The team's free throw shooting has been pretty bad. But in keeping with Dawn's theme of this being the worst the team will look this season, one can use our recent improvements in FT shooting in support of Dawn's position:
South Carolina came into it's game with UNC shooting 60-98 (.612) in its first 5 games of the season. The Gamecocks had averaged 100.4 ppg through those games and had beaten those 5 by an average of 51.6 ppg, so perhaps concerns about poor FT shooting were not at the forefront. But we all knew that those blowout results were not going to continue through the conference and postseason play.
In the last 4 games, South Carolina has shot 56-80 (.700) at the charity stripe, so it looks as if the team is beginning to improve on those numbers. Further, of those 4 recent games, the Gamecocks shot 31-41 (.756) in the 2nd halves of those games, where the scores would be more critical relative to final results. So overall, they have improved their FT shooting as a team from .612 to now 116-178 (.652) - still not the best efficiency, but definite improvement. Hopefully it continues moving forward........
There were three (3) games versus Clemson, South Dakota State and Mississippi Valley State were the team shot especially poorly at the FT line: just 35-60 (.583), which accounts for most of the poor stats on that category. Minus those 3 games, the Gamecocks have shot 81-118 (.686) in the other 6 games. AGAIN, not eye-popping examples of efficiency, but when you consider the team's past FT shooting in previous seasons:
2022-23: .689
2021-22: .676
2020-21: .682
2019-20: .698
2018-19: .730
2018-19 was one of Coach Staley's better FT shooting teams, and it was also one of her worst teams since Kelsey Bone left the program. So again hopefully, that 3 game stretch was more of an anomaly than the rule, and the team shoots better at the line moving forward....
