I just realized that my Rutgers at Newark teams free throw rating is terrible. I have lost 3 games to below 100 RPI teams, and in each game my team shot about 50% from the line. I have never looked for free throw ratings in recruiting, and I have never made it a point of emphasis in my practice plan. I have not noticed any improvement when I do put minutes into it on my practice plan.

What do you guys do? Do you look at Free Throw rating in recruiting? How much do you put into it for practice plan?

I know you LOVE when I respond to your questions but I'm gonna give you something you can see.

Check the Ratings History for players. My FT grades improve. If I had to guess, because that's all I got, I think they improve like IQ.

To be more clear, IQ might go from D to B- during a season while FT might go from C+ to B- in the same period. But I put 20-25 in O/D and 4-5 in FT.

What! Monster are you serious? Not only are your FT ratings not improving, they're getting worse!!

Look at Baxter. He started at D+ and is now F. He was declining every season. You didn't think to put minutes in there after he started declining?

I'm sorry, don't mean to be rude. but this blows my mind a bit.

Posted by Benis on 3/24/2017 3:58:00 PM (view original):
What! Monster are you serious? Not only are your FT ratings not improving, they're getting worse!!

Look at Baxter. He started at D+ and is now F. He was declining every season. You didn't think to put minutes in there after he started declining?

I'm sorry, don't mean to be rude. but this blows my mind a bit.

LOL. 2 people reply to Mturtl and I''m the polite one.

Not to hijack the thread but has anyone ever put like 25-30 minutes into FT practice?

I knew I was going to cut a player and wish I'd tried it with him just to see. But too late now.

Posted by Benis on 3/24/2017 3:58:00 PM (view original):
What! Monster are you serious? Not only are your FT ratings not improving, they're getting worse!!

Look at Baxter. He started at D+ and is now F. He was declining every season. You didn't think to put minutes in there after he started declining?

I'm sorry, don't mean to be rude. but this blows my mind a bit.

Ya I don't emphasize free throw shooting as I run motion but I will definitely take it into consideration depending on the players attributes. If he is going to be high speed and I think the Guard might cause more fouls than normal I will look at where his FT might end. I also make sure that if they can improve in FT I am making sure they are improving. I treat it as another stat and it Definitely comes in handy and wins random games.

Overall I would suggest not to recruit players because of there FT rating but don't underestimate it, I also wouldn't not recruit a guy because of it if he has crazy ratings. You will find a happy medium over time.

I always emphasize the free throw rating when recruiting a player. I have had teams blow leads in the NT due to missed free throws at the end. It cost me a possible National title in Phelan about 10 or so seasons back. Even if players don't improve in the rating, it's important to have at least 6 minutes of practice time on free throws to keep it from dropping.

Out of all my current players accross all of their seasons, only two have improved a third of a letter grade during the season.

"Coach Turtl, I don't want to question your tactics but do you think we could spend a couple of minutes at the end of practice shooting free throws?"

"BAXTER!!!! WAS THAT YOU??!!?!? TAKE A LAP!!!! NO ONE IS GUARDING YOU ON FREE THROWS!!! IF YOU CAN'T MAKE THOSE, YOU DON'T BELONG TO BE HERE!!!!"

"Uh, coach, I think I'm getting worse at 'em."

"TAKE TWO LAPS, BAXTER!!!! ANOTHER WORD ABOUT FREE THROWS AND YOU'LL RUN TIL YOU PUKE!!!!"

Posted by MonsterTurtl on 3/24/2017 4:48:00 PM (view original):
Out of all my current players accross all of their seasons, only two have improved a third of a letter grade during the season.

How many minutes are you putting in FT?

Has nobody asked what the colors are here?

I'm not going to tell you how to prioritize your practices, but zeroing out FTs would be a very unique strategy.

I generally keep 8-12 pts on a player until they go orange, when I may scale back to 7, if they have other important areas to work on. Under 7, and a player may start dropping (I've seen some players drop at 7, but rarely). Are FTs important? Well yeah, especially if you are talking about a guy who is going to try to score inside a lot, or if you play a lot of uptempo, or the fastbreak set. If you run triangle or flex, have a mostly perimeter offense, and recruit a lot of guys with green in their cores, then I can see skimping a little on FTs, or even punting altogether, especially for players already red. But as a general team philosophy, I can't see that being beneficial in the long run.

FTs do improve, especially for players with high potential. https://www.whatifsports.com/hd/PlayerProfile/Ratings.aspx?tid=2542&pid=3551828 Douthitt is a good example, he started with a green D. I knew he would not be a prime scoring option early in his career, but eventually FT shooting will help make him a weapon. At 12 minutes, he's gone from green D to blue C in 2 seasons.

I don't have a steadfast rule, I put in whatever I feel like I can spare, I just changed that up in my guys though and took points off of cores. I guess that was an issue I was causing.

baxter was a tricky situation, he started with a WE of 12, and he had plenty of potential left in his cores, so I abbandoned FT, which was a mistake because now he shoots 33%

Is it not safe to zero out a guy with red in his FT ratings?