Will you please stop saying we are the unluckiest team in America?

[Josey Wales]

It doesn't take luck to make ##@$%^&* free throws...

[El Duderino]

No question the players are to blame for not making free throws numerous times this year.

That said, it would be nice if a team in one of these nailbiters actually missed the shots that they'd normally miss.

It's not bad luck when you gag free throws, but they haven't got any luck either that often happens late in games where the team losing doesn't hit fall away 20 plus footers with a hand in their face.

Then again, in my years watching sports, the basketball gods seem to punish teams who choke at the line when free throws could seal a game. Miss those throws and next thing you know, some guy on the other team manages to turn into Michael Jordan at the buzzer.

[Josey Wales]

G-town

[Avenue Commons]

We are the unluckiest team in America.

If we aren't, who is?

[MURay]

If we make free throws, we win games are we are a good team.  If we miss them and someone else makes a shot then we are unlucky?  I disagree.  We can only control what we do.  If we make free throws then we win.  end of story.  We are not a good team right now.  If we fix our free throws we can still make a run.

[Skatastrophy]

It doesn't take luck to make ##@$%^&* free throws...

We are, literally, the unluckiest team in America according to Ken Pomeroy's luck calculations.  Nobody here is blaming our losses on luck, it's just a fact that the statistics say we're the unluckiest team in the nation.

That being said:  We are making a very high percentage of free throws.  Yeah we've missed a few at the end of games, but a better team would should be to put these games away so it wouldn't come down to FT shooting.

It's a rebuilding year.  Everyone was expecting to have some surprising wins and some bad losses.  Get over it an enjoy Lazar's last year as a Warrior.

[Fullodds]

"Luck is the residue of design"

-Branch Rickey

I believe you make your own luck and you must be ready to capitalize when opportunity is presented to be "lucky".  Other teams have capitalized on our mistakes, lethargy, poor decisions.  Those teams are prepared to be "lucky" while we are just mistaken-prone, lethargic and plain old bad.....but not "unlucky".

[Buzz Williams' Spillproof Chiclets Cup]

"In my experience there's no such thing as luck."

[MuMark]

The thing is everyone misses free throws yet nobody else has lost as many close games as we have.

Yes we could have taken luck out of the equation if we had been perfect at the free throw line(like we were against GT) down the stretch.

I watch games almost every night and teams miss free throws in the last 2 minutes in every game but most of the time the team that is behind then clanks a long 3 pointer. Game over and nobody talks about the missed free throws.

We are paying the ultimate price for every mistake and that is indeed unlucky.

[YoungMUFan4]

ahem...look who is last on the list 

http://kenpom.com/rate.php?s=Luck

[MUHoopsfan6]

I think we are a good free throw shooting team.  Take a look at free throw percentages in the first half and then compare to the second half.  From memory I believe we were 10/13 from the charity stripe in the first half.  That is a pretty good percentage.  The problem is guys are gassed by the end of the second half.  Our team plays hard every night, every play.  They leave it all out on the court.  We are playing a 7 man rotation but since many nights Joe Fulce doesn't play very many minutes I would almost call it a 6 1/2 man rotation.  Coach needs to either manage each guys minutes better or figure out some way for E will and Joe Fulce to play more minutes.  The only other answer is we are chokers, and I refuse to believe that.

I love this team and how hard they work out on the court for us.  If coach can get future teams to play this hard we are going to be good!

[RawdogDX]

If we make free throws, we win games are we are a good team.  If we miss them and someone else makes a shot then we are unlucky?  I disagree.  We can only control what we do.  If we make free throws then we win.  end of story.  We are not a good team right now.  If we fix our free throws we can still make a run.

How many Must Hit Shots have our opponents made?  9-9 or so in our losses.  I understand the contention that if we hit the FT's than those shots are meaningless.  It just seems to me like our opponents as a whole have been historically clutch.  Which many would call unlucky.

[Ready2Fly]

MuMark, we were NOT perfect from the ft line down the stretch. In the last minute, when it was still a one possession game, Acker missed the front end of a 1 and 1. Georgetown came down and missed a seven footer, MU gets the rebound, and that was the game. Had that shot gone in, or had Hayward gotten called for his shove on Monroe, that game would have once again gone in the L column due to FT shooting in the clutch.

[bamamarquettefan]

Sorry I can't comply - MU is the unluckiest team in the country, and that was added to against DePaul.  Even at the end, Acker flicks the dribble away, DePaul barely saves it, Mo circles back for perfect D, and the guy who has hit 22% of his shots all year drills his second tough outside shot in 10 seconds.

The problem is you can't let the game come down to luck against DePaul.  You need to be up 10 so that Lazar and Cube don't come to the line dead tired, with what was obviously a very tight rim (witness DJOs three pointer that was in the basket forever before popping out) with the game on the line.

I'm more upset that we were only up 50-46 with 20 seconds left, and had gotten fouled so little that we had to hit two 1-and-1s to win than that we actually missed the two shots.

[Jacks DC]

Acker missed a critical 1 and 1 with MU up by one and 0:29 left in the Georgetown game.  We were LUCKY that Freeman and Wright both missed good looks at 3s to end the game.  Just keep that in mind when you talk about how unlucky we are.

[RawdogDX]

Can someone who says we aren't unlucky please point out a team that is more unlucky?

[MuMark]

Read my post again.

I said IF we had been perfect we could have taken luck out of the equation.

We missed....they threw in 2 hail marys and we get beat by 1....again.

So we missed....and then they got lucky because we all know the chances of that guy hitting those 2 shots to end the game was about 5 percent.

[NavinRJohnson]

Is anyone familiar with the concept of guys missing FT's (or shots in general) when they get tired? We have no bench and play harder than most every team we play against. It stands to reason that the legs are gonna go a bit at the end of games, especially for a team like MU who spends most of the game banging with or chasing around guys that have 6 inches and 50 lbs. on 'em.

[Dr. Blackheart]

We are the unluckiest team in America.

If we aren't, who is?

Chicago Cubs

[Fullodds]

I'm more upset that we were only up 50-46 with 20 seconds left, and had gotten fouled so little that we had to hit two 1-and-1s to win than that we actually missed the two shots.

I guess that is my point.  We should never put ourself in the position to be up only 4 to DePaul.  THat happened because we did not play well.  You let teams hang around and "unlucky" things will happen.  Stoval had a good look and buried the shot.  He had really come on for DePaul since Wainwright left. 

For me, luck would be if DePaul threw in a half-court bomb at the buzzer or some other oddity.  A big east player hitting a three is not an unheard of event.  In the end, luck or lack of luck becomes an excuse.  We lost the games we lost because we did not play well or the other teams were just better than us.  Nothing more.

[Josey Wales]

Apparently some of you have different definitions of luck than me. I DO NOT consider it unlucky to miss crucial free throws in the last minutes. I DO NOT consider it unlucky to allow a terrible Depaul team to hang around and have a chance to win a game they have no business winning. It doesn't take luck to win these games in my opinion, and it's not unlucky to lose them.

[NersEllenson]

Apparently some of you have different definitions of luck than me. I DO NOT consider it unlucky to miss crucial free throws in the last minutes. I DO NOT consider it unlucky to allow a terrible Depaul team to hang around and have a chance to win a game they have no business winning. It doesn't take luck to win these games in my opinion, and it's not unlucky to lose them.

Well..I do consider it lucky that we are even having this conversation in this rebuilding year.  The fact we've had 3 heartbreaking losses to Teams ranked in the Top 15, plus one against a very good Florida State team..deserves some credit.  Obviously it is extremely frustrating to lose all these games - but..as another poster pointed out (other than Georgetown game) the other teams Villanova, WVU, FSU, DePaul..have hit about 9 of 9 of their shots under 20 seconds left in the game.