Free Throws

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WanderingGopher

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If anybody comes on here arguing free throw shooting isn't important to the outcome of a game, they ought to be banned for stupidity.
 

But he's a moderator and knows more than any of us.
 

Time to put my foot in my mouth...I was one of the ones who preached focusing on other areas of the game instead of free throws.
 




It isn't just the free throws it is when they are shot...my God someone nut up on this team already and hit something in the clutch.
 

FT% is nearly irrelevant.

BTW, as Maximus points out, the Gophers shot a better FT% tonight than Iowa. Yippee.

Look at Iowa's 60%+ eFG%, not FT's.

Buggs starting was certified crazy.
 

tmvander said:
It isn't just the free throws it is when they are shot...my God someone nut up on this team already and hit something in the clutch.
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Are points in the 2nd half worth more than in the first? I'd rather have hit 2 more threes in the first half than one free throw on the second half.
 

Gopher Warrior said:
FT% is nearly irrelevant. BTW, as Maximus points out, the Gophers shot a better FT% tonight than Iowa. Yippee. Look at Iowa's 60%+ eFG%, not FT's. Buggs starting was certified crazy.
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Yup. The Gophers lost because of bad first half defense. Not free throws.
 



Let's just blame whatever we messed up on late every game. Shot free throws very well tonight besides the front end of a couple 1 and 1s at the end. That wasn't why we lost though. Don't get down by 17 and this was a much different game. Slow starts are killing us
 


mcal24 said:
Let's just blame whatever we messed up on late every game. Shot free throws very well tonight besides the front end of a couple 1 and 1s at the end. That wasn't why we lost though. Don't get down by 17 and this was a much different game. Slow starts are killing us
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Is it slow starts? Or is it blowing 9+ point leads in the last 10 minutes of a game? We have 2 of each....
 

scher215 said:
Yup. The Gophers lost because of bad first half defense. Not free throws.
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The gophers were winning by 4 with 2 minutes left. In order to secure a tight lead late in the game you need to take care of the ball, play good/smart defense, and make free throws. The gophers did a pretty good job taking care of the ball but that was it.
 



Gopher Warrior said:
FT% is nearly irrelevant. BTW, as Maximus points out, the Gophers shot a better FT% tonight than Iowa. Yippee. Look at Iowa's 60%+ eFG%, not FT's. Buggs starting was certified crazy.
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Iowa made 7 more FT's than we did.

You're picking out starting Buggs as being crazy? What about your boy Elliot? You've said you would start him. You've wanted him to have more
minutes. 2 fouls in 3 minutes. He was the worst guy out there. Convenient for you to deflect that, though.
 

I honestly don't understand how people struggle with this concept. It might be proven statistically that FREE THROW% over an entire game is not an indicator of what team wins and what team loses. That said, you have to make free throws down the stretch to protect a lead. Missing a front end of a 1-1 is every bit as bad as travelling or throwing the ball out of bounds...it's an empty possession.

The horrible effort in the first half (and really the second half was just as bad until Mason got hot and the team finally looked like they cared) was inexcusable. However, this team has consistently shown that it runs away and hides in the big moments of games. If the Gophers were up 8 instead of 4 late, they probably still find a way to lose this game. This team has now choked in 4 of their 5 losses.
 

Gopher Warrior said:
FT% is nearly irrelevant.

BTW, as Maximus points out, the Gophers shot a better FT% tonight than Iowa. Yippee.

Look at Iowa's 60%+ eFG%, not FT's.

Buggs starting was certified crazy.
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Ya, if only he had played Ealliot and Mo together like some expert dipsh*t advocated.
 

Near the end of the game, Iowa was dead - stick-a-fork-in-them dead. I'm a Gopher fatalist, and I didn't think there was any way Iowa was going to pick themselves off the mat. Then came the free throws. Zero of a possible four points for the Gophs; Hawks made both of their two. Ballgame.

They're called free throws because they're free. Make them.
 

Bad Gopher said:
Near the end of the game, Iowa was dead - stick-a-fork-in-them dead. I'm a Gopher fatalist, and I didn't think there was any way Iowa was going to pick themselves off the mat. Then came the free throws. Zero of a possible four points for the Gophs; Hawks made both of their two. Ballgame.

They're called free throws because they're free. Make them.
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Yeah, lest we forget that in the middle of our big run, Iowa missed 4 free throws in a row...a big part of how we got the lead in the first place.
 


Just looked it up on ESPN, the Goose is 14 of 33 from the charity stripe for 42.4% (and that doesn't factor in the lost free throws from missed front ends). Usually it is hyperbole when fans say they could do better at something than a player on the court. However, if we had every fan in the Barn attempt 33 free throws, I bet a good handful would make more than 14. I bet we could say the same thing about people who post on this board. I'm not one of them (if I took 33 free throws, I'd probably put the over under at 9.5), but I'd venture to guess quite a few people who played high school ball and never sniffed the college game would hit more than 42.4% of their free throws.
 

bleedsmaroonandgold said:
Just looked it up on ESPN, the Goose is 14 of 33 from the charity stripe for 42.4% (and that doesn't factor in the lost free throws from missed front ends). Usually it is hyperbole when fans say they could do better at something than a player on the court. However, if we had every fan in the Barn attempt 33 free throws, I bet a good handful would make more than 14. I bet we could say the same thing about people who post on this board. I'm not one of them (if I took 33 free throws, I'd probably put the over under at 9.5), but I'd venture to guess quite a few people who played high school ball and never sniffed the college game would hit more than 42.4% of their free throws.
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It's a lot tougher for a 7 footer to shoot FT though. Since they are taller, they don't need to put as much arc on the shot so it has less of a chance of going in. Not saying it's a good excuse, but there aren't many 7 footers who are good free throw shooters.
 

bleedsmaroonandgold said:
Just looked it up on ESPN, the Goose is 14 of 33 from the charity stripe for 42.4% (and that doesn't factor in the lost free throws from missed front ends). Usually it is hyperbole when fans say they could do better at something than a player on the court. However, if we had every fan in the Barn attempt 33 free throws, I bet a good handful would make more than 14. I bet we could say the same thing about people who post on this board. I'm not one of them (if I took 33 free throws, I'd probably put the over under at 9.5), but I'd venture to guess quite a few people who played high school ball and never sniffed the college game would hit more than 42.4% of their free throws.
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Question two would be how many of those fans could actually get to the line in a Big 10 game? My guess is most get run off the court.
 

and one thing not getting enough attention here, no not free throws, but Jared Uthoff is really really good. Was very impressed with his game. Can handle the ball, footwork, shoot. Doesn't have a lot of strength, but he can play.
 

Iowa is a very well coached team. They run plays.
 

scher215 said:
and one thing not getting enough attention here, no not free throws, but Jared Uthoff is really really good. Was very impressed with his game. Can handle the ball, footwork, shoot. Doesn't have a lot of strength, but he can play.
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I'm sure a lot of 6'8" guys will look impressive if Hollins guards them.
 

We came a player control foul away from completing the trifecta of missing all three front ends of one-and-one's last night. Rebounding on free throws is sketchy at best (as is our rebounding in general) so other teams missing free throws isn't necessarily the joy it should be. I would say that if you look at free throws (offensively and defensively) we are under performing there but there are bigger fish to fry.

Biggest problem I saw last night is that teams have figured out that we are so bleeping bad at set offense that they can bring three defenders out all the way to near half court on two guards and we can't burn them because the other three guys stay so bleeping far away that 2 remaining defenders can easily defend the long passes it would take to get the ball away from mid court. Without transition offense we don't have offense.
 

bleedsmaroonandgold said:
Just looked it up on ESPN, the Goose is 14 of 33 from the charity stripe for 42.4% (and that doesn't factor in the lost free throws from missed front ends). Usually it is hyperbole when fans say they could do better at something than a player on the court. However, if we had every fan in the Barn attempt 33 free throws, I bet a good handful would make more than 14. I bet we could say the same thing about people who post on this board. I'm not one of them (if I took 33 free throws, I'd probably put the over under at 9.5), but I'd venture to guess quite a few people who played high school ball and never sniffed the college game would hit more than 42.4% of their free throws.
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I firmly believe that even the most uncoordinated people can be trained to make two-thirds of their free throws. Except for maybe a couple standard deviations off the mean.

I never even played high school ball, but I can make 70 to 80 percent cold off the street. It's not that hard.
 

LakerFan said:
Rebounding on free throws is sketchy at best
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Mo is horrible at rebounding positioning and boxing out on free throws. I wanted to smack him last night.

Bad Gopher said:
I firmly believe that even the most uncoordinated people can be trained to make two-thirds of their free throws. Except for maybe a couple standard deviations off the mean.

I never even played high school ball, but I can make 70 to 80 percent cold off the street. It's not that hard.
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I understand the point - and it's a valid one. But this type of analysis doesn't take into account running up-and-down the floor, banging all over the place and everything else that happens in a game. Yeah, if you were pulled out of your chair, well-rested, well-fed, strong, etc, you could probably do that. That's not what happens in a game.
 


Winasota Gopher said:
Fixed. He simply doesn't appear to care about rebounding, unless its for an easy tip-in.
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I don't disagree about mo but I often see him with decent position but the problem is king never crashes so it's mo on 2 or 3 guys. I'm not saying mo doesn't deserve the criticism but we are probably the only big ten team with a pf that doesn't give any help on the glass
 

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