This story is part of Peak, The Athletic’s desk covering the mental side of sports. Sign up for Peak’s newsletter here.
CHICAGO — Iowa State’s Milan Momcilovic is an elite jumpshooter. Statistically, he’s the best 3-point shooter in men’s college basketball. But even the best can have doubts.
“I would always think something is wrong with my shot,” Momcilovic said. “Maybe I’m not holding my follow through. Maybe the arc on the ball is not the best.”
So he started working with a sports psychologist, who gave him a simple technique.
“Think about something, just one word, before you shoot,” said Momcilovic.
The word? “Jellybean.”
“I’m shooting way better this year than I was last year, so it probably worked a little bit,” he added.
The lanky 6-foot-8 sniper is shooting better than everyone this year: 49.3 percent, tops in Division I men’s college hoops, on 7.6 attempts per game. His 134 made 3-pointers are also the most in the sport, despite his 272 attempts not even ranking in the top 20. It’s the main reason the junior forward earned second-team All-Big 12 honors and is averaging a team-high 17.2 points for No. 2 seed Iowa State, which faces No. 6 Tennessee in the Sweet 16 on Friday. The Cyclones are 29-7 this season and trying to reach the Elite Eight for the first time since 2000.
Momcilovic played high school basketball in Pewaukee, Wisconsin, just outside of Milwaukee. That’s when he first met sports psychologist Dr. Matthew Myrvik. Momcilovic admits that he didn’t really need much help on the mental side in high school as a four-star prospect, but he struggled early in college. He made 36 percent of his attempts from beyond the arc as a freshman, a perfectly reasonable rate, but not up to his standards. His confidence suffered because of it.
“A lot of ups and downs,” he said.
His dad insisted on Zoom sessions with Myrvik, who has worked with NBA players for the Milwaukee Bucks. They discussed different topics and techniques, but Momcilovic said this year the “jellybean” thing seemed to click.
“(Dr. Myrvik) suggested using a food item. I don’t know why I picked ‘jellybean,’” Momcilovic told The Athletic. “Maybe because it’s a little longer word? It’s not even my favorite candy.”
He improved to 39.6 percent from 3-point range as a sophomore but fully locked in this season, shooting 51.2 percent from the field overall for an effective field goal percentage of 67.9 percent, plus 87.8 percent on free throws.
Momcilovic doesn’t say “jellybean” out loud — “It’s just in my head” — and he admits he will go full games without using it at all.
“It’s more for in practice,” he said. “You practice your shot so many times, and you sometimes get thoughts that creep in your head that maybe something’s wrong. If I say it before I’m shooting, it’s a way to not think about the shot.”
Whenever and however he uses it, it’s clearly working.
“In the past, it would be, ‘I missed one or two, I don’t know if I’m going to take the next one,’” Iowa State head coach T.J. Otzelberger told the Des Moines Register earlier this season. “Now, he’s imposing his will on everything … He just keeps himself in such an unbelievable mental place that he knows that it’s the hunting and the attempts that we’re really after as opposed to only the makes.”
Confidence is a consistent theme of Momcilovic’s sessions with Myrvik, separating process from results. Iowa State and Otzelberger know how good of a shooter Momcilovic is and want him doing it at a high volume. And doubt will spoil more game plans than a couple early misses.
“The first two years, I questioned my confidence and not being the same player every game,” said Momcilovic. “This year I’ve been way more consistent, and the sessions helped with that.”
It could lead to more than the best 3-point stroke in the game, too. Like a deep March Madness run. Or a jellybeans NIL deal.
“My agent said he heard something,” Momcilovic said. “So we’ll see.”
