Big XII tourney ‘25

[Rufus]

The announcers in the first tourney game commented on Michell's free throws shooting form, how it takes the ball behind his head in shooting. So why did we pay the shot doctor for this entire season?

[leo from jersey]

The announcers in the first tourney game commented on Michell's free throws shooting form, how it takes the ball behind his head in shooting. So why did we pay the shot doctor for this entire season?

he made good newsprint in suggesting that CWM was getting the Cats better.

[D.A.H.]

Seems to me a good coach could teach decent FT form. Some of these guys just sling it and pray. And as previously stated, practice, practice, and more practice....with concentration.

or, try to make sure that the guys who can shoot free throws, also have the ball in crunch time - that would help somewhat. i know that there will always be times when the other team picks who to foul, but you can try to get your better shooters to the line

[leo from jersey]

So where waas ODY when the team needed him?

[leeraymond]

We don't have a wing oriented team. We play a very traditional lineup with small guards and a true center. And we run the offense through those guys. We could play a wing oriented team if we wanted to though. The coach chooses not to.

What do you consider Mitchell? To me he is a small forward. He is most definitely not a power forward. The small forward position is a wing position. Some coaches use a third guard as that small forward. UC, this season, basically played with 4 guard/wing types. It did not work. Look at the win-loss record.

[leeraymond]

It's a pleasure watching 2 talented, well-coached teams, like these 2 go at it like they did today. They run offense, play together, and most of all make good decisions. Both teams were hot offensively and played to their strengths. The intenisty was there all game. They don't have the lapses in effort and intelligence we do and they make their FT's. ISU was at a disadvantage with a couple of players out but both of these teams are playing well and peaking at the right time. I watch them and it's so apparent to me that under Miller we are light years behind them from a program standpoint. I know we beat BYU at home this year and there last year but they changed coaches and are even better as a program than they were. I wish I felt better about our situation but I just don't trust Miller to make the right changes and lead the program forward.

You know, I was thinking the same thing. Look at two well-coached teams. Unlike UC.

[leeraymond]

I've mentioned this a few times, but the problem is our good free throw shooters don't get to the line. We don't attack the rim with our guards, so only the bigs shoot free throws. Jizzle, Day Day, and Simas all shoot 75-80%. But they have only attempted 156 free throws combined for the season. Compare that to Alabama, whose PG has been to the line 211 times by himself. Alabama has big guys who shoot 50-60%, but they don't go to the line nearly as much as their good shooters. It's a scheme problem.

Of course there are some big guys who are good shooters, but they have generally always been that way. They didn't become good shooters because their college coach made them practice. Aziz and Mitchell have always been poor FT shooters. We knew what we were getting. And yet we still chose to implement a scheme that doesn't put our guards on the line.

Our FT rate is #358 in the country. That's the 7th lowest rate in the entire country. That's the question that needs answered. But Wes doesn't have an answer. His teams have always had very low FT rates, even at UNCG.

Yeah, I am in agreement. However, if a team has some good scoring bigs, they too can get to the free-throw line. Think Dan Fortson, he shot a lot of free throws. Yancy Gates shot his share of free-throws. My point is, it is just not the guards/wings that need to get to the free-throw line. The big men can really help too by getting to the free-throw line. That is one of the reasons why getting some good bigs is very important for UC.

[Oldtimer_UC_fan]

The announcers in the first tourney game commented on Michell's free throws shooting form, how it takes the ball behind his head in shooting. So why did we pay the shot doctor for this entire season?

Exactly what I was saying in my previous post.

[sedz]

Yeah, I am in agreement. However, if a team has some good scoring bigs, they too can get to the free-throw line. Think Dan Fortson, he shot a lot of free throws. Yancy Gates shot his share of free-throws. My point is, it is just not the guards/wings that need to get to the free-throw line. The big men can really help too by getting to the free-throw line. That is one of the reasons why getting some good bigs is very important for UC.

I agree, get good big men if you can find them. My point is that it's very rare for a guy to improve FT percentage in college. Yancy shot between 58% and 60% all four years. Fortson came in a pretty good shooter at 68% as a freshman, and he did improve a bit each season. Justin Jackson got worse in his junior and senior seasons and ended up at 46%. Ellis got worse his senior year. Some guys like Kenyon improve dramatically, but that's not common. Generally, the path to a high FT percentage is to put your good shooters on the line, not to count on players improving in practice.

That said, I do believe Mitchell should fix his mechanics, which I pointed out back in December.

Mitchells FT shot looks fixable to me. He brings the the ball all the way behind his head. That's way too much motion for a free throw. I think if they can get him to practice a short, repeatable stroke he might be able to convert at least 60%.