Do you have the free throw blues?

We have heard all about the rule changes in college basketball, how defenders must keep their hands off the ball handler in a similar fashion to how kindergartners blurt “no touching!” when standing in the lunch line. The NCAA wanted more points, well they’re getting more points, but it’s not exactly in the most exciting manner. Across the board, teams are scoring almost six points more per game, attempting four free throws more per game, and committing three fouls more per game. But at what cost? Our sanity? Those new rules could be a blessing for teams that can sink their shots, but could just as easily be a curse if they don't fall. That’s precisely where Kentucky found themselves the other night in Chicago with Michigan State sending the Wildcats to the charity stripe a whopping 36 times. They missed 16 of those attempts and lost the game by four. That is a tough pill to swallow. Because of the abysmal 56 percent free throw shooting night, many fans are beginning to wonder if the aggressiveness of the dribble-drive offense will become their Achilles heel due to the fact teams will start hacking away, wiping easy buckets off the board and making the Cats earn their points the hard way. Not so fast, my friend. Let’s go back to that Championship-winning Kentucky squad from a couple of years ago. They played in a three-game stint to begin the season not too dissimilar to what this season’s team has played: Marist, 12th-ranked Kansas, and Penn State. In those three games, Kentucky made just 64 percent of its free throws, shooting 47-for-73 from the stripe, and that’s including a stellar 12-for-15 night against Marist in the season opener. This season in games against UNC-Asheville, Northern Kentucky, and 2nd-ranked Michigan State, Kentucky has shot 62 percent from the line, while attempting 49 more free throws over the same span — that is 16 more per game. If you extrapolate that over the course of the entire season, and hypothetically into the Championship game, this Kentucky team will shoot almost 40 free throws per game on average and score 308 more points over the entire season, and that’s if they continue shooting just 62 percent. The 2012 championship team improved its free throw shooting to 73 percent by season’s end, which isn't close to the best in the country, but they owned teams at the stripe because of sheer volume. You don’t have to be the best of the best when you launch more than 900 attempts on the year (that was third-best in the country). The same will be true this season. Kentucky may not be the prettiest free throw shooters around, but they will beat teams at the line because they will shoot a ton.