MBB: Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[chmarx]

It sounds like La Crosse managed to stay in the game in spite of some stars struggling.

Congratulations to Point on taking sole possession of first.  Hopefully, we will get you down here! 

[UWPSUPERFAN77]

TO Point Special: Good win against lacroose. If you hold Werner to 10 you played great D. Jon krull reminds me of Tyler Selk, of Platteville, best six four big guy in conference. Blessings!

[frankiet]

Does anyone have the status of Superior's Leonard Cobb? Is he out with a broken nose? When will he return?

[fredfalcon]

SuperFan--your analysis seems plausible. Thanks for a new persective. I was thinking before the game when I checked heights of P players that the 6'10" (Skemp?) kid would have an advantage down low. I understand, while listening, that he got into foul trouble. And I think the rebound totals were close. RF is last in rebounding, or close to it, in WIAC stats.

Very unusual for a freshman to get a double/double. I don't think Melzer got one as a freshman, and he red shirted.

[bulk19]

OK fellow WIAC followers...

Weigh in with your thoughts about this question. What is a reasonable expectation for a team's free-throw shooting percentage?

Is it just a coincidence that the 7-0 Pointers are shooting 82 percent from the charity stripe, or that the 2004 National Champs shot 75.4%, while the 2005 champs shot 76.8 %? Probably not...

WIAC all-time record is Oshkosh, at .818 (516-631) in 1997-98; the 16th best all-time that is listed in the record book is also Oshkosh, last year, at .763  (440-577). So that is the range given in the books...

Oshkosh has seven of the top 16 spots; Point has five, including for the 2005 champs; Platteville two, (but neither were for the title teams); and La Crosse and Eau Claire each have one team represented...
 
I think my expectations would be at least 70 %, which, after this weekend's games, only four of nine teams in the conference are above. Lot of season left for those numbers to change, but what would you expect your team to shoot?

[Mr. Ypsi]

Interesting column in SI this week (Rick Reilly?) about ft shooting.  He got coached by Rick Barry on his style (i.e., underhand 'granny' style) and immediately reduced his misses by 50% (including 5-straight with his eyes closed).  NBA players, including such 'clankers' as Shaq, said they'd rather shoot 0% than go underhand - just too embarassing!

Are there any d3 players who would put WINNING ahead of ego and try underhand?

[bulk19]

I'll have to check that SI column out... Barry shot .900% in his career!

And you may be right about today's players, who would rather clank it in at poor percentages, than embarrass themselves by shooting underhand. Free throw shooting just doesn't make the highlights, as this generation, which has grown up with ESPN highlight reel dunks, knows... But it can win an awful lot of games... and championships... I guess I just consider it fundamentals...

Free-throw shooting percentage is why I will never consider Shaq (.528 entering this season) as one of the top, oh, say five centers of all-time... He's only the fourth best all-time Laker center - behind Jabbar (at .721%), Mikan (.782%), and Chamberlain (.511%, but surprisingly 28 of 32 when he had his 100-point game)...

I'd take, and make an exception for Bill Russell, who only shot .561%... And would take The Chief, Robert Parrish (.721%) and Bill Cartwright (.770%) over Shaq, too. But that's maybe just sour grapes, because Shaq is on my fantasy hoops team this year, and has done diddly squat while sitting out for most of the season... 

But enough about the boring NBA and stats....

[UWPSUPERFAN77]

On free throws: I do not know anybody doing this. Maybe someone should man, or woman up, and try this. Mr. Berry was certainly Mr. Automatic. He was in his prime when i was in college. He was a classic. God Bless!

[UWPSUPERFAN77]

As to Superior: They must be making progress, they hung in with the warhawks for a long time without All Conference Leonard Cobb. I wonder how well Leonard would be if more talent surrounded him? Also, how do the great Hockey Schools in our conference, UWRF and Superior get anyone to attend games in BB.I missed Hockey when I left Eau Claire, but it did not keep a sports nut like me from attending BB?

[John Gleich]

Interesting thoughts Bulk.

It should be noted, however, that Point led the nation last year in free-throw percentage AND in having the fewest turnovers per game, and this did not equate with even a conference championship, even though the percentage was higher than either of the national championship years.

There's something to be said, however, for the fact that Point hasn't had a dominant true post for the past two years.  Point's "best" post players the last two years, Krull and Bauer, are, in some respects, even bigger threats facing the basket than with their back to the basket.  This generally has forced teams to choose to guard them with people who are better at the perimeter (and not as good at guarding the post), or vice versa.

Now, I understand that this league has and has had tremendous players who are more than proficient at both.  But I think that sometimes, the two stats I noted there, free throw percentage and TO's per game can be directly linked.  A team as guard-oriented as Point's this, and last season will do many more perimeter passes (lateral, as opposed to vertical, toward the basket passes), which, generally, are easier passes because a team isn't going to defend as hard against a pass that isn't directly striking towards the basket.

A prime example of this is the Point vs. Oshkosh game earlier this year.  Point had just two TO's.  43% of Point's shots were from 3 pt land, and 46% of their makes were from deep.  If you can make 56.5% of your threes (13/23), then you can shoot this percentage of your shots from deep.  It would really force a team to extend to defend each and every starter, all who have 3 pt range.  And when a team is as good a passing team as Point is, then they will exploit this and take advantage of it.

Now, this wasn't really the discussion, but I thought it was interesting, all the same, when I was looking at the season stats earlier today myself.

To answer your question though, Bulk, I would say, at the very least, 70%.  Looking back at the past 4-5 seasons, though, there have been several seasons where the top 7 or 8 teams shot at least 70%.  And I think it depends how many ft's a team is shooting.  Because, in theory, it is tougher to shoot a better percentage the more a team shoots.  ... well, I guess that's up for debate too... if practice makes perfect, then perhaps it's EASIER to make more the more you take... hmmm..

I think it would be interesting to see how the number of free throws shot correlates with a team's winning percentage.  Because if you look at the ratio of baskets versus posessions, would it be as high as even a poor ft shooting team, say, 60%?  Because when a team shoots 60%, they're going to win over 90% of the time, and they didn't score on 60% of their posessions if they had even one TO in the game (which is obviously very likely).

Interesting thoughts...

[chmarx]

I don't understand why all college and pro players don't shoot seventy percent.  It is just a matter of practice.  I think I read once that Larry Bird ended every practice by shooting free throws.  He wouldn't stop until he had hit thirty in a row.  Made him the best free throw shooter in the league.

This isn't brain surgery.

[John Gleich]

This isn't brain surgery.

... but it DOES have to do with a player's head.  No disrespect, but Gio Riley should be able to hit a shot from 15 feet away from the basket with no defenders, ESPECIALLY because he's shooting 50% (albiet 1/2) and 46.3% from the field, WITH defenders...  He's shot a scant 41.2% for FT's.  It at least APPEARS that he should just be shooting jump shots instead of stepping up to the line, dribbling three times, and psyching himself out.

[WLCALUM83]

Anyone want to chime in on tonight's Edgewood/UW-Stevens Point tilt?

[John Gleich]

I'm planning on going, if that's what you mean...  I suspect that Point will come out ready to play... there was a pretty sour taste in the Pointer's mouths after last season's loss.

--> HERE <-- is Point's preview for the game.

[Greek Tragedy]

Hope to listen to the game on the internet...my plane just came in (went to see the Packers win!) and I got home about 1/2 hour ago, so I wasnt going to drive two hours to catch the 2nd half of the game. 

I really wanted to be there to see if Point can put to rest that bad memory of last year down at the high school rec./YMCA gym! lol

I'm still trying to catch up on the weekend games!