Stat Chat: They're Called Free for a Reason

The Champions Classic brought a lot of wonderful things to the forefront. We saw that teams like Kentucky have a lot of potential that needs time to fully be realized. We saw that Michigan State and Kansas, despite being bigger teams, can run up and down the floor with any team in the NCAA. And let's not forget the slew of impact freshmen that may come to define this college basketball season.

However, in Duke's first real test of the season, one problem in particular stuck out like a sore thumb: free throw shooting. The Blue Devils shot better from behind the arc (6-for12) than they did from the charity stripe (6-for-13) in the first half against the Jayhawks, on their way to a 16-for-28 performance from the line. While Duke missed 12 free throws and struggled to convert one-and-one chances, Kansas made its final seven free throws in a 63 second span to close out the game. Advantage Jayhawks.

Despite being called a "free throw," making a shot from the line isn't a guarantee; there's just nobody guarding you. Since 1969, the national free throw percentage average in Division I is 69 percent. Duke teams, however, tend to shoot above average on a yearly basis. Since head coach Mike Krzyzewski arrived in Durham, the Blue Devils have shot below the national average only five times, with the lowest season average rounding out to 67 percent. Overall, Duke has shot 71.3 percent in Coach K's tenure as head coach.

When analyzing the team's performances against top-five teams, we see that poor free throw shooting may not be an outlier. In Duke's 10 meetings with top-five teams leading into the game against Kansas, the team shot a little higher than 67 percent from the free throw line, four percentage points lower than Blue Devil team averages under Coach K. Duke went 7-and-3 in those games, losing to Ohio State in 2011 and UNC twice in 2009. In their three losses, the Blue Devils shot a little less than 63 percent from the line, while they shot 70 percent in their seven wins.

How does a team that shoots so well from the field shoot at an average level from the free throw line? If history has shown us anything, it's that great shooters don't necessarily make free throws. Some of the greatest Duke shooters have shot very differently from the free throw line. Jon Scheyer (86 percent from the line) and JJ Redick (91) were two of the best shooters in the school's recent history, shooting 40.6 and 43.3 percent from the field respectively. However, hall of famers Jay Williams (67) and Art Heyman (65) struggled mightily from the free throw line, despite shooting 45.1 and 45.3 percent from the field respectively. Thus, we find that there may be no direct correlation found between shooting well from the field and shooting well from the free throw line.

It's early in the season and free throw shooting is an easier fix than most other problems a basketball team can have, but it is, nonetheless, something that Duke needs to improve upon in order to compete with the top teams in the country.