re: -It’s finally over- He’s Gone

We've actually improved significantly in free throw shooting. Even Donte is pretty good.

Yeah but Kansas and Duke can run an inbound play too.

Free throw shooting was bad, energy level is bad, focus is bad because Avery is their buddy. He’s not a hard arse that makes you better that you love and respect as s leader. Avery is just one of the guys that happens to hold the title of coach. He’s more likely to go have a beer with them than run conditioning drills.

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phil4bama

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I get wanting Avery out since he's not really been getting the job done. I'd love to see Alabama hire a better coach and be a Sweet Sixteen regular. I've been a huge fan since I was a kid in the 80s.

I also don't completely disagree with you about the ups and downs this team has being "focus" related.


However, all these posts that just seem to make up something to add to the pile like FT shooting bother me almost as much as our Jeckyll and Hyde team.


There's enough to criticize without making stuff up. In the big picture it just makes the case weaker to pile things on that are nowhere near objective.

For example, if Herb Jones shooting 50% FTs is poor coaching, you'd have to say Donta Hall now shooting 75% is coaching masterclass.

What they are making up is that poor FT shooting = poor coaching and completely, perhaps intentionally, ignoring that every single Alabama player improves their FT % pretty much every single season in the program.




A Duke or Michigan State's FT percentage fluctuates back and forth over Coach K and Izzos careers due to whether specific players in given years are good FT shooters or not. It's not that they are "coaching" sporadically.


Alabama has -- just to think of a couple of players off the top of my head -- some of these specific issues with FT shooting:

Petty -- shoots FTs with too much of his hand on ball. (Also main reason his 3pt shot is so streaky). Until he changes that he's not going to be much better than a high 70s FT shooter regardless of concentration.

Kira -- has good form and is a good FT shooter but when he's tired doesn't always bend his knees and keep consistent form. This will likely just correct itself with better game conditioning in his sophomore season and you'll not see him miss so many late in games.

Herb Jones-- has a whole host of issues but mainly has no consistent wrist motion on his follow through. It's a bit different on every shot. Will never be much better than 60% until he corrects a lot of mechanical issues.

Hall -- he's not really a good FT shooter but has made drastic progress from when he arrived with that baseball curveball release motion. That he can now shoot 75% still with so many issues is basically due to concentration and repetition of 4 years of practice.


This is just quickly off the top of my head but they're not really "concentration" or "focus" issues. That's why some of these players actually shoot better until the end of games when they are "concentrating" more.

Again, there's something a coach can do but all the coaching in the world doesn't compensate much for mechanics issues that makes a FT form hard to replicate on every single shot.

At best, the "coaching" and "practice" makes small differences and is a slow go.



Our upperclassmen's career FT shooting:


Ingram: 59% as a Freshman, then 66%, 69% and now 70%

Donta Hall: 42%, 60%, 56%, 74%

Riley: 60%, 65%, 73%, 75%


Basically the only way Avery Johnson or any coach is going to do much better than that is recruit players that come in shooting 75 or 80% to begin with.

He still needs firing even if he does own Frank and USC

NOLA needs to hire Avery

Mike Young- Wofford will be one of the hot mid major names this season. He’s been there over a decade, has a decent record alternating between pretty good and mediocre. He’s having a good year in a down year for the bracket and he’s got them ranked in the poll. He will probably get some looks from a bigger school.

Not impressed, do not want, just saying he’s a “nom du jour”.

Sick of this same old song and dance. Get out Avery.

Why on earth would anyone want to see this team make the tournament just to get embarrassed in the first round?