Another basketBull commitment

[Bullpride08]

Do your **** research you big baffoons!

Our FT shooting did improve from the Coach Seth era to the Coach Mac era.

In 03-04 we shot .657

With Seth:

02-03 we shot .632

Seth also had both Kohn and Swift.  Whereas a few guys that really destroyed Mac's average, like Baxter and Barber were not with the team later in the year.  Also, two last minute walk-ons also hurt Mac's average, with Flowers, and Graham not living up to their bargain.  Take away those four guys, and every Bull improved his FT shooting average.

Second, we haven't signed Denard Abraham, so before you crap on him let's see what he does, or where he goes.  WE are also pursuing some bigger name recruits.

Third, Coach Mac doesn't have a ton of height, but if you did a bit of research you'd realize he puts a heavy premium in ball movement, and shooting.  He likes bigmen, but only those that can do a bit of both to go with their rebounding abilities.  Those type of players are in short supply, and Coach Mac will not compromise.

Fourth, The Brandenton kid, isn't really a Brandenton kid.  He's from Compton California, and is just listed as a Brandenton kid because he was down at the world training headquarters of IMG.  He went their to improve his game, but he's worlds, and timezones from being a Floridian.

Now that we got the truth in the open, I think its easier for all to criticize or eliminate their criticism.

[Velcro]

i wouldn't call a 2.5 % increase that substantial... (but i am not defending beastie here).

That small of an increase pretty much says it stayed the same (not considering all of the other variables bien mentioned).

But even if it was the same or slightly better... we have 3 classes of SG recruits and 1 class of Mac recruits contributing to the current %.  Bad shooting is ingrained into a handful of them and that will not change.  The mac players are good FT shooters thus far, and that trend will continue.  We aren't recruiting based on athleticism first, mac puts a premium on shooting, over the next 4 years, you'll see that % up into the 70%-75 % range.

[mattegunz]

Coaching only goes so far when it comes to ft shooting.  You can't turn bricklayers into 90% shooters from the stripe.  So it really comes down to the guys you recruit.  Seth recruited guys that were althletic as hell, but were not very technically sound players.  Thats just because there are very few guys that are a combo of great athlete with great basketball skill.  Most of those guys are heading straight to the league or are wearing a jersey of a Duke, Kentucky etc.   Coach Mac has seemed to recruit guys who are better technical players rather than the athletes that Seth liked.  I prefer Mac's approach and hope that he can turn the program around.  

[Bullpride08]

i wouldn't call a 2.5 % increase that substantial... (but i am not defending beastie here).

That small of an increase pretty much says it stayed the same (not considering all of the other variables bien mentioned).

But even if it was the same or slightly better... we have 3 classes of SG recruits and 1 class of Mac recruits contributing to the current %.  Bad shooting is ingrained into a handful of them and that will not change.  The mac players are good FT shooters thus far, and that trend will continue.  We aren't recruiting based on athleticism first, mac puts a premium on shooting, over the next 4 years, you'll see that % up into the 70%-75 % range.

Not quite.  Don't minimalize the accomplishment.  

In Seth's final year they went 342 for 542, for a .6309 average.  During Mac's last year they went 350-532 for a .6579 average.  

To get that average up to Coach Mac's, Seth's team would have needed to hit 15 more FT's through the course of the season.  That's significant considering we lost five games by 3 pts or less that year- Wright State, ECU (in regulation), Houston, Charlotte, Tulane.  

Also if you took out out walk-on Brandyn Flower's stats, since he didn't walk-on until mid-way through the season so you really can't fault Mac of this one.  Flower's was 2-8, and that would have brought our team up to a tad more respectable 66.4%.  Still better than any year under Seth.

[GarySJ]

I think anything positive that last year's team accomplished was pretty good under the circumstances. Jeezus, we were down to 6 guys, and starting walk-ons whom nobody'd ever heard of when the season started. I think this year will be a much better barometer of things like free throw percentage.

[Guest BasketBull.]

You guys are talking about free throws ---are you kidding me?

May I point out some of the scores from last season?

at Providence L, 84-60  (Loss margin: 24 points)

at Nebraska L, 75-52    (Loss margin: 20 points)

Louisville L, 85-40         (Loss margin: 45 points)

at Saint Louis L, 70-52  (Loss Margin: 22 points)

at UAB L, 86-47             (Loss margin: 39 points)

100% free throws wouldn't have helped to pull those games out...

Let's give Coach Mac some time to see what happens (for me that's to the end of this season and the middle of the following year).

As for recruiting, yeah, we are bringing in some high grade C-USA players. But new Big East players? I haven't seen anybody yet that's going to single-handedly stop the butt whipping coming our way next year... :'(

[RHBullsFan]

Some people's expectations on this board baffle me. As mentioned before we were down to walk-ons last season. We are not going to be world beaters this year either, the key is that we are BUILDING and IMPROVING each game and hopefully each year. Give it some time.

[Markeymark]

Team FT% is as much about discipline and teamwork as it is about skill. I mean come on, how much skill is involved in making a shot when nobody is guarding you? Some of our players have had better percentages shooting 3's than their success rate from the charity stripe.

I think a lot comes down to teamwork, too - if a team is more confident as a whole, you will see the FT% go up.

[Velcro]

and confidence comes from learning the system, and a player that has played in a system for 3 years has more confidence in that system than one that hasn't ever played in it.

Everyone on our team was essentially a true freshman when it came to Mac's system.  Another year, more confidence, small improvements.  We won't be world beaters, but there will be significant improvement, imho.

[Omniscientbull]

This FT arguement is so stupid.  There are guys playing in the NBA for millions per year that can't shoot FT's.  They practice all day, hire personal coaches, etc and still can't improve it.

For those of you that don't know, the amount of practice time a coach has with his players is limited by the NCAA.  Restricted practice time reduces the amount of time a coach can dedicate to things like FT's, thus leaving the player to get basic instructions on FT's and then leaving it up to the player to practice on his own time.

If a coach were to spend 5 minutes every practice with 8 different guys practicing FT's that would account for 40 minutes.  Not sure of the allowed practice time time but I'm pretty sure it's not much more than 3 hours per day.  If it is 3 hours per day then you would be having a coach spend 22% of his time on FT's.