Cincinnati Basketball: 5 questions facing the Bearcats for 2018-19
Can they fix the free throw woes?
Free throw shooting wins games. It might sound cliché but it is true. Down the stretch of basketball games, holding onto a lead can be easy with quality foul shooting. However, the opposite can also be true in that free throw shooting loses games as well. When trying to hold onto late leads, it is important for a team to have at least a few go-to shooters. Due to the fact that Cincinnati was one of the best overall teams in the country last season, they were not often harmed by being a poor free throw shooting team (69.2%, 259th in the nation).
However, this likely won’t cut it this season.
Because Cincinnati is expected to compete in low-scoring games this season, it is hard to imagine that there will be many games where the team absolutely blows out their opponent. This possibility leads to the idea that the Bearcats will compete in many close games (less than 10 points) regardless of whether or not they “dominate defensively.” If this happens to be the case, the team will need to be efficient from the free throw line.
This, though, could prove to be a challenge considering the free throw numbers of the returning roster members. After taking out the contributions of Evans (75.4%), Clark (74.1%), and Washington (74.0%), the returning foul shooting for the Bearcats looks quite ugly. In total, the returning roster members shot 263-for-407 (64.6%) from the free throw line last season. That mark would have ranked in the bottom-15 of percentages in the country.
In the grand scheme of this upcoming season, improving at the free throw line could seriously help Cincinnati secure more wins.
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Overall, this is going to be a very interesting season for Cincinnati basketball. On the surface, it looks like it will be difficult for the team to compete atop the AAC and it could even be a challenge to reach the NCAA Tournament. However, there are some nice pieces returning and it is just never a good idea to bet against Mick Cronin when it comes to making the Big Dance.