Haluska Gaining Confidence

Sean Haluska had never gone through anything like it in his basketball career. From high school to junior college, one of the main constants in Haluska's hoop repertoire was his ability to knock down jumpshots from anywhere on the court.

He did it in high school, averaging 28.6 ppg while leading his Carroll High School team to a third-place finish at the 2005 Class 3A state tournament. He did it in junior college, making 30-of-89 3-pointers in his two-year career on one of the nation's best junior college squads at Indian Hills CC (Ottumwa).

His precision shooting was a key reason why Iowa State head coach Greg McDermott convinced Haluska to join the Cyclones as a walk-on prior to the 2007-08 season. However, no one could have predicted Haluska's start as a Cyclone. Suddenly for the first time in his life, the shots weren't falling.

Haluska began his Cyclone career missing his first 26 shots from 3-point range. Where most players would have given up, Haluska didn't. He kept working on his jumper, staying late and arriving early before practice while getting in extra shots in order to gain back his confidence.

“Sean has spent a lot of time in the gym outside of practice time shooting the basketball,” McDermott said. “He has always played well on the defensive end. He just wasn't making shots earlier in the year.”

His patience and diligence has paid off, as the junior has been one of the team's most consistent players in recent games. Haluska has made 15-of-26 shots from the floor (57.7 percent) and connected on 8-of-13 shots from downtown (61.5 percent) in his last seven games, averaging 6.3 ppg in that span.

“Going through the slump was really tough for me and it was a big challenge for me to overcome,” Haluska said. “It really brought me down but I had to stick with it. Everybody was telling me, from my family to the coaches, ?to stick with it and keep shooting because you are going to get out of it.' I kept getting into the gym every day and working on my shot and things have gotten better and better.”

Haluska's improved confidence was the primary reason for ISU's last win, a 60-52 come-from-behind victory over Nebraska on Saturday. With the Cyclones stuck in reverse and down 24-11 at halftime, Haluska busted out with a career-high 12 points in the second half, including a 3-of-3 effort from 3-point range to rally ISU to victory.

“It was great to be able to contribute and make some big shots to help us win,” Haluska added. “The biggest thing for me is to do anything possible to help our team win, whether it is on the offensive or defensive end.”

As ISU heads down the final stretch of Big 12 games, Haluska will no doubt figure prominently in ISU's plans for an upper-half seed in the Big 12 Tournament.

“I never lost confidence in Sean,” McDermott added. “I base a player's ability to shoot on what happens in practice every day. Sean has consistently made shots in practice and he worked hard with his shooting after practice, and as long as you have that approach, the lid was sooner or later going to come off for him.”

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Sean Haluska

Sean Haluska

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