Go Figger! The Definition of a Free Throw

  This year's Tar Heel is a hard one to figure out.  As I said in the past post, there is a lot of talent on this team.  Unlike last year's version, there is a lot more inside height and depth on the team.  They have lost a couple of perimeter shooters, one to the NBA and another to hi-jinks and NCAA suspension.   Another perimeter guard came back in Wednesday night's game against Texas, after also being in NCAA suspension.  

  Senior G Leslie McDonald came back to score 15 points in his 2013 debut.  But that just wasn't enough.  In fact, at times, McDonald looked very rusty [he had been allowed to practice with the team, even though he wasn't actually playing] at times, and missed a couple of key shots that perhaps should have not been taken.  As usual, sophomore FJames Michael McAdoo  and freshman G Marcus Paige performed admirably, although Paige missed the potential game winning shot with about three seconds on the clock.

UNC's "thorn in the flesh" this year is an unbelievable inability to successfully make free throws.  In fact, [and this is EVEN MORE unbelievable for a team of Carolina's caliber] they are the 3rd worst free throw shooting team in the country at this time.  They have missed 56 free throws in their three losses, and 145 total free throws this year.  This is an AMAZING statistic.  They would have easily won those games and been 10-0 thus far, instead of 7-3, and been perched atop the basketball polls as the #1 team in the country.

  Fact is.. Carolina would've won the Texas game by double digits, had they been accurate from the free throw stripe.
 

   This dreadful woe will eventually not only be their thorn, but their doom, if it goes without a solution.  It seems that practice does not make perfect, as word has it that the Tar Heels have been shooting hundreds of free throws in practice, and have been making them at a decent rate.  On-the-court in games has been a different story.

  It appear almost ironic that even though the Tar Heels face a dilemma with terrible free throw shooting, it has only affected the outcomes of games with weaker opponents.  In games against the top three preseason-rated teams [Kentucky, Michigan State & Louisville], Carolina went 71-110, which was still only 65%, but overall, they are shooting only 60% as a team, and often under 50%, especially in their losses.

  This glaring weakness in UNC's game effectively just spots their opponents an average of about 25 to 30 points every time they walk out onto the court.   This -of course- is not the way to notch victories in the "win" column.

  I heard on the late sports news that Coach Roy Williams was having the team practice at 5am after the Texas loss.  I'm confident and almost sure that it will involve shooting free throws.  Will it help ?   Not sure.  We will see.   What it may do is just make all of the players fatigued by game time.   Perhaps Coach Roy needs to bring in some "free throw ringers" (like Rick Barry or Steve Kerr) to offer his Tar Heels a FREE free-throw shooting clinic.  Both of these players shot around 90% from the free throw line.

  Last time I checked, the definition of free was still FREE-- {although many retailers and other marketing gurus try to distort it}..  the reason a FREE THROW is considered FREE is because it's a relatively EASY shot, with NO DEFENDERS to impede the shooter.   Maybe free throws are -TOO- free.  Perhaps they need the referee to jump in their face as they are releasing their free throw shots.

  Hey fellas- the basket hasn't moved.. [it's still sitting 15 feet from the foul line, & 10 feet high] .. it reminds me of the scene from the movie Hoosiers when the coach, played by Gene Hackman, took out a measuring tape at the fancy arena, scene of the state championship game, and had one of the players help him measure the distance from the foul line to the basket, and the rim to the floor, proving that this fancy gym was --essentially-- the same as their old home gym.  

   You see-- nothing about the game has changed.. so something else must be wrong.  Let's work at getting this problem fixed, before it is too late.