Strategy to maximize foul shooting
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Question. Do teams deliberately drive the ball early in each half in order to maximize the number of foul shots they get to take? Drive early, get in the bonus, then start chucking threes maybe?
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Sounds good to me!
I do think there is something to this… but I think it is mostly because the players receive a huge pep rally before the game and at half to be more aggressive on both sides of the ball.
“More aggressive” on offense means driving the ball. “More aggressive” on defense means playing the ball tighter which often encourages driving. Both cases mean more driving.
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Since they call touch fouls, drivings the smartest thing
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@drgnslayr Yeah, it does seem like this maybe doesn’t matter because teams often drive it early in each half for the reason you mentioned. What I’m saying is not accounting for what the defense is doing, and other confounding factors as well, so is a little overly simplistic.
But since you get a limited number of possessions, why not get to the bonus first with drives before taking any of your threes. Then, you ideally get 2 FT for each of those early possessions fouled in the act, and the later possessions you get FTs if they foul on the floor, and you can optionally chuck threes if the situation demands it.
It seems if you’re a good FT shooting team, this might be the way to go.
Might this be part of Bill’s historical thinking that went out the window this year? A. Because his team wants freedom to shoot open 3s whenever without limitations, and B. because this team wasn’t shooting FTs well?
Nevermind. The more I read this, the more I think what I’m trying to say is all summed up in “be aggressive”.
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You see this from Frank a lot. I think Michigan St only had a few fouls in the first half and he started driving to the hoop more. Not that Frank needs any advice to get to the tin but I think Frank knows if you force the defenses hand and the ref’s to make a decision he’ll get rewarded more times then not. I honestly thought the ref’s missed a half dozen fouls on Frank’s drives, he was clearly pissed on a few missed one’s.
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Affirmative!
Bo Ryan’s and Bill Self’s pioneering of Drive Ball and Bill rationalizing it to BAD BALL have been emulated by most teams now. The object is two-fold: get a short three and foul up the opponent as fast as you can in order to limit his defensive and offensive aggressiveness and hit bonus sooner.
Self has expanded it some. He has 4 drivers that can shoot outside, too! And one–Josh–is so athletic he often can’t get a short three because he starts jumping at the FT line and literally leaves defenders behind.
I am starting to see a deeper explanation to why there is so much less big man dominance.
First, big men lose more of their games on both ends, when fouled up than short, quick men do, when fouled up.
Second, drivers draw more fouls than bigs.
To play through bigs you need 4-5 of them.
To play through perimeter, you can get by with 3, or even 2.
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KU shot 14 of 15 from the FT. I can’t reacall anything better in a long time.
