Is it Possible that we will actually be a good free throw shooting team??

[pfister1]

After Maui, we are currently shooting 71% as a team (126 of 177). We have a total of 51 misses from the line with three guys responsible for 35 of those misses. DCII has missed 12 of 23 attempts; MGB has missed 9 of 19 and Grant has missed 14 of 37 attempts.

I think Grant and MGB are better free throw shooters than their numbers would suggest so far. Grant actually made 12 of 13 for Maui. If you throw out MGB's 7 miss stinker against Colgate he is 5 of 7 and he shot 100% in very limited opps in his lone season at Duke.

In any event it may very well turn out that the only one of those three that is important to our team free throw shooting is Grant who looks like he will draw a ton of fouls this year.

You can make an argument after last night's game that the lineup we may see the most of would feature the following:

Ennis 29 of 36 .... 80%
Cooney 13 of 15 ... 87%
Fair 24 of 27 ... 89%
Xmas 10 of 12 ..... 83%
Grant 23 of 37 .... 62%

That lineup is shooting .7795 or 78% from the stripe. HOLY CRAP could free throw shooting actually be a strength for us this year??

 

[Symphony Steve]

Was thinking the same thing. So nice not to sweat bricks from the line in the last couple of minutes. If they've gotta foul Ennis or Cooney, then I think we're gonna be much more efficient from the line than we have been in recent years.

 

[jordoo]

Its more than possible its probable.

Ennis, Cooney and CJ will be excellent all season.
MikeG and Grant will make the important ones and continue to raise their percentages.
DC2 won't shoot them when it matters and even then he has been better the lately and has decent mechanics.
Baye proved solid an reliable down the stretch last season.
Rak is shooting them better than he ever has.

Its hard to express how huge this will be to go along with our low turn over counts this season. With the rule changes an moving to the ACC we should see more FT's than we have in quite a while as well as more scoring. If we can max our opportunities by protecting the ball and take full advantage of our trips to the line it will be the difference in plenty of big games where both teams can score the ball which should be a common theme this season. If we can also improve or def rebounding percentage then we will pretty much win games by default with those three things going for us.

 

[2-3zone]

very probable because our only bad free throw shooter is DC and he only plays limited minutes

 

[durhamcuse]

After Maui, we are currently shooting 71% as a team (126 of 177). We have a total of 51 misses from the line with three guys responsible for 35 of those misses. DCII has missed 12 of 23 attempts; MGB has missed 9 of 19 and Grant has missed 14 of 37 attempts.

I think Grant and MGB are better free throw shooters than their numbers would suggest so far. Grant actually made 12 of 13 for Maui. If you throw out MGB's 7 miss stinker against Colgate he is 5 of 7 and he shot 100% in very limited opps in his lone season at Duke.

In any event it may very well turn out that the only one of those three that is important to our team free throw shooting is Grant who looks like he will draw a ton of fouls this year.

You can make an argument after last night's game that the lineup we may see the most of would feature the following:

Ennis 29 of 36 .... 80%
Cooney 13 of 15 ... 87%
Fair 24 of 27 ... 89%
Xmas 10 of 12 ..... 83%
Grant 23 of 37 .... 62%

That lineup is shooting .7795 or 78% from the stripe. HOLY CRAP could free throw shooting actually be a strength for us this year??

Yes. We have the most important players who can shoot well from the line. Ennis, Cooney, and Fair are always going to be clutch. Grant is improving and Christmas and Keita are decent. The Maui court had very friendly rims. I think that we are not as good as we looked during this tournament from the line, but we should be good enough. Now that Ennis, Cooney, and Grant are getting good minutes, they are starting to improve from the free throw stripe.

 

[Delmar]

My guess is that once we are back in the dome when it comes to free throws it will look like the team is aiming for a hoop somewhere in Hawaii.

 

[HarrisonJBounel]

The FT shooters haven't been tested yet in a real pressure situation. Let's see how we do up 3 with 43 seconds left in a one-and-one at Carolina.

But props to whomever is coaching them on this. Their form looks good - balanced and confident.

 

[2-3zone]

Full confidence in Ennis, Cooney and Fair in late game situations at the line

I would like to see Mike Gbinije improve at the line so we can go to a 3 guard lineup late

 

[orangefan13]

Grant, Ennis, Cooney and Fair all look to be valuing their free throws. There was a strong confidence in maui every foul shot we took.

So often we would get up there after a hard foul and not value the first one in the past this year its different.