Still struggling closing out games.

[freshler40]

Making foul shots trying to close out a close game can be a mystery. At this level, with so many such games behind these players, the answer seems to be in the heads of such players and rhythm of the game. Opposing coaches, when down, often try to freeze the player by calling time out. Top golfers employ a shrink, have we tried that? How can you relax and just shoot foul shots like in practice??? What is the current state of the art in this area?
The best answer might be to not let the game get so close it matters but the other team has a lot to do with you getting enough advantage.

 

[NJHusky]

So what does that mean?? If there was MORE pressure he would have made the shots?? that doesn't seem plausible. When you're 90% you are supposed to make those shots no matter what the situation.

Actually only 9/10 times

 

[Huskydog45]

Cole is shooting 90% from the line for the year and has hit many clutch free throws this year.....they were up 10 when he missed the first one and up 8 on the second.....you really think he had pressure on him being up 10 with less than a minute remaining? the guy played a ton of minutes, ran the team and guarded their most dynamic player......the kid was exhausted at the end and that can effect your technique from the line for sure. Think the comments are way off base...preparing for these moments and repeating mistakes...has to be a way to prepare them???? Those comments are laughable for hitting free throws at the end....

 

[UConnSwag11]

Need Jackson and Sanogo to dunk the ball a lot more. No reason why they don’t

 

[UConnSwag11]

Kind of glossed over in the SHU game. We missed three front ends of one-and-ones (that's all of them) in the final couple of minutes. Cole, our best foul shooter, missed two of them. And Cole also fouled a three point shooter in the last minute or so. In a closer game, that's losing basketball.

Even worse, Cole, who Hurley constantly says is the player responsible for leading the team, was committing the errors. We are long past the time to clean up these lapses. Some may believe that these ever repeating mistakes at the end of games are random. More likely they come from either a lack of focus or are the result of pressure.

There has to be some way to prepare the team for these moments. But whatever we have been doing is not paying dividends.

Let’s see going forward if we’ve learned to close games. Today and Tuesday will be telling. I’m not gonna rip on Cole so much as he’s arguably the most important player, but that wasn’t good of him. Hopefully it doesn’t happen again