As a follow up to an interesting debate about free throw shooting, I managed to combine a few free throw shooting statistics for this year’s squad.

Although little correlation has been found between free throw shooting percentages and winning percentages, you are talking about an uncontested, 15 foot, 1-point shot. The importance of the free throw really can’t be understated. Just ask Memphis about missing 4 of their last 5 free throws in their overtime loss against Kansas in their national championship game. In fact, you’re talking about one of the basic fundamentals of the game that accounts for a little more than 20% of scoring in men’s college basketball.

In their 9 losses, the Nittany Lions actually won the free throw shooting percentage battle 5 times, beaten at the stripe 3 times by Virginia Tech, Wisconsin and Illinois, and tied once against Michigan. Not exactly a resounding endorsement.

But in their 8 wins to date, Penn State beat their opponents in free throw shooting percentages 7 times losing just once to U Pennsylvania. It won’t always win you the game, but it can sure help.

The following is a chart of made (blue) vs missed (red) free throws per game.

The green bar is a visual representation of the margin of defeat in that particular game.

In our 9 losses, the number of missed free throws actually tied or outnumbered the margin of defeat on 4 occasions (Iowa, Illinois, Virginia Tech, Tulane). That’s 4 missed opportunities for this team to possibly swing a defeat into a victory based on free throw shooting alone.

In fact, only on 3 occasions has the outcome been out of reach had we capitalized on our missed free throws (Michigan, Wisconsin, and UNCW) .

It is ridiculous to expect any team to be perfect at the charity stripe, but you can’t ignore the impact of missed opportunities at the line. During the impact of free throw shooting debate, an argument was made that “free throw shooting can’t cost you the game if you shoot better than your opponent.” A legitimate argument. But this team can’t control how well their opponents perform or when they will face a cold shooting night. They can however improve their own fundamentals which include the basics of free throw shooting. Like field goals in football, free throw shooting should be relied on as guaranteed points most of the time. They call it the charity stripe for a reason.

But as expected, Penn State’s squads under Ed DeChellis have consistently been one of the worst free throw shooting teams in the conference.

When we don’t have the offensive firepower that exists around the league, Ed DeChellis and his teams have to understand the greater importance of uncontested free throws and be capable of taking advantage of them. Even if that means being locked in a electrical closet as players are forced to make consecutive free throws.*

I use theses charts not as frivolous claims that we should have won any of the games we lost this season, but as a visual representation on the numerous wasted opportunities by our own team based solely on free throws. Combine that with inconsistent ball handling, poor shooting percentages and below average coaching, it isn’t hard to see how this team is winless in conference play. This squad, like many of its predecessors have a long way to go, but a good way to start would be a return to fundamentals, especially free throw shooting.

*Sine labore nihil

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