Video analysis: How Weber State guard Jeremy Senglin made it rain vs. SUU

OGDEN — Weber State’s Jeremy Senglin can flat-out shoot the rock.

Just ask the Southern Utah Thunderbirds. In the Wildcats’ contest against the Thunderbirds Thursday night, Senglin connected on his first four attempts from downtown, all in rapid succession. By halftime, he had 17 points with five 3-pointers. Senglin finished the game with 23 points on 7-of-13 accuracy from beyond the arc.

“He’s an elite shooter,” said Weber State head coach Randy Rahe. “To me, that’s just what he is and when you got that kind of weapon he can sometimes cover up some warts that you might have in a particular game by making some shots like that.”

Senglin’s effectiveness has come from a lot of hard work, continued Rahe.

“He’s got incredible confidence. But you know what, the reason he’s elite is because he’s worked as hard as anybody, anybody, to become one. So he deserves and has earned the right to make those. Some guys don’t get in the gym, they make them sometimes, sometimes they don’t, they wonder why they don’t, they wonder why they’re not consistent. Jeremy’s consistent because he’s continually working at his craft.”

However, getting open looks is one of the major challenges that elite shooters must master. To get open looks, shooters must learn to move without the ball. Against Southern Utah, Senglin put on a clinic on moving without the ball.

According that Senglin, that has come from a lot of hard work.

“We work on that in practice a lot, knowing when to change speed and teammates setting great screens. Sometimes we just do drills where we set screens, we don’t even shoot.”

Rahe says that that has made a huge difference in Senglin’s game.

“It’s been really big because early in the season, Jeremy was a guy that wanted to stand there and get the ball. He knew he had to score for us to be effective but he wasn’t moving his body. To Jeremy’s credit, we got him moving without the ball and he gets a lot of attention. When he moves, half the defense loses (him). Now it comes back to (him), (he) doesn’t have as much attention on him and he’s able to get shots because he’s moving without the ball, the ball is moving and then it comes to him. He’s really learned to play within our system and how to be effective by moving and it’s really been big for him.”

Senglin already holds multiple shooting records at Weber State including career 3-pointers and 3-pointers in a season, which he set last year. After Thursday's contest, he needs just nine more triples to become the Big Sky Conference’s all-time leader. As he continues to utilize his teammates’ picks and moves without the basketball, he should surely smash that record.