Poor free throw shooting a crutch

With satellite interruptions dominating the early part of the Fresno State men’s basketball game, The Collegian’s Darrell Copeland III and Jeff Christian (we prefer third person sometimes, even though one of us is writing this) had a chance to do some research regarding the Fresno State basketball team. Here are the results:

Jeff Christian: Hey Darrell, do you think the Fresno State basketball team should start shooting free throws underhanded, a la Rick Barry?

Darrell Copeland III: We’re getting a little bit ahead of ourselves Jeff. Let’s tell these people what all the commotion is about.

JC: Bulldogs fans might want to sit down for this, but here it is. The Bulldogs are shooting only 66-percent from the free-throw line this season. Because of that statistic alone, we think the Bulldogs have lost four games that should have been a “W.”

DCIII: Yep. It’s not just the four games the Bulldogs could have picked up, it’s the wins against the quality teams that could have been picked up. To think, Stanford, Nevada, Hawaii (at home, the one on the road was pretty much a disaster) and Boise State could have been wins.

JC: With those four wins, the Bulldogs postseason résumé would look much different right now.

Wins against those teams would have the Bulldogs in second-place in the WAC standings and would give them a much greater possibility of making the NCAA Tournament.

DCIII: And all for some missed free throws. Yes, we understand they practice them, probably even more so than most teams, but if they don’t care if they get better at them, they won’t. We’d all like to think the Bulldogs are taking the time to get better, except there hasn’t been much, if any, improvement in that area until Thursday night’s 64-63 win against LA Tech. Maybe times are finally changing, and a welcomed change it is.

JC: If only reality had a rewind button.

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