.7 percent for the game -- its season low -- and barely escaped Jadwin Gym with a two-point victory. That game served as a wake-up call to the team. The Quakers realized free-throw shooting would be crucial to their success in the league, and the continuation of the 46-game Ivy winning streak. "We've been struggling so much from the line that it has become a big deal," Krug said. "If you think about it, it's going to make it worse." Krug is currently at the bottom of Penn's accuracy chart, making only 41.2 percent of his attempts from the line. The senior says he has changed his personal shooting style and is anxious to try it out in a game situation. However, he did not get sent to the line during Monday's contest. "I can't solve the problem," Krug said. "There are so many variables. If you change one, you can throw off your shot or make it better." The Quakers are hoping each individual's new twists will improve their overall free-throw shooting percentage. After all, as Krug said, "The name sums it up. It's free points."

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