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Finally our guys can make free throws!!!


BHDAU1

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How awesome is it to finally have a team that can make free throws consistently?  Cliff Ellis was the coach the last time i can remember having a team that was solid at the line.  Just over the last 4 or 5 years I cant even count how many games we lost because of terrible free throw shooting.  This is the first time in a loooooong time that we can feel confident at the end of a game when Auburn has the lead and the opponent starts fouling every possesion that they are not going to lose.  What a great season so far!

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Horace Spencer's improvement at the FT line is nothing short of miraculous. He looks confident and smooth at the line this year. It's really nice to see.

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5 hours ago, jared52 said:

Horace Spencer's improvement at the FT line is nothing short of miraculous. He looks confident and smooth at the line this year. It's really nice to see.

He is the person I've been most impressed with. His first two years, he shot around 50%. but he's in the 70+% this year. His form and follow thru is much improved.

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6 hours ago, jared52 said:

Horace Spencer's improvement at the FT line is nothing short of miraculous. He looks confident and smooth at the line this year. It's really nice to see.

I harp on this constantly in game threads when he’s at the line. Love it. 

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I don’t recall a Cliff Ellis team making them either. I thought Auburn was simply cursed at the line. I suggested a few times we should forbid our players from practicing free throws because it couldn’t get any worse. 

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10 hours ago, alexava said:

I don’t recall a Cliff Ellis team making them either. I thought Auburn was simply cursed at the line. I suggested a few times we should forbid our players from practicing free throws because it couldn’t get any worse. 

I seem to remember the teams with Scotty Pohlman, C. Porter, and D. Fishback being pretty good at the line with the exception of the center position, Davis.  The 02-03 team with Daniels wasn't too bad either at the line.  Probably averaged near 65 to 70% as a team but more importantly could make them when it counted at the end of close games.  Still, you are right to a degree because I always have thought anything less than 80% is not very good.  The free throw is the easiest shot in the game.  It's all muscle memory from practice and apparently Lebo and Barbee never made them practice!!  I used to yell at the TV for either of those coaches to get a damn free throw coach!  It was so pitiful at times I could barely watch.  This year is like a breath of fresh air!! 

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1987-1988 is the last time we shot 77% from the FT line, which is what we're currently shooting. The next closest years were 92-93 (70.2%), 94-95 (71.5%), 04-05 (72%), 12-13 (70%), 13-14 (72%). Everything else has been in the 60s.

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I would love to hear what changed this year to make them so good. New practice methods......just more guys taking it seriously???? We need a case study on this stat so we have something to fall back on when start struggling at the line again. 

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5 minutes ago, gravejd said:

I would love to hear what changed this year to make them so good. New practice methods......just more guys taking it seriously???? We need a case study on this stat so we have something to fall back on when start struggling at the line again. 

Heard on one of the Auburn podcasts a couple days ago that they started a FT competition in practice. Not exactly sure how it works, but I think it splits the team up into two groups and make it competitive. Harper, Brown, Mac, and Spencer are all significantly improved over last year. And it doesn't hurt that we've added guys like Murray, Okeke, and Mitchell, all of whom are solid shooters. And we removed Dunans, Lang, and LaRon Smith and Wiley's 49.1% aren't shooting right now. 

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1 hour ago, BHDAU1 said:

I seem to remember the teams with Scotty Pohlman, C. Porter, and D. Fishback being pretty good at the line with the exception of the center position, Davis.  The 02-03 team with Daniels wasn't too bad either at the line.  Probably averaged near 65 to 70% as a team but more importantly could make them when it counted at the end of close games.  Still, you are right to a degree because I always have thought anything less than 80% is not very good.  The free throw is the easiest shot in the game.  It's all muscle memory from practice and apparently Lebo and Barbee never made them practice!!  I used to yell at the TV for either of those coaches to get a damn free throw coach!  It was so pitiful at times I could barely watch.  This year is like a breath of fresh air!! 

This is a true story: a friend of mine was a basketball manager at AU during the Barbee era. During Barbee's first year, he polled the players for their interest in scheduling practice around the upcoming Iron Bowl (the Camback). My friend told me that it was basically an annual "tradition" to allow the basketball team to enjoy the IB and to schedule basketball activities around it. To a man, they all indicated they were excited to watch the IB. So, Barbee takes that feedback and schedules practice/mandatory team meetings for the duration of the IB, just to send a dick point to his team that "basketball and hard work" mattered. He was an abrasive jerk that made very few friends during his AU tenure.

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2 hours ago, tigeraddikt said:

This is a true story: a friend of mine was a basketball manager at AU during the Barbee era. During Barbee's first year, he polled the players for their interest in scheduling practice around the upcoming Iron Bowl (the Camback). My friend told me that it was basically an annual "tradition" to allow the basketball team to enjoy the IB and to schedule basketball activities around it. To a man, they all indicated they were excited to watch the IB. So, Barbee takes that feedback and schedules practice/mandatory team meetings for the duration of the IB, just to send a dick point to his team that "basketball and hard work" mattered. He was an abrasive jerk that made very few friends during his AU tenure.

I see that may give insight into his recruiting and retaining problems. 

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21 hours ago, tigeraddikt said:

This is a true story: a friend of mine was a basketball manager at AU during the Barbee era. During Barbee's first year, he polled the players for their interest in scheduling practice around the upcoming Iron Bowl (the Camback). My friend told me that it was basically an annual "tradition" to allow the basketball team to enjoy the IB and to schedule basketball activities around it. To a man, they all indicated they were excited to watch the IB. So, Barbee takes that feedback and schedules practice/mandatory team meetings for the duration of the IB, just to send a dick point to his team that "basketball and hard work" mattered. He was an abrasive jerk that made very few friends during his AU tenure.

!!!!!

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On ‎1‎/‎11‎/‎2018 at 12:12 PM, tigeraddikt said:

This is a true story: a friend of mine was a basketball manager at AU during the Barbee era. During Barbee's first year, he polled the players for their interest in scheduling practice around the upcoming Iron Bowl (the Camback). My friend told me that it was basically an annual "tradition" to allow the basketball team to enjoy the IB and to schedule basketball activities around it. To a man, they all indicated they were excited to watch the IB. So, Barbee takes that feedback and schedules practice/mandatory team meetings for the duration of the IB, just to send a dick point to his team that "basketball and hard work" mattered. He was an abrasive jerk that made very few friends during his AU tenure.

That's what he meant by "changing the culture " surrounding AU basketball. He wanted it to be at least as popular as football and that just will not happen at an SEC school outside of Kentucky. Basketball is not King in the SEC. He was trying to force the issue and it didn't go over very well....especially since the team wasn't winning much during his tenure.

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Sheesh I hope Barbee doesn't get scared to come to AU with Kentucky again.

He needs to see first hand how the AU program has evolved since his firing. What a chump

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