MEET THE COACH

Dennis Hans is perhaps best known for a 20-year rec-league and
playground basketball career in which he tallied 57,425 points and 19 assists. A teacher as well as a doer, he has taught basic education to prisoners, American foreign policy and mass communications to collegians, and swing dancing to rhythmically challenged acquaintances.

Hans, a long-time advocate for the rights of lefthanders, has written straight and bent essays on a variety of topics. One such topic is free-throw shooting, with particular emphasis on the NBA's most renowned bricklayer, Shaquille O'Neal (see links below). Hans's role in Shaq's dramatic if shortlived improvement at the stripe during the 2004 playoffs, which helped the Los Angeles Lakers bump off the defending champion San Antonio Spurs, is chronicled by Phil Jackson in his bestseller "The Last Season" (pp. 205-06).

From studying the rich variety of styles, rhythms and fundamentals among the good and great free-throw shooters, Hans has adopted a "different strokes for different folks" philosophy of teaching.

His essays have graced the pages of the prestigious online outlets HoopsHype.com, InsideHoops.com and DallasBasketball.com, as well as in such fly-by-night rags as the New York Times, Washington Post and Miami Herald. He can be reached at HANS_D@popmail.firn.edu.

Here are a few of his shooting essays:

Shaq's free-throw odyssey (May 10, 2004)
http://www.insidehoops.com/shaq-free-throws-051004.shtml

Shaq's free-throw fix is in 2002 tape (May 6, 2004)
http://Hoopshype.com/columns/shaq2_hans.htm

Shaq Passes the Brick to Baron and Big Ben (April 24, 2002)
http://www.insidehoops.com/archive/2002/nba042402a.shtml

Why Shaq Shoots Sure Shots (May 1, 2001)
http://slate.msn.com/id/105348/

Pistons and Spurs pay a price for ignoring shooting guru's advice (May
24, 2003)
http://www.hoopshype.com/columns/shooting_hans.htm