When will people wake up and realize that poor free throw shooting is going to sink us eventually? 33% is pathetic. These guys obviously more than one 5 am practice (or earlier) to get across how important it is to shoot better from the free throw line. Really wonder what Caputo is thinking here. This is going to hurt them in a big game late in the season. We got lucky to get away with it at underachieving Davidson.

GW73 wrote:

Dude, calm down on refs. They are not the problem. We can’t always blame refs.

Agree it’s not always the refs fault, but I did find CC’s subtle dig at the very end of the press conference about JB getting no FTs pretty funny.

H&R..71 wrote:

2) Foul shooting? Depends on what they do in practice. I’d make everyone run sprints until they hit 3 in a row lol. DBJ has melted down badly in 2 games so far. His misses got worse because his lack of confidence and brain function took over. If it continues, do we have a sports psychologist on hand? Could be a small fix either to his mindset or mechanics.

Definitely a mental thing for Darren.  In games where the game plan or opposition's strategy is to put him on the line (games with +10 attempts), he is 25-54 (46%).  In the rest of his appearances he is 47-62 (76%).

Great stat BM.  Let's also not dismiss fatigue as a factor for Jun's problems at the line.  Lack of focus and physical fatigue go hand in hand.  He plays hard on both ends and as the fouls add up, the toll on him should be substantial.

Thought the in-game adjustments and the play to free Max for a game winner were tremendous.  Far less tremendous was in-bounding the ball to Darren so late in the game.  Every other player on the court would have been a better choice to take free throws, and it's not as if Jun was the last resort on the play.  The intent was to throw the pass into Jun.  A real head scratcher.

Felt Jacoi was brilliant on both ends in this game and while I understand why CC opts with Max over Jacoi down the stretch (before Stretch fouled out), I can easily build a case as to why Jacoi and not Max should have been on the court over the final few minutes of regulation.  Jacoi's steal was the pivotal play of the game but let's give a ton of credit to the coaching staff  for allowing Garrett and Jun be the ones to pressure the ball in the backcourt.  It's not every day you see two taller, long-armed guys attempt to press the ball carrier with the quicker guards dropping back.  Davidson lacked a super quick guard who could even attempt to break a press by himself let alone do so.  Great recognition by the coaching staff in realizing that Davidson would more than likely pass the ball up court and therefore, planted Jacoi like a free safety who made the pick exactly as it was drawn up.

13 turnovers against a team who does not do very much to try to turn you over is not ideal.  The prevalence of unforced or careless turnovers is simply going to have to be chalked up to youth, inexperience, and perhaps even overconfidence at times.  It appears to be part of our DNA.

One thing I am noticing is that we are not a particularly strong team.  This hopefully changes over time but it does appear that part of the reason why our defensive rebounding has been suspect at times is because we are not particularly assertive on the boards (Max is the big exception here for someone his size).  Given Stretch's shot blocking prowess, I would have hoped that he would be stronger in pulling in boards but this has not really been the case during most games.

And speaking of Stretch, just not a banner game for one of my favorites.  Davidson had bigs with good footwork who also knew how to effectively pump fake.  It seemed like this is what it took for Stretch to be repeatedly caught out of position down low, something we've not seen a lot of.

All in all though, a quality win against a team that was well coached and played desperately for a win after an 0-2 conference start.  CC again alluded to the lack of calls on JB in that "I'm incredulous yet I don't wish to get fined" way.  It's a double-edged sword to play a style where you are counting on going to the line frequently.  On the one hand, it's great to exploit matchups and try to get guys in foul trouble.  On the other hand, don't think that refs are unaware.  Human nature would suggest that refs will be less prone to call fouls on guys where the opponent is looking for and trying to draw foul calls a bit too frequently.  I do think that's started to happen in conference play.
 

Alum '04 wrote:

When will people wake up and realize that poor free throw shooting is going to sink us eventually? 33% is pathetic. These guys obviously more than one 5 am practice (or earlier) to get across how important it is to shoot better from the free throw line. Really wonder what Caputo is thinking here. This is going to hurt them in a big game late in the season. We got lucky to get away with it at underachieving Davidson.

Trying not to be flip here but you don't think CC knows and is trying to address this? He can't shoot FT's for them. They work on FT's all the time. Some of it is mental (concentration) and some of it is physical (fatigue and form). Saturday was atrocious but sometimes it is like a contagious disease. It will get fixed. 

Hasn't CC said that they don't practice free throws? Also FWIW GW was one of the best teams in the conference at free throw shooting coming into yesterday's game

It's great we pulled it out in hard-nosed fashion, because it sure didn't seem that way when down 8 or right near the end, until Jacoi. Everyone contributed, and certainly in big ways from those new and old players who expect to do so-- and we appreciate when they do so. But without the Jacoi steal, we are in a bad place with the seconds ticking away. He has an incredibly mature game for a true freshman and has been an excellent find, being brought along in the right way.
   As noted in posts above, CC's last minute play design was brilliant. Getting the ball up to call timeout, rather than attempt a heave, was very smart and harder to do than it looks. And the play for Max worked great. So was the inbounds to Darren in the last couple of seconds in the Fordham game.
     We need much more in our arsenal than JB, incredibly talented as he is and whom we greatly appreciate, dribbling until the clock is about to run out. Especially in this case, when the refs would never call a foul--even when JB generally draws a lot of fouls.
   Saturday, not sure, but think it was Garrett who threw the pass, which could have ended the game. Max is a great player and could have been fouled, as someone here noted. It may well have been thinking about the ticking clock that caused this miss.
       But, and I think they said this in the post-game press conference, the play gave us the confidence to come out strong in overtime. Max's rebounding was tremendous, in addition to some key baskets by him.
    Speaking of passes to win games for GW, does anyone remember when Yinka laid in a full-court pass with something like 1.8 or 1.6 seconds to win a game? Believe it was against Rutgers, was on TV, and recall that it may have been Bill Brigham throwing the pass. 
      We should practice free throws more until this glitch is straightened out--and maybe shoot a few at halftime warmup. A lot is also nerves. You can often tell from facial expression or pre-shot preparations when someone
is thinking too much making the free throw.
However, wondering if it is a fair amount of fatigue at the end. While we missed FT at an amazing rate all
game Saturday overall. It seems, anyway, like we miss some critical ones in the last minutes, forcing OT.
  Also, the tight games we won, the bench played more than the Fordham loss, but still not enough.

Last edited by jf (1/14/2024 5:36 pm)

GWRising wrote:

Trying not to be flip here but you don't think CC knows and is trying to address this? He can't shoot FT's for them. They work on FT's all the time. Some of it is mental (concentration) and some of it is physical (fatigue and form). Saturday was atrocious but sometimes it is like a contagious disease. It will get fixed. 

You are correct. Just frustrating that this was the second home game of the year where they had atrocious FT shooting. Just a bad omen.

Jim Boeheim was always arrogant about FTs and that always drove me nuts.

I agree re the horrible PA system. Did we get it used at IKEA? It sounds like  a crowded bus station.

Poog wrote:

Hugh wrote:

not the most important thing by any means but does anyone else think the PA sound hasn't been working this year? There was a substitute announcer yesterday and it was so impossible to hear him that Davidson didn't even realize they were being introduced during the pre-game intros. The sound has been noticeably muffled all year but since yesterday's announcer wasn't very boisterous you couldn't hear anything he was saying.

Not defending the PA system but the introduction of opposing players is intentionally overridden by the playing of music which makes it impossible to hear. Find it bush league. Don’t know if Davidson didn’t know or decided why bother. One thing for students to show disdain for the opposition in pre-game introductions, quite another to be an officially sanctioned policy. Count me as no fan, with or without a decent PA system.

I'm also not a fan, I noticed they started doing this several years ago (band playing + music from the speakers). Would prefer to hear the intros even for opponents.