Mark Thornton, Capistrano Valley boys’ basketball coach,...

Mark Thornton, Capistrano Valley boys’ basketball coach, has tried just about everything to help improve his team’s 48.4% free-throw shooting. One day in practice, he had his team shoot imaginary free throws.

“I told every player to go to the line with or without a ball and shoot 10 free throws,” Thornton said. “Then, I had them report to me how many they made. Believe it or not, I had two guys who said they missed two shots and another kid who said he stepped over the line.

“I got so upset, I had them run laps for the shots they missed. And they weren’t imaginary laps, either.”