Duke Basketball: Free throw shooting a problem for the Blue Devil’s
By Zach De Jong
Duke Basketball cruised to a victory versus the Yale Bulldog’s, but free-throws continue to haunt the young Duke team.
The Duke Blue Devil’s beat the Yale Bulldog’s 91-58, on Saturday night. The Blue Devil’s struggled in the first half but were able to speed up the game in the second half and get the easy win.
R.J. Barrett and Zion Williamson had outstanding night’s yet again, but what still plague’s the Blue Devil’s is their free-throw percentage. The Blue Devil’s rank 288th in free-throw percentage, shooting 65 percent from the charity stripe.
This shooting percentage is concerning for a team who gets to the line often. They play physically and often finish at the rim, which leads to fouls. The problem is they are not taking advantage of these free points at the line.
The Blue Devil’s are not having a tough time getting to the line because they rank 27th in free-throw attempts this year. They have left a combined 85 points at the line in their first ten games. That amount of free points missed is concerning to see.
There are currently three Blue Devil’s shooting over 70 percent from the line. These players are Cam Reddish, Jack White, and Alex O’Connell. Reddish has struggled shooting from the field recently but has continued to be a reliable free-throw shooter. He is currently shooting 77.4 percent from the charity stripe. White is shooting 73.3 percent and O’Connell 70 percent from the line.
In the past four years, the worst national championship team from the free-throw line was the Blue Devil’s in 2015. The 2015 team ranked 153rd, shooting 69.9 percent from the line. Both of the Villanova teams that won the championship finished over 77 percent from the line.
This poor shooting from the line this year might have not made them lose so far, but it could be an area that hinders the Blue Devil’s in the future. You would like to see the Blue Devil’s crack the 70 percent mark as a team by tournament time. Otherwise, the Blue Devil’s could lose close games because of their shooting from the line. It is one of the area’s that makes this team vulnerable.
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The Blue Devil’s now have a bye week due to finals. Their next game is versus the Princeton Tigers on Tuesday, December 18th. The game can be viewed on ESPN 2 at 6:00 PM ET.