Tuesday, August 26, 2014

Holding late leads

Championship teams have to win close games. You win close games, among other things, by making free throws, getting to the line yourself, and avoiding turnovers. So how do we look in those categories?

We were second in the Belt at the line behind Ga State, who were unbelievably good from the line. Hagins, Leeper, Dillard and Billings all shot at least 75% from the line, and presumably some of the incoming players can add to the mix there, so we are in good shape there. (White could really help us if he improved his shooting from the line.) Shields has said that getting to the line more was going to be one of the emphases of the team this year, and we know Dillard and Woods are very good at drawing fouls. Regarding turnovers, Smith lead the league in A/TO ratio according to the official Belt list, but this is one place we need to improve. Presumably we might be running a four-guard offense late in the game, and we could put some pretty good ball handlers out there. But as a team we need to cut down on turnovers.

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