Free throws

[Windyplayer]

Can anyone generate a statistic that indicates the number of times we hit both free throws when going to the line for either a shooting foul (no made basket) or when we're in the bonus. I swear I can count on my hands how many times we hit both free throws this year.

Maybe I shouldn't get hung up on it, but missed free throws are my undoing.

[Jay Bee]

Nearly irrelevant.

[Windyplayer]

Nearly irrelevant.

But not completely.

[muhoops1]

Nearly irrelevant.

I'm interested in your position. It would seem that a team like MU in 2015 would need FT's more than ever as the ream's margin for error was so slim.  A missed FT, especially a front end is an empty possession.  Watching UVA tonight, they literally climbed out of a 10 pt deficit with FT's.  I would think in many cases a jump in FT % would have given MU a handful of wins.

[We R Final Four]

Uh oh.

[Jay Bee]

I'm interested in your position. It would seem that a team like MU in 2015 would need FT's more than ever as the ream's margin for error was so slim.  A missed FT, especially a front end is an empty possession.  Watching UVA tonight, they literally climbed out of a 10 pt deficit with FT's.  I would think in many cases a jump in FT % would have given MU a handful of wins.

It wouldn't have given them a handful of wins. That's insane thinking.

Remember, jacking up an ill-advised long 2 pointer early in the shot clock can be an empty possession as well. Allowing an easy shot to the opponent at the other end? Bad news. Turning it over? Uh oh. Having one of the country's worse defensive rebounding possessions? Yep, bad news as well.

The point is there are a lot of things that can be seen as 'negative'.. missed free throws just have a far less impact than most other things on a game. And when talking about a TEAM's FT%, it becomes ridiculous to put much weight on it.

Now, if we're up 1 with 10 seconds to play and let Derrick dribble the ball in the corner waiting to get fouled... he goes to the line, misses the front end and/or 2 of 2.. other team gets the ball and scores.. that particular FT trip had a big impact at the particular time.. although the risk could have been addressed by putting the ball in the hands of a player who is a better FT shooter and or more poised at the line... but even then there area many more impactful areas of the game that had occurred up to that point...

At any rate, set aside for a moment 1-and-1's (negative) and offensive rebounds on missed FT's (positive)... if you as a team shoot such a poor 64.5% at the line like MU did... that still equals 1.29 points per possession. It's still great. That's a better ppp than any TEAM in the nation and far better than MU's overall ppp of less than 1.000 in 2014-15.