Fred Hoiberg defeats Steve Alford ... in free-throw shooting

A season-long free-throw competition of Division I coaches called Shots From the Heart is drawing to a close. Iowa State's Fred Hoiberg advanced to the semifinals recently by defeating New Mexico's Steve Alford.

Hoiberg had defeated Providence's Keno Davis and Minnesota's Tubby Smith on the way to the quarterfinals to face Alford, who beat Pat Knight of Texas Tech (Bob Knight's son) in the second round. 

The rules are: You shoot 25 free-throws at your team's gym or practice facility. The first 20 are worth one point, the next four two points, and the 25th is worth three points. The high score between the two coaches matched up advances.

Hoiberg and Alford each went 25-of-25 in their match.  So they decided to go to a sudden-death where they kept shooting until they missed. Alford made 52 more before missing. Hoiberg made 102 more before finally missing, his first failure in 203 attempts in the competition. Hey, he had to miss sometime.

So he goes to the semifinals against Will Brown of Albany. The other semifinalists are Sean Miller of Arizona and Buzz Peterson of UNC-Wilmington. This "Final Four" will be held in the public eye as part of the NCAA Final Four festivities in Houston.

Does making 202 straight free-throws, including 102 in one session, seem possible?

"I've rebounded for Fred twice," said Mike Green, Iowa State's associate director of athletics communications. "He doesn't even warm up. He doesn't dribble, just shoots.

"A manager spotted for him when he made the 102, and said it almost seemed impossible, but I believe it. He really is that good a shooter, still. One time he made all 25 while he was holding his practice plan in his left hand."

Hoiberg was an 85.4 percent free-throw shooter over his 541-game NBA career. He made 84.4 percent of his foul shots at Iowa State from 1991-1995, hitting 466 of 552. He also was a career 40 percent shooter from 3-point range (183-of-457).

Alford made 87 percent of his free-throws in his 169 NBA games, and made 89.8 percent of his tries (535-of-596) at Indiana from 1983-1987.

Alford's top New Mexico assistant, Craig Neal,  is in the Final Four of the assistant coaches' competition. Neal was Alford's top lieutenant when the two left Iowa for New Mexico four years ago.

Shots From The Heart is an American Heart Association fundraiser. Any proceeds from the event will benefit the American Heart Association.

Hoiberg was born with an abnormal aortic valve that eventually led to an aneurism in his aorta and required open heart surgery to correct. It was a life-saving procedure. .

Here is a video of some of Hoiberg's recent work. One of these shots actually bounced off the rim before it went through the net.