According to KenPom, Brown’s 64.2 FT % ranks 354 of 364 in the country, and nearly 20 % points lower than the top team, Wisconsin, at 83.6%.
I’m genuinely curious about this, since brown shoots a pretty good percentage from 3 point range, and has a good percentage for 2 point field goals as well (ranked low hundreds in both).
Why doesn’t the pretty good shooting convert at the line? Missed FTs put a lot of pressure on you holding a late lead, which has been a problem at times.
i think there are two main reasons here:
the two big men are getting to the line a lot and missing a lot. If you’ve ever seen Dabo shoot a free throw, there’s about the same chance that it’s missing the rim as it is for going in. Lewis is only slightly better percentage-wise.
But okay, plenty of teams have bigs that get the line more and still can’t shoot, so what makes this team different?
The second thing that really stands out to me is Cooley’s terrible free throw rate of 54% at a VERY high volume (he’s tied with Kino for most FTA on the team!), which like you said is in sharp contrast with his solid FG rate. Why can’t he shoot free throws? No idea, maybe Coach Mike can tell us. But it certainly brings the team percentage wayy down, especially for a high-volume backcourt player.
Kino and AJ are the only two “good” free throw shooters, and AJ doesn’t get to the line too often. Everyone else is either mediocre at a low-volume 65%ish clip or pretty bad, like the players I mentioned before. So basically Kino is the only one holding that percentage up and there are plenty of pieces bringing it down.
This is just my opinion, having watched more Brown basketball than is healthy for an individual. If you have other thoughts would love to hear them
I think you’re spot on, gonzo. The three years prior to the Covid pause, we were a significantly better free-throw team - 74.8% in 17/18 (55th), 72.1% in 18/19 (129th), and 73.8% in 19/20 (84th). I think this was due in large part to our offense being built around two guys who attacked the hoop and got to the line, Brandon Anderson, who made a living at the line, shooting 80% for his career, and Tamenang Choh, who shot 68% on free throws for his career, but 72% from the charity stripe in Ivy play.
My only additional thoughts are that this might be the result of a trade-off in recruiting - i.e. Mike is focusing on guys with athletic ability and intangibles that he thinks he can develop, accepting skill deficits in areas like free-throw shooting as a result.
Perhaps there’s a mental aspect to it as well. Struggles from the free throw line burned this team in the worst way at Ivy Madness, and as a result, the charity stripe has become a boogeyman for this team, especially in close games.
agreed, and interesting point on the recruiting aspect. that seems like a good explanation.
do you have any stats that suggest our late game FT% is worse than our FT% earlier in the game? I would certainly be inclined to believe that’s true as a viewer, but maybe that’s tainted by some sort of recall bias. would be interested to see what the actual mark comes out to
2 for 14 from the line against Dartmouth? I don’t know what to say. That’s a startling number for a team with post-season tournament talent. I don’t know what’s going on, but they need a team psychologist or something. This has to get fixed going forward.
2-21 from three as well. Hard to fathom. Lewis was great inside, but shooting feel apart.
Checked KenPom… last night’s numbers from the line dragged brown down to 362 of 364 in the entire ncaa for the season, ahead of only Arkansas Pine Bluff and Texas A&M Corpus Christi. It seems like a tough-minded, resilient group otherwise. This has got to be a big off season focus.
ridiculous. one of the things that has held this team back. a frustrating end to a frustrating season.
They should bring in Mike Waitkus from ‘86 to teach! He shot .898 one year.
When Brown lost Anya to the portal and Nana, I thought the team was done and that we were looking at a disastrous season, having lost our top four front-court players from last season. However, the emergence of Lewis and Dabo has been remarkable, and then Brown lost Lewis for three games. Despite all of this, Brown has been in most games this season. Sure, the free-throw shooting has been atrocious, but this team has shown a lot of heart in difficult circumstances, and it’s not over yet (though the Ivy tournament is a longshot).