Free Throw Shooting Percentage?

[IGotNoTiming]

So is this going to be our downfall in the Big 12 Tourney/NCAA Tourney?

OR

Does the number of attempts that we MAKE overshadow the number of attempts our opponents have enough to negate our shooting percentage?

Boomer Sooner

[NWOSURanger]

It was one of the things that hurt OU in the Arkansas game.
11-22 ft that night.
http://www.soonersports.com/sports/m.../12-30-08.html
I think the most telling was the points of the bench.
Bench points-OU 3,AR 14.
But now OU has JP coming off the bench, so I think that is the missing piece.

Hopefully OU won't have 4 guys foul out at the end of a game again this year.

[oumartin]

I wanna know what the percentage is on this.

When blake gets two free shots he tends to miss both

When he shoots 1 and 1 he seems to concentrate more and typically always hits the first and more times than not the second.

[badger]

It IS what caused CP3's double-double streak to end!

(seriously - box score had her going 1-2 from the FT line, to end with nine points!)

However, since we won that game, I think the larger issue is if we can control our own foul trouble to disallow the other team FT opportunities, if we can penetrate (giggle every time that word comes up in bball) the lane to force opponents to foul us. The more FT attempts we have, the more points we'll have. The fewer FT attempts the opponent gets, the fewer points they'll have.

Not every shot will fall... unless you're Mr. Cutie from last season. However, we should be concerned about making sure we have the opportunity to take those shots... and prevent opponents from having those same opportunities.

Ref bribery could always work too

[the_ouskull]

Good thread. I was just talking to my high school girls team about this yesterday afternoon.

First of all, don't EVEN say anything to me, I've tried; including working one-on-one with each of them, some of them multiple times, solely to address and correct their free throw shooting - by the time we're done, they're hitting 40-50. I don't LIKE it, but I can live with it.

Okay, now that that's out of the way, let me ALSO mention that I've put over half of the team on The Gun, AND the exact same kinds of corrections resulted in a 20% increase in my junior high girls AND boys teams, over the course of the season.

Okay, having said all of that, I was talking to my high school girls team, again, yesterday about their free throw percentage, which, as a team, sits at 51.1% on the season. Yeah. (I believe the liquor store clean-up guy from Superbad said it best when he said, "F*ck my life.") And, with us having played our last regular season game the day before, I had the final (regular) season stats in front of me, and I realized that we gave up an average of 7.75 points per game, solely from the foul line; just left 'em layin' out there.

If you go solely by final scores, it cost us five games over the course of the season. Now, in our first round district game, we're playing the number one seed in our region instead of a team that we've beaten twice already this year.

Yay. "Free" throws.

NOTE: My team also plays a very aggressive, attacking defensive style (to make up for a complete lack of size, and basketball acumen) and, as a result, it has carried over to our offensive - on nights that we're not just jacking up threes - stats; namely in the area of free throws. Even though we're undersized, (our starting "post" is 5'6", and our 5'4" point guard was leading the team in rebounds per game at one point with fewer than three per...) we shoot the same number of free throws as our opponents (many of whom HAD actual posts, which sucks) do because we're aggressive on both ends of the floor.

If OU is aggressive on both ends of the floor, regardless of the quality of our opponent, then any advantage that a team may have over us, percentage-wise, is negated. BUT... If they're lackadaisical; playing bored, as is being bandied about the boards, then they may not have time to take advantage of our strengths against a good, upper-echelon team. So far, we've made our comebacks against teams that we shouldn't have had to hold off for any significant portion of a game. I don't think we pull the same business against a UNC, Pitt, Michigan State, or Memphis, ya know? So we need to stop practicing pulling it now... ya know? (Yes, you, Sooners. You.)

the_ouskull