Free Throws. Free F-r-e-e Throws. For the love of god.

[Trueblue25]

As I've been a cuse fan for nearly two decades now, I've noticed a statistic and part of the game that has plagued about 90% of the SU teams I've seen in my life time.

Free throws.

Does anyone know JB's emphasis or standpoint on FTs?

A team at our level should not have one man shooting below 58 to 60 %, and that's just because of centers.

I want to see Fair, Ennis and Cooney making at least 80-85% throughout the season.

Silent G and Grant have to step it up. Anything below 65 to 70% for them should be unacceptable.

I get it, Grant will likely be a first round, possibly lottery pick. But as our most aggressive offensive player, he should be knocking down charity throws as well.

At some point it's just irresponsible to have a team this poor at free throws. Hopefully it's just the first 3 games of the season and we'll pick it up before conference play.

 

[Scooch]

"At some point" = 35 years.

We emphasize other things.

 

[Toga]

http://www.sbnation.com/longform/2012/12/13/3758698/rick-barry-underhand-free-throw-nba

 

[Trueblue25]

"At some point" = 35 years.

We emphasize other things.

Yeah well free throws are gaining even more importance. If you think we can compete with teams like Kansas, Duke, Kentucky etc. while shooting around 60% as a team you're high.

 

[Waltdods]

"At some point" = 35 years.

We emphasize other things.

SU constantly gets hammered as a bad free-throw shooting team. I was curious about whether this was actually true. My assumption before looking at the data is that it would show SU as basically an average free shooting team, with all of us just having focused on the bad times. That turns out to be, umh, incorrect. The stats are really remarkably bad and consistent.

ESPN has stats going back to the 01-02 season, so covering 12 full seasons. In that time, Syracuse finished in the top half of college basketball teams ONCE, and then only barely - in '06-07, when it was #166 out of 336. These numbers certainly suggest Syracuse is more than usually bad at free throw shooting. (Just eye-balling where other schools fall, I don't see any particular tendency between big-time programs and small schools, and can't think why there really should be.)

Here are the numbers:

01-02: 212 out of 325 D-1 schools
02-03: 165/326
03-04: 299/326
04-05: 231/326
05-06: 297/334
06-07: 166/336
07-08: 247/341
08-09: 306/347
09-10: 234/347
10-11: 278/346
11-12: 172/344
12-13: 231/347


01-02: 212/325

 

[bballbeadle]

Wow, the championship team sucked. And the next year they were awesome!

 

[Trueblue25]

Wow, the championship team sucked. And the next year they were awesome!

I'd be asking you which championship team, if we were better at free throws.

 

[cuseguy]

Grant has some work to do to be a lottery pick.

 

[Trueblue25]

Grant makes this team a top championship contender if he knocks down his free throws. He is one of the most aggressive scorers in the league, if he could just get his % up it'd pay dividends.

 

[Scooch]

Yeah well free throws are gaining even more importance. If you think we can compete with teams like Kansas, Duke, Kentucky etc. while shooting around 60% as a team you're high.

Easy, chief.

 

[Trueblue25]

Easy, chief.

My b.

 

[hoopsupstate]

Grant is nowhere close to being NBA ready! It's laughable to think he's in consideration of being in the lottery or even a first round pick. He's not great at anything.

 

[Captnhowdy]

Grant is nowhere close to being NBA ready! It's laughable to think he's in consideration of being in the lottery or even a first round pick. He's not great at anything.

End of last season he was projected to go mid-first round. It's not that laughable.

 

[LGO85]

I'm going to have to agree with you, OP. This year is especially important to knock them down, until the refs and players get acclimated to the newly emphasized rules.

 

[albanycuse]

Always wondered why they called it a free throw. Its more like a free shot. You throw a baseball, you shoot a basketball, not like a gun though.

 

[longtimefan]

As I've been a cuse fan for nearly two decades now, I've noticed a statistic and part of the game that has plagued about 90% of the SU teams I've seen in my life time.

Free throws.

Does anyone know JB's emphasis or standpoint on FTs?

A team at our level should not have one man shooting below 58 to 60 %, and that's just because of centers.

I want to see Fair, Ennis and Cooney making at least 80-85% throughout the season.

Silent G and Grant have to step it up. Anything below 65 to 70% for them should be unacceptable.

I get it, Grant will likely be a first round, possibly lottery pick. But as our most aggressive offensive player, he should be knocking down charity throws as well.

At some point it's just irresponsible to have a team this poor at free throws. Hopefully it's just the first 3 games of the season and we'll pick it up before conference play.

Not just SU. UNC shot 22-48 today in their home loss to Belmont.

 

[Trueblue25]

Not just SU. UNC shot 22-48 today in their home loss to Belmont.

Kentucky shot poorly as well.

SU is an aggressive physical team that will benefit on the offensive side with this new system.

If we can hit upwards of 73 to 75% as a team, that's an additional 20 or more points a game.

 

[Trueblue25]

Not just SU. UNC shot 22-48 today in their home loss to Belmont.

I don't want to lose to anyone like Belmont, ever.

 

[mountaincuse]

I don't want to lose to anyone like Belmont, ever.

We have.

 

[bballbeadle]

I'm going to have to agree with you, OP. This year is especially important to knock them down, until the refs and players get acclimated to the newly emphasized rules.

Okay, I just have to ask this. What does OP stand for? I see it used all the time. Outstanding Possum, perhaps?

 

[albanycuse]

Okay, I just have to ask this. What does OP stand for? I see it used all the time. Outstanding Possum, perhaps?

Original poster.

 

[PoppyHart]

Kentucky shot poorly as well.

SU is an aggressive physical team that will benefit on the offensive side with this new system.

If we can hit upwards of 73 to 75% as a team, that's an additional 20 or more points a game.

That's some interesting math. How do you figure?

For reference, there were 15 games listed on ESPN's main site for 11/17/13. So, 30 data points (2 per game).

http://scores.espn.go.com/ncb/scoreboard

The average FTA per team was 22.8. But let's say a team shoots, on average, an amazing 30 FTs per game and shoots 50%. 15 points. 75% = 22.5 points. For a 7.5 ppg difference. And we're more like a 60-65% team as things stand.

In actuality, we're talking 1.5-3 points. Still extremely significant at the margin, and quite possibly the difference between a deep run and an early upset. But 20 points?

 

[skurey]

1.5-3 points is not significant at all which leads back to getting to the free throw line is more important than making them

 

[two3zone]

Grant is nowhere close to being NBA ready! It's laughable to think he's in consideration of being in the lottery or even a first round pick. He's not great at anything.

Lot of people said the same about MCW, lot of people didn't think Dion would be in the top 10.


NBA isn't looking at what he does on the court, they see his athletic ability which I have to say may be the best I've seen here in a long time here.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Trueblue25]

That's some interesting math. How do you figure?

For reference, there were 15 games listed on ESPN's main site for 11/17/13. So, 30 data points (2 per game).

http://scores.espn.go.com/ncb/scoreboard

The average FTA per team was 22.8. But let's say a team shoots, on average, an amazing 30 FTs per game and shoots 50%. 15 points. 75% = 22.5 points. For a 7.5 ppg difference. And we're more like a 60-65% team as things stand.

In actuality, we're talking 1.5-3 points. Still extremely significant at the margin, and quite possibly the difference between a deep run and an early upset. But 20 points?

Oh for the love of god. The point is we need to hit around that percentage as a team.

I'm a history/education major not statistic/math :noidea: