First of all I like Buzz. I like he's got us playing gritty intense basketball. But he must absolutely address the fact that we can't shoot. 60% from the charity stripe is horrible. We have the ability to win these games even without Wade. If I'm Buzz, nobody is leaving the practice until you've shot 100 free throws. This has to be cleaned up.

100 in a row

In 2021 we lost to TCU by four with fifteen missed FTs. This is Buzz ball. Love it or leave it. We will scrap and fight and always be in games

If we shoot 70% from the stripe we make 6 more and tie the game. The maddening thing is Phelps shot 50% from the line and Payne of all people carried us at the line

Wednesday we shot 77% from the line. 75% against sip. 70% against Purdue, 72% against Tech, 82% against Wake, 80% against Ohio State, 74% against Rutgers, 70% against Creighton, 75% against Oregon.

In big games, we've shot fine/well/good/great from the line.

UCF and Bama are the wild outliers.

The real focus from here on out needs to be 2 things -

1) figuring out how to play like a team without Wade. Figuring out lineups, spacing, tempo, etc. It's been bad these last 2 games.

2) Getting Andy to WAKE THE **** UP. Since his 16-rebound game against Wake on Dec 3, he's had a total of 19 rebounds and 20 fouls (7 games). He's been TERRIBLE.

just shoot them and worry about your form.

I cherry picked free throws because they should be guaranteed makes. But a little free throw shooting practice should bleed over into other shots.

Andy isn't 100% healthy.

Focus should be get him and Wade 100% for the stretch run in February and March. Make do with what you have available between now and getting those guys back 100% because this team is going dancing. Work on Payne 's post play and kick outs. Make it so you can run the offense around Payne in the post if you need to .

TjgtAg08 said:

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The real focus from here on out needs to be 2 things -

1) figuring out how to play like a team without Wade. Figuring out lineups, spacing, tempo, etc. It's been bad these last 2 games.

2) Getting Andy to WAKE THE **** UP. Since his 16-rebound game against Wake on Dec 3, he's had a total of 19 rebounds and 20 fouls (7 games). He's been TERRIBLE.

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We were talking about this on the way home from the game. Seems like he has just disappeared. I don't think he is terrible, but definitely not the Rodman comparison of past. He is a great hustle guy, but something definitely seems off. Hope he finds his mojo soon and starts bringing in high rebound numbers. Don't like seeing us get out rebounded by another team. Especially, since that is our MO.

agspirit_09 said:

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If we shoot 70% from the stripe we make 6 more and tie the game. The maddening thing is Phelps shot 50% from the line and Payne of all people carried us at the line

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We shot 70% as a team this year. We were bad the other night but usually we fall into the average category.

I like the post, but as mentioned, the poor performance against Alabama was an outlier. And I don't see Coach Williams changing his strategy.

How many free throws you think an average D-1 player has shot in his lifetime; in game and at practice? From junior high to now; it has to be some ridiculous number… 30k?…60k?…more.

It's mental.

It's frustrating, but you flush the buffer and reset.

And I don't know what going on with Garcia, but something is off. If you are seeing and I am seeing, then I would assume the coaches are seeing it more. Same goes for Manny.

We are dealing with young men with under developed prefrontal cortexes… and yeah that matters. What's going on? Family problems, school problems, girl problems, thinking about life after A&M whatever. None of my business. I think the team is doing great.

We lost and dropped 1 position. Happy to be an Aggie basketball fan at the moment. Just along for the ride.

if i were the coach i would focus on incorporating payne more into the offense. he is a tool we haven't had the last few seasons. could really open up 3's if we continue to work on that ball movement with a legit big man.

TjgtAg08 said:

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Wednesday we shot 77% from the line. 75% against sip. 70% against Purdue, 72% against Tech, 82% against Wake, 80% against Ohio State, 74% against Rutgers, 70% against Creighton, 75% against Oregon.

In big games, we've shot fine/well/good/great from the line.

UCF and Bama are the wild outliers.

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Yep

And likely the biggest reason why we lost both of those games

Teams have off shooting nights, not just from the field but from the foul line as well. It happens

Each player shooting 100 free throws is t going to make a difference

I'm sure our guys shoot free throws every practice

Detmersdislocatedshoulder said:

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if i were the coach i would focus on incorporating payne more into the offense. he is a tool we haven't had the last few seasons. could really open up 3's if we continue to work on that ball movement with a legit big man.

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Yeah, I think we're going to see us be a lot more intentional about posting the ball as the season goes.

Payne needs to be a little less jumpy on defense. He gets himself out of position from time to time and it hurts us on the boards where he should absolutely dominate.

But offensively I think he's shown enough now that he needs more touches. Especially if he's going to make free throws like he has lately.

If we get him 9-11 shots a game or so we'll really be cooking.

TheDecadeSapling said:

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First of all I like Buzz. I like he's got us playing gritty intense basketball. But he must absolutely address the fact that we can't shoot. 60% from the charity stripe is horrible. We have the ability to win these games even without Wade. If I'm Buzz, nobody is leaving the practice until you've shot 100 free throws. This has to be cleaned up.

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I don't care if the players can hit FTs in practice with nobody around.

I care if they can hit them in the middle of a game in front of thousands of people.

Quote:

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I care if they can hit them in the middle of a game in front of thousands of people.

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This isn't relevant to this thread, but I'd be interested in the FT%s all time of players shooting flagrant/technical free throws versus their normal FT%. Seems to me like it puts the shooter at a disadvantage to be out there all by themselves when normally there's people around them. I've always thought that was weird.

Don't practice shooting until you can make a bunch, practice shooting until you can't miss.

halfastros81 said:

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Andy isn't 100% healthy.

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Do we know this for sure or is this just an assumption? I agree it looks like he is carrying an injury. Just curious if I missed a comment from the coaching staff.

I don't know for sure but it's by far the most likely explanation for the drop off and there are several anecdotal observations made on this board that suggest he's nursing something . Didn't mean to select that emoji… not even sure what that is.

bobinator said:

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If we get him 9-11 shots a game or so we'll really be cooking.

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Maybe the plan along was to incorporate Payne slowly into the mix. I mean, at some point the kid has got to want the ball, right? Maybe, Just maybe, Buzz is making him earn his trust?

There's definitely an "earn it" aspect to the way Buzz coaches. I also think he's a big "keep it simple" guy for the players, so he's... I'd say hesitant, others might say stubborn... to change our main game plan.

You do realize that 100 FTs is not that many...correct? They should shoot 500 each. After every 50 they run 3 mins of sprints. This forces you to practice while fatigued. I did this in HS and do the same as a coach.

Make 'em shoot until they hit 10 in a row, however many that takes . Could be 10, could be 500. Wade could stay and coach up the rest.

The more the merrier.

So like I was saying, we gotta clean up our shooting. We could pull a random poster off Texags and get them to shoot 7-29 from 3

TheDecadeSapling said:

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So like I was saying, we gotta clean up our shooting. We could pull a random poster off Texags and get them to shoot 7-29 from 3

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Phelps/Manny combining for 14 attempts is not a recipe for success. We settled for 3s too often tonight, especially after we saw a few go in in the first half. Those two have to get to the rim and only shoot from deep when they're wide open.