One thing you'd like to see improvement in for next season...

[Muskie]

I'd like to see a renewed focus on Free Throw Shooting and drawing fouls. X shot .667 from the stripe last season in 655 trips. The year prior they shot .695 from the line as a team while getting to the line 819 times.

That's a huge point differential and changes some of those close games.

[GoMuskies]

Three point shooting needs to improve as well as free throw shooting. Other than Redford (who could not get open often enough), there were no real, reliable threats from the outside. If Semaj improves that part of his game at least to the point where other teams have to respect his jumper and look to guard him 20 feet from the basket, Martin finds any kind of consistency from the outside, D. Davis shoots as well or slightly better than he did this past year, and M. Davis is close to as good a shooter as advertised, the team will be a LOT more dangerous on the offensive end of the court. There were long stretches in games this year (Tennessee in particular comes to mind) when I wondered if the team would ever score another point.

[MCXU]

I would like to see more championships.

[boozehound]

I agree regarding the outside shooting. It is very difficult to consistently run an effective half court offense if you don't have anybody who can shoot. We definitely struggled with that last season. We need to have at least 2 guys on the floor who are capable of hitting 3 point shots with some regularity. Ideally 3 guys, really.

[ballyhoohoo]

Better staffed concession stands. 1187

[Dr. X]

How good of a shooter is Randolph supposed to be?

[DC Muskie]

I'd like to see if 32 year old Justin Martin can start dominating players half his age.

[PMI]

Where to begin?

Martin
Wins
Free Throw Shooting
Poise in the Last 2 Minutes
Hotness of the Cheerleaders
General Offensive Execution

[X-man]

Outside shooting and free throws. Those were our Achilles heel last year, once we got better at rebounding the ball.

[ammtd34]

I'd like to see a renewed focus on Free Throw Shooting and drawing fouls. X shot .667 from the stripe last season in 655 trips. The year prior they shot .695 from the line as a team while getting to the line 819 times.

That's a huge point differential and changes some of those close games.

If we shot 75% from the line, we score 55 more points last season (I know variables change, whatever). With the amount of close games we were in, that certainly could have meant more wins.

[TUclutch]

How good of a shooter is Randolph supposed to be?

Pretttttty good Ive heard

[XUFan09]

I'd like to see a renewed focus on Free Throw Shooting and drawing fouls. X shot .667 from the stripe last season in 655 trips. The year prior they shot .695 from the line as a team while getting to the line 819 times.

That's a huge point differential and changes some of those close games.

They definitely need to improve their FT shooting, but this team had no problem getting to the line in the first place. The difference you're seeing in the number of trips to the line between 2012 and 2013 is due to a difference in the number of games (36 vs. 31) and the difference in pace (67.2 possessions per game vs. 63.3). Two seasons ago, the ratio of FT attempts to FG attempts of 41.3%. This season, the ratio was 41.4%.

Semaj, Taylor, and Dee all had nationally ranked FT rates. Zeke's rate was even better than that, but he didn't quite qualify in terms of shot attempts.

Sidenote: Stenger actually has an even better FT rate than Zeke, but we all know how that usually ended at the line for the 37.5% shooter. What's kind of funny is that Amos had a FT rate of 116.7%. That's right, he attempted more FTs (14) than FGs (12), probably because teams knew he wouldn't finish if he got hacked and then he'd just miss his FTs half the time.

[XUFan09]

Pretttttty good Ive heard

The way I'm reading that, at least, you make it sound like he's a lights-out shooter, and I've never heard that to be the case. He can score from all three levels, but his perimeter jumper needs the most work. Not Semaj-like work, but still, I don't see Randolph hitting 40+% of his three-point shots.

[Muskie]

They definitely need to improve their FT shooting, but this team had no problem getting to the line in the first place. The difference you're seeing in the number of trips to the line between 2012 and 2013 is due to a difference in the number of games (36 vs. 31) and the difference in pace (67.2 possessions per game vs. 63.3). Two seasons ago, the ratio of FT attempts to FG attempts of 41.3%. This season, the ratio was 41.4%.

Semaj, Taylor, and Dee all had nationally ranked FT rates. Zeke's rate was even better than that, but he didn't quite qualify in terms of shot attempts.

Sidenote: Stenger actually has an even better FT rate than Zeke, but we all know how that usually ended at the line for the 37.5% shooter. What's kind of funny is that Amos had a FT rate of 116.7%. That's right, he attempted more FTs (14) than FGs (12), probably because teams knew he wouldn't finish if he got hacked and then he'd just miss his FTs half the time.

You're right. I didn't bother to think about the extra games. TU went to the line so often as a senior himself, just glancing at the numbers made the drop feasible to me.

[XUFan09]

You're right. I didn't bother to think about the extra games. TU went to the line so often as a senior himself, just glancing at the numbers made the drop feasible to me.

Haha yeah, his FT rate was absurd. His was 65.4%, whereas Semaj, Taylor, and Dee's were 51.0%, 50.6%, and 41.6%. Keep in mind that they had nationally ranked FT rates in the 2013 season, yet Tu still blew them out of the water on that statistic.