Orr Presser....State of Prayer Edition

Coach Orr held his presser today, and you can watch it over on BGSUfalcons.com.  It is about 11 minutes long, and has a couple interesting moments.

The first question is about free throw shooting, and it is a fair one.  There are 334 D1 teams, and as of today, we are #326 in free throw shooting, which is just downright poor.  (Not last in the MAC though.....THANK YOU NIU).

Anyway, Coach went on at some length about what he has tried to make it better in practice.  When asked if the players make the free throws in practice, he replied: "Not really."

He said something like "You feel like you should shoot them better.  It is a free shot, you know, no defense.  A free shot."  (At least we are clear on that). 

Coach Orr said he is in a "state of prayer" on every free throw.  Which appears to be warranted and not particularly effective.

Just kidding.  He knows we have to work through it.  He does point out that we are getting to the line more, that does help (shooting 55% of 25 free throws is better than 55% of 10).

Beyond that, he is happy with the field goal defense, which is improving, though he would like to see if under 40.

College Basketball Stats by StatSheet.com

Beyond that, he is in a state of prayer over finals week too (and we only hope that our grades are better than our FT shooting).

He was asked about the player rotation, and said that there is room for adjustment and the key things is how you practice. Specifically, he said that Au'ston Calhoun has his best week of practice. Coach doesn't like to play guys until he thinks they are confident enough to play and have it be a growing experience.

Finally, even though Scott Thomas continues to have some shooting woes, Coach feels his game is maturing in other ways, especially as he learns to attack the basket. Against Canisius, he had 10 points, 8 rebounds and 4 assists with 2 steals, which is a pretty decent line. When his shots start to fall, I still believe he is poised to be a really good player.