Maddenation
How Free are the Throws?
I know you’re loving my clever title. This article from the New York Times is about free throw shooting percentages over the past 50 years. What’s remarkable is that they have barely changed (including the NBA and NCAA, men and women). I like the section where Ray Stefani says sports improvement depends on a combo of four factors, physiology, coaching, technology and innovation, and equipment. He also points out that of the four, only coaching should have an impact. Makes me wonder how much is nature and how much is nurture. Obviously you need to practice to become a great shooter/foul shooter, but it certainly comes easier to some than others. Shaq?
I was the Notre Dame basketball camp free throw champion. I made 9/10 in the first round, and 9/10 in the final round. The trophy is in my room (13 Clemens) if you want to take a picture with it. Interestingly, my free throw percentage at Whippany Park went down a little bit from sophomore to senior year. I attribute it to two things: first, as a sophomore, when I got in the game, and eventually made the starting rotation, a chance to score was rare, so I needed to make all my free throws to get points. And as a senior, I was chucking up the ball all the time anyway, so it wasn’t as important. But probably more realistically, I was more tired/winded in my senior year because I was in more and doing more work. For the record, I think my percentages went from 82% to 75%.
David • Observations • 03/07/09 • 3 comments
Comments
Dad • 03/10/09 • 12:42 PM:Nice job, David! If you had been 6’10” I wouldn’t have had to spend any money on your college education.
I’m not so surprised by the statistics. As pointed out in the article, strength doesn’t matter and there haven’t been any substantial changes in equipment. (I think perhaps using the underhand shooting method might take it to another plateau, but players don’t want to look like dorks.) If you look at 3-point and 2-point shooting and line the graphs up from 3 o 2 to 1 point shots, you see improvement at the low percentage end, but asymptotic behavior once you get to about 70%. This is probably approaching the physiological limit for human beings. Also, while free throws are important at the end of the game, they aren’t that important (as pointed out in the article by the lack of correlation between FT% and winning %.)
Also interesting to note that baseball hitting percentages haven’t changed much (or maybe gone down) over the years. Lots of changes too, like livelier balls, performance-enhancing drugs, and statistically-driven defensive techniques. Overall, you’re still doing well if you can hit 3 of 10!
David • 03/13/09 • 2:25 PM:No doubt free throws were the difference in last night’s Syracuse vs. UCONN game. Here’s the stats -
The Orange made 40 of 51 free throws, but Connecticut made just 24 of 42. Yikes!
And sorry Dad for not being taller. I have only you and Mom to blame.
Another free throw story - I missed the front end of a one and one in the last few seconds in a game against Butler (?) during my senior year. Had I made both, we would’ve won. Still haunts me.
Kathleen • 04/23/09 • 2:08 AM:Here’s my free throw story. My name was randomly called at Susquehanna camp the summer before my senior year to participate in the free throw contest. Wil whispered to another nearby coach that I’d never make it. I just so happened to get the shots in and won a bright yellow Nike shirt. I also was one of the best at one on one, by the way, and the coaches were bummed I was gonna play volleyball in college instead of basketball.
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