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Thursday, February 23, 2006
Bottom line? More FTs a must
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
That second half last night — especially the last 10 minutes or so — was agony for Tech fans.
Sure, Tech’s lack of a true point guard showed up as Zam Fredrick had six turnovers in the second half (although he had nine assists for the game), and the Yellow Jackets had problems getting into their offense.
But you know what? There was plenty more to it than that. It didn’t help when J.J. Redick’s knee caught Anthony Morrow in the thigh early in the second half, but Morrow hasn’t helped enough lately even when he hasn’t had a charley horse.
He scored four points last night on one of three shooting, getting two points at the free throw line while shooting two free throws after Coach K. got a technical in the second half.
But when your leading scorer doesn’t get to the free throw line much, and Morrow doesn’t, it can hurt. Lately, it has.
Morrow still leads Tech with an average of 16 points a game, but he’s been to the free throw line just 63 times all year. That’s 2.5 free throw attempts per game! Redick’s been to the FT line 211 times (8.1 per game). I’m not suggesting Morrow can or should be getting to the line that much.
But two a game? He hit his only free throw last Saturday at Maryland, his only FT the game before that at UNC, and didn’t take a free throw the game before that against N.C. State. He hit all four attempts the game before that against Miami, but didn’t get to the line in either of the two games before that.
So in his past eight games, he’s been to the free throw line eight times (two for techs). He’s hit all eight. So what if he gets to the line five or six times per game? They lost by one at FSU, in overtime at Maryland.
“He knows that,” coach Paul Hewitt told me this afternoon. “Anthony needs to get to the line more, and he knows that. We’ve talked about it. He needs to put the ball on the floor more.”
Fredrick, Dickey and sometimes Jeremis Smith (he was very good last night, wasn’t he? At least until back spasms bothered him) can create shots for themselves with some regularity, although each has certain limitations in how they do it.
Tech couldn’t create in the final 8-10 minutes, and started fouling like mad. No gripes, please, about the officiating in this one. Duke didn’t start getting to the line with any regularity until Tech started hacking, prematurely, Hewitt said after the game. And they were hacks. Duke took just two FTs in the first half, missing both.
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