The Cats missed a bunch of free throws on Thursday night. How much would the game have changed in your opinion if they had made 8 of those 12 missed attempts?
Free throws
- Thread starter SmyrnaCatFan
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They whipped us, so my gut tells me it wouldn’t have changed a whole lot. But who knows, maybe it puts a little game pressure on Georgetown, which they barely had any of for 40 minutes.
We can’t be that bad from the line. I refuse to believe it…
We can’t be that bad from the line. I refuse to believe it…
who knows how it would have turned out, but there were many times in the 1st half that UK was ahead & with the ball, but they took bad shots, turned it over or missed a free throw. That is the time that they need to take the spirit away from the opponent, not keep them in the game
Close games are often decided at the gratis stripe. We need to improve there.
Never heard it referred to as the “gratis” stripe. Learn something new every day. I suppose if we wanted to delve further into it, we could refer to it as the “complimentary” stripe or perhaps “costless” stripe. Food for thought!!!
I mean we lost by double digits. I don't think it would have mattered much.
Nor am I really all that concerned about it. I think it's hard to tell right now whether we have a good or poor free throw shooting team. One game especially an exhibition game that didn't even count isn't really going to change things.
Nor am I really all that concerned about it. I think it's hard to tell right now whether we have a good or poor free throw shooting team. One game especially an exhibition game that didn't even count isn't really going to change things.
agree mostly, but with NIL, these are "paid players". They are "paid" to perform every game, not sit around & laugh.
That's like saying oh well Wednesday is hump day, just going to stay on your phone & play games instead of doing your job.
No excuses now..........they are getting $
We were just beaten by poor effort on our part.
Maybe if we made free throws we win a game we didn’t deserve?
I would still feel the same about the effort.
There is no shame in getting beat. You can play your *** off and the other team is just better that day.
There is shame in losing for lack of effort and preparation.
Maybe if we made free throws we win a game we didn’t deserve?
I would still feel the same about the effort.
There is no shame in getting beat. You can play your *** off and the other team is just better that day.
There is shame in losing for lack of effort and preparation.
Cannot say about this game, but there will be games where the FT line will win or lose a game.
I'm not sure how being paid changes the equation here.
You are either a good free throw shooter or you aren't.
When UK decided to pay these guys what they did, they had to take that into account.
I don't think the fact they are paid now changes anything in that regard. It's like if a poor free throw shooter in college gets drafted, gets millions......they are still probably gonna be a poor free throw shooter in the NBA, despite being paid millions.
nah nah you got busted. Let’s not pretend anymore. It was a decent troll job but you screwed it up this year. You went a tad too far. Gillispie better than tubby was hint #1. Then Calipari was doing good was nail in the coffin. Not possible any UK fan could come close to approving of Kentucky being like 10-50 against ranked teams over that span. It’s not possible to be a Kentucky guy and hold those opinions.
Yes it is very possible.
You think you are a better fan than anyone just because you disagree!
BTW, personal insults on a message board will never bother me.
In fact, it just shows you have nothing else.
But you be you.
If you are going to insult though at least get right on what you are insulting about.
You didn’t even bother to do that.
Bless your heart!!
It's also quite likely, even if we end up being a good FT shooting team, we will have another game with similar accuracy.
More important than our shooting percentage was our attempt rate. We attempted a lot with was one of the bright spots. Free throw attempts and offensive rebounding were our best outputs. That didn't happen often last season.
Cawood Ledford often called it the gratis stripe … along with charity stripe.,
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Yep exactly. Even very good free throw shooting teams eventually have performances like the one we had.
Like you said, getting to the line is way more important.
Cal's early teams here we used to absolutely feast at the line and that tended to go down quite a bit later on. One of the main reasons we werent nearly as successful.
Free throws are a big part of the game, we need to shoot at least 75% from the line as a team. I’m sure that’s being addressed and will be worked on.
Free throw woes continued with the cats converting on only 12 of 22 attempts. This should be a player initiated fix.
I heard the broadcaster say at practice if you don’t make multiple free throws in a row at the end of practice CMP makes you run. Shows he’s addressing it.
Moreno in particular had to zone in. He’s gonna be there often.
Moreno in particular had to zone in. He’s gonna be there often.
This 2025-26 Kentucky team currently sits at the bottom of the list of all previous UK teams in terms free throw shooting percentage (among teams where stats are avaialble).
Nowhere to go but up.
Moreno's form is horrible. If they don't correct that, he will shoot poorly from the line all season.
Yes, puts pressure on opposing team and builds confidence in your ow
Checking the link above this year’s team rose from dead last to 43rd overall after the Valparaiso game.
A lot of people have an unrealistic idea of how much someone can reasonably improve their shot without dedicating a ridiculous amount of time to it. Having an older team means they can probably spend more time on it, but still.
MM is already a 60%+ ft shooter. Just because he's 3/10 doesn't mean he's actually a 30% free throw shooter; that's too small a sample. Some of the most famously bad free throw shooters of all time havn't been much under 50%. Pretty much nobody is a 30% free throw shooter in the long run.
MM shot right at 500 free throws in high school and shot 64%. I think 64% on 500 attempts is a better predictor of what he will shoot than 3/10.
Also, with regard to the 64% high school career ft %, he shot better his junior and senior years than in his first year of action as a sophomore.
Exactly. I'm not sure what the obsession here is with small samples.
First talking about Kam (after a game in which he took a grand total of 3 shots).......and now this lol.