Jackets look to technology to improve shooting

A couple of steps behind the free-throw line, Josh Okogie tossed up soft jumpers in the sunlit gym at Georgia Tech’s Zelnak Basketball Center. A computerized voice provided immediate feedback on the angle of his shots as they descended on the basket.

“Forty-three. Forty-four. Forty-six,” spoke the voice as Okogie fed a series of shots through the rim.

For the Yellow Jackets’ oft errant shooting, a technological aid arrived last month, a $5,000 shot-tracking system that measures shot angle, left/right deviation, depth, position on the court and whether the shot scored. Using a sensor suspended 13 feet above the basket, the system logs data for individual players and can provide information served in charts, diagrams and heat maps, accessible on a wall-mounted television in the gym or remotely from a laptop or smartphone.