COLUMBIA, MO. • Frank Haith is a scorer's best friend. On a team loaded with offensive snipers, the Missouri coach knows that other than basketball's sweetest sound — the swish of a ball flicking through the nets — the nicest things a shooter can hear is his coach telling him "Shoot" and "Shoot again."

That belief is being tested greatly now as the No. 2-ranked Tigers have suddenly gone from hot to cold in shooting, at least by Mizzou standards. Haith is trying to coax his leading scorer Marcus Denmon out of a seven-game shooting slump. He's fighting his natural coaching instinct to fix things. Instead, he does one of the hardest things that a coach can do when he's watching one of his shooters loose his touch.

He's getting out of the way.

Denmon knows right now the way he's been shooting that if he was standing on the beach he might miss the ocean. Since hitting on seven of 12 shots from the floor in a 20-point performance against Oklahoma on Jan. 3, Denmon has hit 30.4 percent (25-82) from the floor in the last seven games.

It's hard to figure if there's some technical glitch in his form or if it's all in his head. Early in Saturday's 63-50 victory over Texas Tech, Denmon's jumper was clanging off the front of the iron (he missed eight of his first nine shots). Midway through game when he made three out of four, he was swishing them in. Then he closed out the game by hitting a lot of ugly back-iron shots. But Haith has refused to call in the shot doctor or sweat over the possible remedies for whatever is ailing his superb scorer.

"I'm not going to make a bigger deal out of it than it is," Haith said. "He knows he's not shooting well, so what do I have to talk about it to him for? All he has to do is keep taking good shots. He's our guy. I trust him. He's putting in work every day. I'm not concerned about him missing a couple of shots. He's going to be fine."

Denmon is one of the many obsessive workers on this team who arrives at practice early and leaves late. He knows his stroke as well as anyone could and is no shameless gunner who values quantity over quality. Even though he is at his best a darned accurate shooter, he is more scorer than shooter, and anyone who knows the game understands the distinction between the two. A shooter can get his points only if his jumper is falling. A great scorer finds ways to fill up the box score even when his jumper isn't falling. And Denmon has proven to be one of those resourceful scorers.

He gets to the free throw line by driving into the paint, and when he gets to the line, he doesn't miss. How do you score 19 points on an afternoon when you can't find your jump shot (four for 15 from the field)? By swishing in everything at the free throw line (10 for 10 on FTs). That's what Haith loves about the kid's game and why he knows sooner or later Denmon will break out of his funk, because that's what all good shooters eventually do.

"Coach has faith in me as well as my teammates," Denmon said. "He always says to keep taking good shots and that's what I did. Some nights it doesn't go your way ... but you continue to take good shots if you are a good shooter. Coach always tells me and the guys, 'If it's a shot that you're comfortable with and you've worked on it, I want you to take it 100 percent of the time if it's a good shot.'"

The other thing Haith has drilled into Denmon's head is that he doesn't want just good scorers. He wants good basketball players who know that there are many other ways to affect a game when their shots aren't falling.

"I talked to Marcus about being more attack oriented," Haith said. "And not just when he isn't shooting well. I just want him to be aggressive all the time. Get to the free throw line. You're a great free throw shooter. ... Use that to get other shots. Getting into the paint will get you to the line."

On Saturday, Denmon was perfect at the line. It's funny to watch a guy who's all over the place when shooting jumpers go to the line and be a pure sniper. On all 10 shots, I swear he barely touched anything but the bottom of the net. In fact, in his last 10 games, Denmon has made 53 of 58 free throws. (91.4 percent).

"The best shooters in America have slumps," Haith said. "If you ask a great shooter what you do to get out of (a slump), they'll say, 'Keep practicing.' So from a mental standpoint, you don't want it to be a block. Marcus had six rebounds, three steals. You want to concentrate on doing other things, because that will alleviate some of the pressure. If you base your performance on how many jump shots you make, man that's a low percentage. But if you base your performance on how many rebounds you get, how many steals, how many charges you take, or how many contested shots you force, if you put it on that, it takes so much pressure off you."

On Saturday, Denmon did all the "other things" quite well. In addition to the perfect day from the line, he also grabbed six rebounds and three steals. In fact, over the last six games Denmon is stuffing the stat sheet, even as his shooting accuracy has plummeted. He's gone 40 for 44 (91 percent) from the line. He's averaging 6.1 rebounds, 1.5 steals and 2.6 assists and 15.5 points while shooting only 32.5 percent from the floor. In the last five games, he's actually maintained his season average at 17.4 ppg.

And, oh yeah, he did all of this Saturday while sick. Denmon showed up at practice Friday with a temperature, coughing, sniffling. After the game as he sat in the press conference, you could see that he was still very much under the weather.

As Haith stood in the hallway outside the Tigers' locker room talking to family and friends of some of his players, he saw Denmon walking by, his hood tugged down snugly over his head as if he was preparing to walk out into a midwinter blizzard rather than the near-perfect 45 degree sunny day.

"How you feeling Marcus?" Haith asked.

"Don't worry coach," Denmon sniffled. "I'll be okay."

For the record, Haith was asking about Denmon's health, not his jump shot.

I think.

The rest of us are hoping for a rapid recovery on both fronts.