Posted by Ace Devil on January 07, 20 at 09:09:10:
In Reply to: Re: Perspective posted by ScooterDevil on January 07, 20 at 07:41:58:
: My explanation would be lack of confidence. Shooting is contagious. When your offense produces so few good looks and you tend to shoot very contested shots too often it trickles down and effects all shooting. But the reality is that those two have combined to shoot 36 free throws this year in 14 games. So there slightly over 2 free throw attempts combined per game have little to do with why we are losing to St. Mary's by 40 or Uarizona by 30.
: : : I am not sure if Hurley is just coy with the media or really sees the game so differently than I do. He always says in the post game presser "We just need to shoot better". I, on the other hand, am not at all surprised by our shooting when I witness the number of terrible shots we put up and the lack of passing in an effort to get better shots.
: : : I have coached for 15+ years but only at the middle and high school level. I recognize the lack of effective offense to get open looks. Romello White mentioned it twice. Yet Hurley says "I thought we had a lot of good looks we just need to shoot better". If he really thinks that then I have no other conclusion to come to other than he doesn't see the game very well.
: : : People have this perspective that they watch ASU miss some open shots and conclude that shooting is the problem. ALL TEAMS MISS OPEN SHOTS! The difference is that they get more of those open shots than ASU. I would be willing to bet that if you broke down the games, ASU's shooting percent on wide open shots is relatively similar to their opponents. The difference is shot selection. And when you take more terrible, contested shots, it puts more pressure on you to make the other ones. It becomes a vicious cycle. But the fix is not to shoot better, the fix is to get a higher volume of really good looks.
: : Interesting take Coach. How do you explain that Lawrence shot .747 from the free throw line last year and is it .435 (disgusting) this year? Or Cherry shooting free throws at .538 this year and .714 last year? Are their free throws being contested this year?
: : There are many factors but again,3 guys that were high level recruits (Edwards a transfer) and were being counted on to improve this year, are playing like D3 players.
Last year we outrebounded teams by 4. This year we are outrebounded by 3. Do you think the 7 rebound differential may be an issue? We have 1 big that rebound well, unlike last year.