When it comes time, to tickle the twine, from the line, the are 12 players returning
to the MVC who shoot 80% or better (who took over 2 total FTs for the season) from the line.

Interestingly enough, 8 of the 12 are from the 3 MVC teams who won post-season
Tournaments last year: 3 from CIB Champ, LOYOLA, 3 from CIT Champ, Evansville, and
2 from MVC Champ Northern Iowa.

They are:

LU .883 30-34.….KNUTH
IO .864 19-22…..Jesperson (Jesman with a feminist parent?)
DR .861 83-108..Timmer
MO .860 37-42….Ruder
IO .852 23-27.….Lohaus
LU .833 25-30.….TURK
EV .828 48-58…...Simmons
EV .824 117-142..Mockevicius
LU .818 18-22…..RICHARDSON
SI .813 109-134..Beane
DR .813 26-32…..Kuenstling
EV .810 51-63…..Wing

Knuth came up big in the game last year that woke people up to LU in the Las
Vegas Tournament, with the big win over 9-1 Texas Tech of the Big 12, when he
hit 13-14 FTs. Texas Tech's season hit the skids after that.

Looking a little further after the 12 returning MVC players who shot over 80% from
the line, LU also has 2 of the next 4 best free throw shooters:

W .796 133-167..VanVleet
IN .786 88-112....K. Smith
LU .785 84-107...PETERSON
LU .781 25-32....WHITE

That means LU has 5 of the MVC’s top 16 free throw shooters for crunch time, who
will make life difficult for teams who want to foul LU at the end of the game. It was
no fluke that LU won the close games last year.

Knuth, Turk, Richardson, Peterson, and White, are a salve to sooth a coach's nerves.

It's great to hit your freebies, but getting to the line in the first place is also really important. The Ramblers had the second-fewest trips to the line per game. Add to that the fact that Loyola had the second worst free throw percentage as a team while Drake had the highest percentage, and Loyola was last in the conference in points made from the free throw line per game. Drake had 11.93 points per game from made free throws, and Loyola had only 11.3 (Evansville led with 16.69). Hopefully, we can get the better free throw shooters (White, Knuth, Richardson) to the line much more, and keep the not-so-good shooters off the stripe.

Team Games FTA FTA/Game
Evansville 36 803 22.30555556
ISUb 31 674 21.74193548
WSU 35 715 20.42857143
SIU 33 667 20.21212121
BU 33 641 19.42424242
ISUr 35 674 19.25714286
NIU 35 644 18.4
MSU 31 525 16.93548387
LU 37 608 16.43243243
Drake 31 482 15.5483871

Added to the 5 LU returning players who rank in the MVC’s top 16 FT shooters is another player who came on strong from the line at the end of the season.

That is MILTON DOYLE. Doyle’s FT shooting was off to start the season, with his experimental shoulder sleeve on his shooting arm, needing special permission from the NCAA to play this season. He then was out with leg problems first for 1 game and then for 11 more toward the end of the season.

But in the post season tournaments he got back into the lineup full time for the last 6 games. Up to that time he had shot .605 from the line. But for those last 6 games, ending with the CIB Championship, Doyle hit .808 from the line.

Of LU’s regular 11 players last year, the only bad FT shooter, 6’4” or under, graduated, Joe Crisman. The 5 others who return (Turk, Richardson, Doyle, Peterson, & White) are all great from the line.

Of LU’S regular players 6’5” and over, Knuth (best returning FT shooter in the MVC) was the only solid LU FT shooting big man last year.

That may be why, along with ball handling, and pressure defense, that LU’s coach went with small lineups at the end of the close games this year, which we won 9 out of 10.

The only close loss was the 3 point loss to the Illinois State Hackers in the game “Elbows” McIntosh knocked out Christian Thomas with a concussion for 2 games with an elbow to the head away from the ball (no foul called). Montel James who scored 22 (10-15 FGs) was 2 for 11 from the line, with ISU’s 4 centers, who rotated for 39 minutes, committing 10 fouls.

The listing of FT shooters above speaks of RETURNING PLAYERS. LU graduated 2 of our 3 worst free throw shooters this year (Crisman .563 and Thomas .636).

Don’t forget that LU led the MVC in free throw defense, holding our opponents to .677 from the line, best in the league. Obviously shaking up our opponents with our speed & team defense & our fouling the right players.

In comparing our “free throws made differential” (the number of free throws we made vs. our opponent’s free throws), LU finished 4th in the MVC. It is interesting that the top 4 teams in "FT made differentials" were the ones who were the late season winners (MVC conference, MVC tournament, CIB, & CIT).

EV...+170
NIO.+139
WS..+62
LU….+43
DR...+31
INS..+18
SIU..+15
ILS…..-8
MO...-34
BRD..-56