Free throw shooting

[MasonFanatic]

Before Saturday's game, Mason was one of the worst free throw shooting teams in the country. Our percentage is still not that great (66.0%). But the really noticeable thing for me, looking at individual statistics, is the growing gap between our players who can shoot FTs reliably, and the ones who can't.

Holloway 19-23
Jackson 12-15
Moore 50-64
Porter 17-24
Edwards 7-10
Total 105-136 (77.2%)

Thompson 22-41
Jenkins 16-31
Gujanicic 2-4
Royal 2-5
Gray 4-14
Total 46-95 (48.4%)

Also, to my surprise, Erik Copes was shooting 9-11 (81.8%)

 

[MasonFanatic]

Mason shot 27-34 (79.4%) on Saturday in a 5 point win.

If they had shot their season average up until Saturday (63.8%), that would have been approximately 5.3 fewer points.

 

[mkaufman1]

Thompson was a very good foul shooter in JUCO (I think), so I'm not sure why that isn't translating to Mason. If that is the biggest knock on him, so be it.

Edit: He shot 62% last year. I do believe I saw somewhere that he hit like 20 in a row at some point.

For some reason Mason always starts slow in FT% and then improves.

 

[gmutom]

Gray surprises me the most. You expect big men to struggle to an extent from that distance, but you rarely see shooting guards like Gray shoot 29% from the line. His stroke is too nice to shoot that poorly, which leads me to believe his issue is more mental than physical.

 

[Pablo]

Gray surprises me the most. You expect big men to struggle to an extent from that distance, but you rarely see shooting guards like Gray shoot 29% from the line. His stroke is too nice to shoot that poorly, which leads me to believe his issue is more mental than physical.

This was Virgil's tweet while Vaughn was shooting 1-6 from the FT line vs. West Virginia:

Virgil Gray @SmoothV25 · Nov 20
Come on man he charity stripe is just that... Take the charity

 

[MasonFanatic]

Thompson's shot looks very fixable to me. I have confidence that he will improve.

 

[Dawgs99]

VG also leads the team in ugly 3 point misses. For the life of me I can't understand how guys can air ball wide open 3 pointers?

 

[MasonFanatic]

Moore's 64 FT attempts are tied for 92nd in the country with several players, including UNI's Seth Tuttle and Memphis's Jonathan Williams III.

 

[MasonFanatic]

VG also leads the team in ugly 3 point misses. For the life of me I can't understand how guys can air ball wide open 3 pointers?

His release is crooked, so his shot is crooked. It looks to me like he's not getting his body squared up very well. Maybe he's always shot like that, I don't remember, but it seems like he's twisting sideways too much, and that's why he misses to the side.

 

[GMUSig03]

We are really going to miss Copes' free throw shooting. Wait... what?!

 

[NoCliche87]

This was Virgil's tweet while Vaughn was shooting 1-6 from the FT line vs. West Virginia:

Virgil Gray @SmoothV25 · Nov 20
Come on man he charity stripe is just that... Take the charity

Pablo you dont miss a beat man lol

 

[Pablo]

Pablo you dont miss a beat man lol

Virgil,

It's good to have you back!

 

[wijg]

Gray surprises me the most. You expect big men to struggle to an extent from that distance, but you rarely see shooting guards like Gray shoot 29% from the line. His stroke is too nice to shoot that poorly, which leads me to believe his issue is more mental than physical.

I would agree with you and point out that could be the case for most of the guys at the bottom of the list. If you took away the information about free throw shooting, the only one on that list that stands out is Thompson. The rest of them are struggling in many/most aspects of their game, so it could be a confidence (or related) issue for all of them.

 

[Washingtonian]

27-34 in the Iona game.
12-17 in the Wright State game.
7-15 in the Oklahoma game.
20-29 in the La Salle game.