A conversation with Andrew Andrews about free throws, being tweeted about by Draymond Green, his name, and some metaphorical mountain climbing

Had the chance to sit down with Washington Huskies guard Andrew Andrews for a bit last week, and the result was Saturday’s story about his so-far stellar senior season. But we talked about quite a few things that didn’t make the story, so I figured I would pass along our conversation here.

Andrews, a Portland native, leads the Pac-12 in scoring with 21.6 points per game, and ranks second nationally in both total free-throw attempts (150) and made free throws (124) for a percentage of 82.7, which is second-best in the Pac-12.

(What’s the key to shooting such a high percentage at the free-throw line?) “I honestly think it’s just taking your time at the free throw line. I remember for a while when I was younger, I used to struggle at the free throw line because I was rushing my shot too much, and one of my coaches, who actually came to the UCLA game, he was one of the main ones who corrected my free throws, just telling me to take my time and do the same routine over and over again, so I think that’s what really helped me with my free throws and ever since then and me practicing my free throws, I haven’t really had any trouble.”

(What is your routine?) “First, when I get the ball, I kind of just feel it out, just to make sure my hands are used to the ball, feel it out, then I’ll dribble three times, spin it, then dribble one more time, and begin to feel the ball with my hands before I put the ball in my shooting pocket, then I just shoot the ball.”

(You’ve been doing that same routine for how long?) “I’ve been doing that since I was in fourth grade. That was one of the things that always stuck in my head, just try and have the same routine. Ever since my coach told me that, I’ve tried to do that. I tried to switch it up one year and it never felt comfortable, so I just went back to my old routine.”

(Which coach was that?) “Jeff Moreland.”

(Does he come to many of your games?) “No, but he usually tries to watch them all. He has a family, kids and a business of his own that he runs.”

(And he was an AAU coach?) “He was my AAU coach from fourth grade until eighth grade, and then after that I went over to Dony Wilcher, who is my mentor now and my trainer.”

(How many free throws do you shoot each day?) “Almost at least 100.”

(More during the offseason?) “Yeah, definitely more. I try and make 10 in a row after every drill that I do. So in the summer I do a whole bunch of drills, and I shoot a lot, so if I shoot 500 shots then that means I’ve shot 500 free throws.”

(Do you mix it up so you’re shooting sometimes when you’re really tired?) “That’s always a part of the training. Try and be winded. Try and make it as game-like as you can. Even sometimes I’ll have my coach clapping in front of me or doing little things to try to bug me or throw me off. We have a drill at the end of every workout or whatever, it’s called a one and one, where you have to make a free throw all net and make a 3-pointer all net, but it has to be consecutive. So you make the free throw, jog back to the 3-point line, they pass you the ball and you have to make the 3. And what it does is, it gets you in the constant rhythm of making shots without hitting the rim, so you’ll be doing this drill and if it rims in you’re getting mad at yourself even though you’re making the free throw, because it’s not all net. That kind of got my mindset in a place to where just making a free throw should be second nature.”

(What part of the hoop do you focus on?) “I try and look at the back of the rim, so if I do miss, I’ll miss long. I hate missing short. I actually hate missing free throws in general. I get so mad.”

(Does it surprise you when you see players who don’t shoot a high percentage from the free-throw line?) “It’s kind of mind-blowing to me. I understand how some people have different situations like big men as far as their hand size and controlling the ball. But one of my high school coaches, he told me right when I stepped foot into high school, ‘guards don’t miss free throws.’ So that also stuck in my head. Any time I miss a free throw, even today, he’ll call me. ‘Hey, what are you doing missing free throws? Guards don’t miss free throws.’”

(Who was that?) “Troy Berry (former head coach at Benson Tech).”

(Does this season feel different now that you’re a senior?) “I wouldn’t really say so. I think I guess more a sense of calm, just being there before. There haven’t really been too many situations that I haven’t seen or been a part of from other players playing.”

(Is there something different about being a senior star, especially a fifth-year senior? So many guys leave early nowadays that it almost seems rare) “Yes and no. I feel like at UW, it kind of happens a lot when you look at the history of the program. Two years ago it was C.J. (Wilcox), and then when I was here, Darnell (Gant) wasn’t the star of the team, but he was one of our best leaders that I’ve ever seen. So Darnell Gant, C.J. Abdul (Gaddy) was here for his whole tenure, Scott Suggs was here for his whole tenure, so this program has a history of keeping players happy and wanting them to stick around.”

(Do you get the sense that it’s particularly important for this team to have a veteran leader?) “A little bit. I think it’s always important to have someone around who’s been there. They don’t necessarily have to be a senior, but just someone who’s been in a situation where they can kind of calm guys down or just tell them what to expect in certain situations, especially with such a young team. I know Darnell Gant did that for me when I very first stepped foot at UW, as well as Scott, C.J. all those guys.”

(Do you get more text messages after a 35-point game against UCLA?) “Definitely. That stuff goes kind of crazy. I don’t even have a Twitter, and see Draymond Green tweeting me or whatever. The publicity gets kind of crazy. It comes with the territory. You’ve just got to stay level-headed.”

(The Draymond tweet was kind of funny) “I’ve had literally probably 50-plus text messages of that, screen-shotted.”

(Why don’t you have a Twitter?) “It was kind of my way of just being more focused on the team. I feel like for me personally, just being involved in Twitter is a little too much for me when I’m in the season trying to focus on the team and do what’s best for the team. I feel like you can get bad motivation from Twitter. Got too much going on.”

(Because as much as they praise you when you play well, there’s the flip side of that when you don’t) “Definitely. It’s my way of staying level headed.”

(Do you ever feel the pull to get back into it, since all your teammates and friends have it?) “I’ve definitely thought about getting another one, just trying it out and things like that but, I don’t know. I probably will after the season.”

(Back to that Draymond tweet – what is the backstory behind how you came to be named Andrew Andrews? You’ve discussed this some recently) “Born Andrew Wray, adopted by my aunt, whose last name is Andrews. Her maiden name, anyway. So when I was adopted, I took the family last name.”

(Do most people call you Drew?) “I have a whole bunch of nicknames. People call me ‘Same Name.’ People call me Drew Drew. Any type of variation where you say something twice. Double-A. Whole bunch of stuff.”

(What do your parents call you?) “My biological mom calls me Andy, as well as my biological dad. Then it’s anywhere from Drew, Andrew, the list could go on. Pandy. I don’t know. They make up anything. My coach calls me Scooter.”

(Scooter?) “I have a picture of (me as) a baby in a leather jacket. For some reason, he thought of Scooter. I don’t get it.”

(Back to basketball – did someone teach you at some point how to draw fouls?) “It’s never been a part of anything that someone has taught me. I didn’t even think it was that big of a deal until people started talking about it. I still don’t get it, to this day.”

(In what ways do you think you’ve improved the most throughout your career?) “Overall I think just being aware of the game. Kind of knowing where people are, knowing when to go, knowing when not to go, which is still kind of hard to this day, because every player thinks they can go whenever they want. Just the understanding of the game has changed a lot for me.”

(Who has helped you the most with that?) “Definitely the coaching staff, Coach Romar over the years being here. Even other players being here, talking to them, seeing what they’ve seen, learning from their experiences. My redshirt year helped a lot, when I was able to see them be in the situations and not so much playing, but you always see things differently from the bench perspective, so any time I come out of the game, I always try and look to see what the defense is doing, because while you’re playing, it’s kind of going so fast you can’t really sit down and take a look at it.”

(What’s the most frustrated you’ve ever been as a player?) “Definitely last year is probably the most frustrated I’ve been. I think that was because we were so good but at the same time we would play so bad at times, and not keeping our standard the same was frustrating for me as a player.”

(How did you handle that?) “For me, I usually tend to start playing better when things aren’t going so well. So that’s when kind of my streak started going of better games and everything. Just practicing harder and things like that.”

(What was your goal this offseason?) “My main goal was to just get back to playing the point guard the way I was playing in high school. I haven’t played point guard since I got to college, so it being my last year, I wanted to go back to drills I was doing while I was preparing for a high school game or my senior year of high school, and just being sharper in all aspects of the game, trying to affect the game on every level.”

(So what was different about the workouts?) “We would do drills like pushing the ball fullcourt within a certain amount of time, trying to get the ball up the court the fastest. Working a lot on pick and roll reads, things like that. As far as the last couple years, I was working on coming off of screens, trying to get my feet ready to shoot, and I think I wouldn’t actually have it any other way, because it kind of taught me how to play off the ball and on the ball, which will probably be great for me going down the line. So that’s probably the biggest things.”

(Was that different, being back home instead of in Seattle with the team? Coach Romar thought it helped that everyone stuck around the summer before) “It wasn’t that big of a deal because I was still keeping up with the team, checking in on them. I would come up here every now and then to check on them. I was doing a lot of the same conditioning they were doing, I was just doing it with my trainer, having (strength coach Daniel) Shapiro send down my lists and things. So I was still doing everything they were doing, I just wasn’t here for it. And I think it worked out better that way because they were able to kind of find their own way, and not have me barking at them, telling them what to do or not. So it was good for both ends.”

(When did you get the feeling that this team could be different this season?) “I started noticing it in the summer, just seeing how in tune guys were when I was coming back up here. Everyone was real excited to be here, and I think Coach Romar has mentioned a couple times, I’ve never seen it when people get practice jerseys, they get excited and start taking pictures of it. So it was kind of a surreal moment for me to see how excited they were to be here.”

(You didn’t take a picture in your practice jersey?) “(Laughs) No.”

(Do you think it’s important to have players who appreciate the program itself, the history, tradition and everything?) “I definitely think that’s a huge part. I also think the biggest thing about being a good program and winning is having a team that’s excited just to play together and have no personal agendas. I think that’s probably the biggest thing that’s different with this team, as far as, everyone on this team doesn’t care who gets to shine, doesn’t care who takes the last shot, any of that. Doesn’t matter as long as we win.”

(Does that kind of atmosphere make it easier to bounce back from losses?) “It makes it easier to put it behind us, but it also makes it easier for us to go out and work harder the next day in practice, because now no one’s pointing the finger. It’s always ‘what did we do wrong?’ That’s a prime example, what happened after the UCSB game. I think everyone was kind of just trying to figure out, ‘where do we go from here?’ At the beginning of the season, we had a guy who came in and spoke to us about climbing Mount Everest. … He gave us just the whole breakdown of how you climb to the top or how you get to the top of Everest, and it was something we could relate to as basketball players, because they talked about just going to base camp was like 17,000 feet in the air. And they would go from base camp to Camp 1, six or seven times, always going up, coming back down, and we related that to basketball. There’s no such thing – well, there has been – but we knew we probably wouldn’t have a perfect season. We would lose some games. And that would just be going up and going back down to base camp and starting over. So I think through the year we’ve used that as kind of our analogy and kind of a way to pace our season, knowing that there’s going to be ups and downs, but at the end of the year, you want to get to the top. So I think we’ve been using that as an analogy for our team.”

This story was originally published January 11, 2016 at 6:23 PM with the headline "A conversation with Andrew Andrews about free throws, being tweeted about by Draymond Green, his name, and some metaphorical mountain climbing."