Ay-Ziggy-Zoomba.com

In every game we have played this season, our opponent has shot more free throws than we have. On the season, our opponents are shooting 138-185 to our 93-121. Our opponents have made more free throws than we have attempted. This was a trend that haunted us in recent years and I’m disappointed to see if happening again this year. Some of the games have been very close in attempts, but in our last game at Oakland, here was the free throw shooting for the game:

BG: 11-14
OU: 28-33

Oakland had 19 more free throw attempts and they made 17 more free throws than we did (they actually made three more free throws than we even attempted for the game) in a 10-point win. That equals = ballgame.

Against Furman, they shot 20-27 to our 8-10 and that was in a BG win. It’s not just happening on the road either, even in a comfortable home win over Morehead State, they shot 27-36 to our 23-29. We have got to cut down on this trend. We aren’t good enough to continue allowing teams to rack up that sort of differential at the line against us.

There are a few things that a coach cannot be held accountable for. In this case, and I'll be the first to admit, I have yet to see this team live, it appears that our defensive schemes are better as we are utilizing more zone and changing defensive strategies to combat various situations. However, while a coach can work on footwork and things of that nature, Coach Orr inherited a team that played very poor defense and in many cases lacks the athleticism we are matched against on an almost nightly basis. We have very few guys that other teams would consider to be above average athletes considering the competition that we play. In the cases such as Butler-tOSU you would expect tOSU to have a wide discrepancy in athletic ability. However, despite seeing only highlights of this game, it was apparent that Butler 1) shot lights out in the second half 2) has precision-like efficiency on offense. If you can't out athlete people, you have to out execute them. Unfortunately for us, the growing pains of getting used to a new system, several years of recruiting marginal D-1 prospects and poor execution of fundamentals such as ball handling, decision making on both ends and overall quickness hurt us in our ability to either out athlete or out execute anyone on a consistent basis.

As Coach Orr adds more of "his" guys to the mix, I would expect this to change as we become more athletic and get people to fit the system.

OptionQB wrote:There are a few things that a coach cannot be held accountable for. In this case, and I'll be the first to admit, I have yet to see this team live, it appears that our defensive schemes are better as we are utilizing more zone and changing defensive strategies to combat various situations. However, while a coach can work on footwork and things of that nature, Coach Orr inherited a team that played very poor defense and in many cases lacks the athleticism we are matched against on an almost nightly basis. We have very few guys that other teams would consider to be above average athletes considering the competition that we play. In the cases such as Butler-tOSU you would expect tOSU to have a wide discrepancy in athletic ability. However, despite seeing only highlights of this game, it was apparent that Butler 1) shot lights out in the second half 2) has precision-like efficiency on offense. If you can't out athlete people, you have to out execute them. Unfortunately for us, the growing pains of getting used to a new system, several years of recruiting marginal D-1 prospects and poor execution of fundamentals such as ball handling, decision making on both ends and overall quickness hurt us in our ability to either out athlete or out execute anyone on a consistent basis.

As Coach Orr adds more of "his" guys to the mix, I would expect this to change as we become more athletic and get people to fit the system.

Couldn't agree more there Option.