It's obvious our free throwing sucks dootie. We are shooting as a team at a 71.2% clip. That's not going to win many games for you. We are missing an average of 7.5 Free throws a game. We are also losing games by an average of 8.3 points per game. Right now these numbers do not have much signifigance, but when we starts seeing numbers like these: Missed FT a game: 7.5 Losing Margin: 4 We know that FT should be a primary concern. I predict that the Losing Margin will go down as the season progresses and the turnovers decrease. But the FT's are less probable of getting better as time goes on. I think Rudy T. needs to start addressing this issue more seriously.
I think you have me mistaken, I am not blaming this on Rudy T. Free Throws are players responsibilities. But if the players seem not to be concentrating or seem to be rushing, Rudy needs to bring it up in practice more as a serious issue. I was watching Rudy everytime a a free throw was taken. He didn't seem to angry at the misses (we all know Rudy has great fire about something he is passion it about, like obviously bad calls). I think he needs to remind the players how important free throws are, and the players should take care of the rest.
When poor free throw exists for years at a time, it *is* a coaching issue. Either he needs to find a way to improve his players free throw %'s, or he needs different players. While one can overlook FTs as an important aspect of the game, they *are*. O'Neil would be significantly better if he could shoot them, and so would the Rockets.
The free throw shooting sucks when players aren't confident, and when they're sucking wind. The Rox' need to improve in both areas. (Don't get me wrong, I think they have improved already in both areas, but we know they still have a HUGE problem.)
