The Dreaded Free Throw

Free throws have been surprisingly horrendous for this year's Hoosiers. The freebies have literally cost them realistic opportunities to win 5 or 6 games this year. Turnovers have also been an achilles heel for this team, but you expect that with a bunch of freshmen that are completely overmatched in size, speed, strength, experience, and athleticism. But the free throw is just a simple 15-foot unguarded shot. It takes size, speed, strength, and athleticism completely out of the equation. Also, with IU playing so many guards and smaller players, I was hoping that Free Throws might be one of their strengths, but it is actually one of their biggest weaknesses. IU is shooting just 65% from the charity stripe this year. That puts them somewhere around 250th in the nation. 128 teams shoot 70% or better. These struggles from the line got me a little concerned and prompted me to check how some of Tom Crean's recent teams shot the 15-footers. Here's Marquette's FT % for the last 3 years: * 2008: 71% * 2007: 67% * 2006: 73% Here's IU's FT % for the last 3 years: * 2008: 76% * 2007: 71% * 2006: 69% So, it looks like one tough year ('07) out of Crean's last 3 years at Marquette, but no alarming patterns of consistently bad FT shooting. Although, if you include this year at IU, then Crean's last 3 teams have shot 65%, 71%, and 67%. Not too good. As I looked at some other stats, it seems you could make a nice easy benchmark for team FT shooting percentage at 70%. If you're below 70% as a team, that's pretty crappy. If you're above 70% as a team, you are at least holding your own and not shooting yourself in the foot. If you're closer to the 75% mark, you are a pretty good FT shooting team. So, let's get back to this year's Hoosiers and take a closer look: Roth 17-20 85.0% Williams 36-48 75.0% Jones 55-78 70.5% Dumes 54-78 69.2% Taber 12-18 66.7% Story 28-45 62.2% Pritchard 70-118 59.3% Moore 21-36 58.3% Scrubs 11-24 45.8% A few things jump out at me: * By far your best FT shooter (Roth) has the fewest FT attempts of any regular player (10% better than the next guy, but only 20 FT attempts) * One of your worst FT shooters (Pritchard) has by far the most FT attempts on the team (40 more attempts than the next guy) * Generally, you rely on your "shooters" to get it done at the line. Roth is holding up his end of the bargain, but Dumes is only 69.2% and Story is only 62.2%. * One of your primary ball-handlers (Moore) is only shooting 58.3%. * Almost 60% of the FT attempts are coming from 3 guys (Pritchard, Dumes, and Jones) where Jones is the only one over 70% and he barely is at just 70.5%. * And to top it all off, the bench-warmers come in and clang away at a 45.8% clip. Where is the opportunity for improvement? * Roth getting to the line more? No. Good in theory, but he just isn't the type of player that is going to get to the line frequently. * Pritchard improving his percentage? No. Hopefully, he can work on it and get better in future years, but my guess is that he is going to continue to struggle. * Verdell Jones? No. Jones is doing a good job of getting to the line and shooting at 70%, but again I think that is probably about where he is going to be. He doesn't have a great stroke and is not a great overall shooter. * How about Devan Dumes improving his percentage? Yes! Dumes shot 128-153 for 83.7% last year at Vincennes. He is one of our best shooters, he's getting to the line a fair amount, but he's the guy that sticks out to me that is not getting it done and performing way below his potential. * Another guy not getting it done at the line is Story. He's got a good enough stroke that he should be shooting way better than 62%. * Get Nick Williams to the line more? Yes. I'm a big Nick Williams fan and love his mid-range game. I would love to see more offense flow through him and have the coaching staff work with him on drawing more fouls. He's doing a nice job at the line at 75% but needs to get there more often. By the way, I think Jeremiah Rivers will add a lot to this team next year, but FT shooting ain't gonna be one of them. He shot just 54.3% as a sophomore and 44.4% (only 4-9) as a freshman. Hopefully the incoming class will be able to step up and knock down the freebies. It's really not that fucking hard. Sorry, I remained calm while typing all of this and then I let that one slip through. But it really isn't hard. You get a free shot from 15 feet and they will give you 1 point for each one you make. This is compared to having to run designed plays against in-your-face defense that is playing in the passing lanes and with their hand in your face just so you can try to get a shot at the basket. When you get a free shot, for God's sake, knock it down. Tom Crean referred to FT shooting as "one of the great wonders of the world". I like Crean and all, but that doesn't give me confidence that he will be able to figure out their FT shooting woes. Of course, FT shooting is one of those weird mental things. All you can do is continue to work on them and I am sure they shoot them before practice, during scrimmages, after running their ass off so they shoot them when they are dead tired, shoot them with consequences such as running if you miss, etc. A free throw is kind of like a 4-foot putt (2-footer for me). You should be able to step up and knock it in, but if you think too much about it or your read too much into it and especially if you don't stroke it with confidence, you will miss it. On second thought, maybe it isn't like a 4-foot putt because I could always make my free throws but I can't hit a 4-foot putt to save my life. On third thought, maybe FTs are like 4-foot putts because I always shot my FTs with confidence but 4-foot putts are completely a mental problem for me. If 4-foot putts are like FT shooting, Papa D is Reggie Miller and I'm Shaq. Well, that's my take on the FT situation.