Free Throws

[Driftwood]

They are free. Nobody in your face, no harassing defender, just the player, the ball, the line and the basket.

Texas FT percentage is pathetic and I put this right back on the coaching staff.

Great teams shoot great percentages from the line. Texas shot 60% against Oklahoma State. Why can't we shoot free throws?

AT is normally rock solid from the line, but not lately. AG is shooting FTs with no arch. Is anybody coaching? Even Kat is missing. We are losing games due to our performance at the line.

How does the team fix this?

 

[CATS SWOOSH]

I believe they have a NOAH shooting machine. It videos the player and shows the flight of the ball and gives angle with degrees for best shoot for that player.If Texas does not have one they need one.

 

[Rexy]

Free Throws are mainly FOCUS and CONCENTRATION - they have NOTHING to do with coaching, UNLESS the form is wrong. Carol Ross says Ashley's timing is off and probably her form too, and that the coaches have been working mightily with her to correct it - BUT all the coaching in the world will do NOTHING if the player does not PRACTICE. It is up to the PLAYER to put the corrections into hours of practice. I'm getting just a little tired of coach bashing.

 

[WCBBNUT]

Kat missed two out of her last 26. I would leave her out of this conversation if I were you. Kind of makes your argument fall flat.

Most coaches will tell you that fatigue is the biggest factor (next to nerves). We have a shallow bench. These girls are being asked to play a lot of minutes against very good teams. I would assume that (and nerves) has something to do with it.

But I agree. You don't win close games unless you take adavantage of the freebies.

 

[mb227]

In reply to:

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[Bill in Sinton]

I was once told by a coach a 70% free throw make is good, 60% is ok but should be improved and that under 50% is not good. The West Oso girl's basketball team lost a regional match two years ago due mostly to missed free throws. The next year the coach had them come in on Saturday to practice 300 free throws the next year and their free throws went from bad to good. Maybe we need to do the same thing till our teams free throws get up to at least 70%.

 

[BabHorn]

The team was hitting over 70 percent in OOC games. They dipped to around 65% (and one around 50%) to start conference play. Against Tech they were up to 76%. The team is capable of hitting their FTs. Don't know what happened at the start of Big 12 play. If they can shoot them like they did against Tech, we be able to stop talking about their poor FT shooting, which at 65% in conference play is not too hot but is middle of the pack.

 

[mb227]

Considering the talent that Texas has had over the years, it is not unreasonable to look to the WNBA stats as a comparison...consistently, you have to go to around 26-30th place to find individuals with enough attempts to qualify for the rankings shooting under 80% and then again to near 50th place to find the ones under 70%.

Against squads that can throw bodies at you because of bench depth, they can easily make a Texas offensive possession become the equivalent of a turnover by a quick hack in the paint to a shooter who cannot consistently hit their free throws.

It is not unreasonable to expect the capacity to make free throws a pre-requisite to a recruit being seriously considered for an offer.