Jazz coach emphasizing free throws

FRESNO, Calif. — Of all his team's statistics last season, the one riling Jazz coach Jerry Sloan most may be free-throw shooting percentage. "I'm worried about (it)," he said.

Understandably.

Dragged down by rotation-regulars Deron Williams (70.4 percent) and Andrei Kirilenko (a career-low 69.9 percent on a team-high 495 attempts), the Jazz shot just 71.9 percent from the line in 2005-06.

That's 2.7 percent worse than their opponents, 3.8 percent worse than they shot in 2004-05 and 8.7 percent worse than league-leading Phoenix's 80.6 percent.

It's also better than only five other clubs in the 30-team NBA shot last season.

No wonder Sloan made the seemingly simple task a major point of emphasis during training camp last week at Boise State University and will keep an eye on his club's success at the line when tonight Utah plays its 2006-07 preseason opener against the Los Angeles Lakers.

"We've got to prove," the Jazz coach said, "that we can play under pressure."

It all starts, the cheap advice goes, with making more freebies.

AH, THE MEMORIES: Jazz roster-hopeful Hiram Fuller will never forget helping Fresno State win the 2003 regular-season WAC championship — only to shortly thereafter learn the Bulldogs would be ineligible for the NCAA tournament because of an investigation into alleged academic fraud by former players under then-coach Jerry Tarkanian during the 1999-2000 season.

"It was one of my best memories," he said, "and the next day it was one of my worst memories."

Fuller, an undrafted free-agent forward whose only four NBA games to date were with Atlanta in 2004, can re-live the memories when the Jazz play tonight at Save Mart Center on the Fresno State campus.

Fuller never actually played in the multipurpose arena, which opened after his college career concluded. But he's hoping to get tickets for about 20 friends still in the area, including a couple former Fresno State teammates: Chris Jeffries, a 2002 first-round draft choice who played 72 games over two seasons for Toronto and Chicago, and Mustafa Al-Sayyad, who played with Fuller on the Jazz's Rocky Mountain Revue team this past summer.

LAKERLAND: According to the Associated Press, Lakers coach Phil Jackson attended a scrimmage and "a good portion" of practices Sunday and Monday — despite undergoing hip-replacement surgery last Tuesday.

Jackson even did some coaching.