Quote:
Originally posted by rainmaker
Under last year's rule, 82% of missed free throws were gathered by the defense. It will be interesting to see if the new alignment will increase the percentage for the defense
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Juulie & Howard,
With all due respect, there is no way that the 82% figure is correct. Perhaps it is so in boys' basketball, but in girls' varsity & JV basketball it is not. The first year after the change to crossing into the lane on the rim instead of the release, the varsity team I coached with rebounded 71% of our own free throw misses (29% defense), and rebounded just 38% of our opponents' misses.
Although this change will allow the defense to get a higher percentage of misses than in the past, it will not make the correct things enough to make up for that the old rule change from rim to release.
The NFHS should've followed the NCAA women's rule. The problem is that without being allowed to move until the ball hits the rim, those two spaces nearest the endline are at a disadvantage. Very rarely do free throw misses kick away at a 90-degree angle, and that is the only rebound those front-space players can get to.
Perhaps with the leaping ability in the boys' game, this is not such a disparity. But my experiences watching some boys' games this year is that they "anticipate" the ball contacting the rim and the officials are loathe to call a violation when the player entering is not far in advance of the ball contacting the rim.