Throw-away Points

In basketball, it can be the small difference between winning and losing, and yet few seem to take it seriously. Free-throws, emphasis on FREE. There's no free lunch but there sure are free points. It's not nick-named "The Charity Stripe" for nothing.

I'm not referring to just Saturday's game against Ole Miss, or even just Arkansas. It's stunning to me to watch all these talented players do so many different things with the basketball in so many acrobatic, ambidextrous ways and yet when it comes to a wide-open freebie from 15 feet out, suddenly making a shot looks more difficult than understanding quantum physics.


And it also becomes apparent which players put in that extra bit of work at the end of practice every day because it's those moments at the line where the attention to detail is magnified. More often than not, the highest FT% guys are the ones that may not see the court as much.

My theory: they're the ones who have to put in the extra work to compensate for what they may lack.

I'm not saying poor free-throw shooters are necessarily slackers, but it really becomes about working on the little things. And for those guys who pay attention to the numbers, being consistent with that can easily add 4-6 ppg to a player's average.