Free throws

#4
#4
kell7517 said:
Well with Carey, Phillips and Estrella in the portal. That helps increase the percentage right off the bat.
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didn't realize this. Geez...college sports are broken. Emotional attachment to schools by players and fans anymore is virtually zero...all about the $ and PT. Trust in Barnes, but the portals are nuts for everyone. Don't know how you manage this as a head coach.
 
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#5
#5
Michigan was 85th in the country in free throw efficiency. Top 5 in field goal percentage and blocks and Top 20 in rebounds. Michigan's rim protection is what differentiated them from everyone else. Free throws pretty far down the list.
 
#6
#6
I just don't get (and I am sure there is likely a good reason) why we pick up players that can't hit their foul shots. That really bothered me all season with our bigs.
 
#7
#7
njvols said:
didn't realize this. Geez...college sports are broken. Emotional attachment to schools by players and fans anymore is virtually zero...all about the $ and PT. Trust in Barnes, but the portals are nuts for everyone. Don't know how you manage this as a head coach.
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I know how I’d manage it as a head coach. You consistently hit at least 7 out of 10 free throws in practice or you don’t see the floor next game. Do what you have to do…stay late, come in early, shoot in your sleep but make your free throws or you won’t play. Period.
 
#8
#8
Hank Bukowski said:
I know how I’d manage it as a head coach. You consistently hit at least 7 out of 10 free throws in practice or you don’t see the floor next game. Do what you have to do…stay late, come in early, shoot in your sleep but make your free throws or you won’t play. Period.
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Anyone who can’t shoot at least 70% free throws is a disgrace to the game. That’s sorry work ethic and really proves how little the coach requires from his players.
 
#9
#9
adam.vol said:
Anyone who can’t shoot at least 70% free throws is a disgrace to the game. That’s sorry work ethic and really proves how little the coach requires from his players.
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Ha! Or maybe it’s because time is spent working on other aspects. Also, these are big, strong guys with big hands. Have you ever tried shooting a small, light ball from the FT line? It’s hard for these bigger guys. I’m pretty sure Barnes demands plenty from his players.

And to those saying hit this in practice or else, that’s what you do in middle and high school. There’s a big difference in hitting in practice vs a game.
 
#10
#10
hUTch2002 said:
Ha! Or maybe it’s because time is spent working on other aspects. Also, these are big, strong guys with big hands. Have you ever tried shooting a small, light ball from the FT line? It’s hard for these bigger guys. I’m pretty sure Barnes demands plenty from his players.

And to those saying hit this in practice or else, that’s what you do in middle and high school. There’s a big difference in hitting in practice vs a game.
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Have you ever played beer pong? It’s not hard.. When I was a college kid we got as drunk as possible and threw wet ping pong balls across a table to land in a Dixie Cup. When a player’s hands are so large they have to pinch a basketball to hold it, I’ll agree with you.

A free throw is the same as any shot, only there is no defense. If you don’t take the time to learn to shoot a basketball, what the hell are you getting paid for?

People who don’t understand the importance of shooting a basketball shouldn’t be in a basketball forum.
 
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#11
#11
adam.vol said:
Have you ever played beer pong? It’s not hard.. When I was a college kid we got as drunk as possible and threw wet ping pong balls across a table to land in a Dixie Cup. When a player’s hands are so large they have to pinch a basketball to hold it, I’ll agree with you.

A free throw is the same as any shot, only there is no defense. If you don’t take the time to learn to shoot a basketball, what the hell are you getting paid for?

People who don’t understand the importance of shooting a basketball shouldn’t be in a basketball forum.
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Such drama. Feel free to kick me out if you so deem. I do understand as I played the game many years, I’m just offering perspective instead of insinuating our coach who is known for being a hard azz is somehow lax in this area.
 
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#12
#12
I love the idea that free throw shooting is so important that the other game skills don't matter. There are church league players who hit 90% from the line but could never get a rebound in a college game. We won many games this year while kissing the free throw competition. It's frustrating to miss free throws but that alone is not the path to victory.
 
#13
#13
70% is probably above average for players hitting free throws. I’d guess that the median is closer to 65%. The mean average is higher because games are planned to get the best free throw shooters to the line and to keep your brick layers far from it.
 
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#15
#15
hUTch2002 said:
Such drama. Feel free to kick me out if you so deem. I do understand as I played the game many years, I’m just offering perspective instead of insinuating our coach who is known for being a hard azz is somehow lax in this area.
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You’re right, that was as over the top. I apologize.

Even General Neyland received criticism for his unwillingness to worry about offense. With only having so many hours of the day, everyone makes sacrifices to prioritize what they deem most important. How they balance their priorities is the difference between the great ones and the legends.
 
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#16
#16
Thunder Good-Oil said:
70% is probably above average for players hitting free throws. I’d guess that the median is closer to 65%. The mean average is higher because games are planned to get the best free throw shooters to the line and to keep your brick layers far from it.
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Crunching the team stats from the ESPN website, here is what I found. This season the good guys were tied for next to last with Missouri in FT accuracy at 69.1%. Miss St was last at 66.0%, and Vandy was the best at 78.9%. SEC teams attempted 12,930 free throws this past season (who knew?), and hit 73.9% of them. So UT was almost 5% below the conference average in free throw accuracy, which will surprise no one that watched them play. They were also quite ordinary in the number of FTs attempted per game at 22.9, which was 11th out of 16 teams.

To put it into a larger perspective, I found a study of free throw shooting using national data from 1987 (when the 3 point shot was introduced) through 2022. FT accuracy in 1987 was 69.1%. The percentage steadily declined to 67.1% in 1994. The study concluded that this decline was the result of focusing on three point shots instead of free throws, which makes sense. From 1994 the national average steadily rose to a high of 71.6% in 2022. Compared to UT's performance this season, every year between 2011 and 2022 the national average was 69.1% or higher. Starting in 2016 the average was was basically 70% or higher. So our performance this year was pretty disappointing compared to recent national averages, which again isn't surprising.

I think it's worth mentioning that the SEC this season shot FTs considerably better than the national average in 2022 (73.9% vs 71.6%). Power conferences certainly have better overall players, so maybe this results in better FT shooters as well? In any case, even though UT lagged recent national averages, we were even further behind the curve in the SEC, which is more relevant given the 18 game league schedule. This data should give us an idea of what it means to be an "average" FT shooter in college basketball.

Now lets find some portal players. In Barnes we trust. GBO
 
#17
#17
MB_Vol said:
Crunching the team stats from the ESPN website, here is what I found. This season the good guys were tied for next to last with Missouri in FT accuracy at 69.1%. Miss St was last at 66.0%, and Vandy was the best at 78.9%. SEC teams attempted 12,930 free throws this past season (who knew?), and hit 73.9% of them. So UT was almost 5% below the conference average in free throw accuracy, which will surprise no one that watched them play. They were also quite ordinary in the number of FTs attempted per game at 22.9, which was 11th out of 16 teams.

To put it into a larger perspective, I found a study of free throw shooting using national data from 1987 (when the 3 point shot was introduced) through 2022. FT accuracy in 1987 was 69.1%. The percentage steadily declined to 67.1% in 1994. The study concluded that this decline was the result of focusing on three point shots instead of free throws, which makes sense. From 1994 the national average steadily rose to a high of 71.6% in 2022. Compared to UT's performance this season, every year between 2011 and 2022 the national average was 69.1% or higher. Starting in 2016 the average was was basically 70% or higher. So our performance this year was pretty disappointing compared to recent national averages, which again isn't surprising.

I think it's worth mentioning that the SEC this season shot FTs considerably better than the national average in 2022 (73.9% vs 71.6%). Power conferences certainly have better overall players, so maybe this results in better FT shooters as well? In any case, even though UT lagged recent national averages, we were even further behind the curve in the SEC, which is more relevant given the 18 game league schedule. This data should give us an idea of what it means to be an "average" FT shooter in college basketball.

Now lets find some portal players. In Barnes we trust. GBO
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Team free throw percentages are one thing. Teams will try to get their best shooters to the line and which would skew the averages.

I’d like to see player by player averages. I’m thinking the the median average is around 65% - half of the players are better and half are worse.
 
#19
#19
MB_Vol said:
Crunching the team stats from the ESPN website, here is what I found. This season the good guys were tied for next to last with Missouri in FT accuracy at 69.1%. Miss St was last at 66.0%, and Vandy was the best at 78.9%. SEC teams attempted 12,930 free throws this past season (who knew?), and hit 73.9% of them. So UT was almost 5% below the conference average in free throw accuracy, which will surprise no one that watched them play. They were also quite ordinary in the number of FTs attempted per game at 22.9, which was 11th out of 16 teams.

To put it into a larger perspective, I found a study of free throw shooting using national data from 1987 (when the 3 point shot was introduced) through 2022. FT accuracy in 1987 was 69.1%. The percentage steadily declined to 67.1% in 1994. The study concluded that this decline was the result of focusing on three point shots instead of free throws, which makes sense. From 1994 the national average steadily rose to a high of 71.6% in 2022. Compared to UT's performance this season, every year between 2011 and 2022 the national average was 69.1% or higher. Starting in 2016 the average was was basically 70% or higher. So our performance this year was pretty disappointing compared to recent national averages, which again isn't surprising.

I think it's worth mentioning that the SEC this season shot FTs considerably better than the national average in 2022 (73.9% vs 71.6%). Power conferences certainly have better overall players, so maybe this results in better FT shooters as well? In any case, even though UT lagged recent national averages, we were even further behind the curve in the SEC, which is more relevant given the 18 game league schedule. This data should give us an idea of what it means to be an "average" FT shooter in college basketball.

Now lets find some portal players. In Barnes we trust. GBO
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A huge part of accuracy is who is doing the free throw shooting. I suspect we had a higher percentage of attempts by centers than most teams. Okpara and Estrella weren't good from the line but they're not outliers for their position. Carey and Boswell are outliers in theirs, and that's probably where we had a drop from expected performance.

Ament shooting 80% was actually fine, and probably kept the number further up than it would otherwise have been.
 
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#20
#20
adam.vol said:
You’re right, that was as over the top. I apologize.

Even General Neyland received criticism for his unwillingness to worry about offense. With only having so many hours of the day, everyone makes sacrifices to prioritize what they deem most important. How they balance their priorities is the difference between the great ones and the legends.
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All good. Fair enough. You’re right. Have you ever seen Draft Day? I love that part where Costner talks about Montana in the Super Bowl and he said something like no man can stop time but the great ones find ways to slow it down, to which Garner says, so slow it down. It’s not a great movie but I enjoy it.
 
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#21
#21
VolatileVol said:
Michigan was 85th in the country in free throw efficiency. Top 5 in field goal percentage and blocks and Top 20 in rebounds. Michigan's rim protection is what differentiated them from everyone else. Free throws pretty far down the list.
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Champ game though they were 25/28 and outscored UConn by 13 at the Ft line in a 6 pt game.
 
#22
#22
hUTch2002 said:
Ha! Or maybe it’s because time is spent working on other aspects. Also, these are big, strong guys with big hands. Have you ever tried shooting a small, light ball from the FT line? It’s hard for these bigger guys. I’m pretty sure Barnes demands plenty from his players.

And to those saying hit this in practice or else, that’s what you do in middle and high school. There’s a big difference in hitting in practice vs a game.
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There’s plenty of strong guys with big hands who manage to make a respectable % at the line. Maybe it’s a little harder for them, but there’s no excuse for shooting less than 50% as a college athlete. It’s embarrassing.
 
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#23
#23
Col_Cathcart said:
There’s plenty of strong guys with big hands who manage to make a respectable % at the line. Maybe it’s a little harder for them, but there’s no excuse for shooting less than 50% as a college athlete. It’s embarrassing.
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And I don’t disagree. That’s pitiful. It could be a lot of things but I find it hard to believe it’s because Barnes is soft.
 
#25
#25
adam.vol said:
Have you ever played beer pong? It’s not hard.. When I was a college kid we got as drunk as possible and threw wet ping pong balls across a table to land in a Dixie Cup. When a player’s hands are so large they have to pinch a basketball to hold it, I’ll agree with you.

A free throw is the same as any shot, only there is no defense. If you don’t take the time to learn to shoot a basketball, what the hell are you getting paid for?

People who don’t understand the importance of shooting a basketball shouldn’t be in a basketball forum.
Click to expand...
Guess this why UT passed on Shaq back in the day. And that Wilt Chamberlain kid will never make it.
 
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