[Oskee] Illini hand over game

[Robert Mingee]

> The Illini shoot Ft's like crap in making less than half of them 
> including crucial ones in the second half.

This is becoming a trend under Bruce, and it is REALLY pissing me off.  Missing FTs has long been one of my biggest pet peeves, because there is simply no excuse for it.  There is NO WAY kids ought to be missing this many FTs at this level of competition, and it's not even the freshman -- it is upperclassmen with a lot of minutes under their belt who can't use the pressure excuse.  It's all on the coaching staff, and is a strong indicator of a lack of discipline.  I still believe Bruce is one of the best X&O guys in the business, and is great at shaping team chemistry, but it is unfathomable to me that he cannot fix this basic problem.  It does indeed look like we have a point guard issue, as others have pointed out, but fixing that will not matter if the FT problem is not fixed.  If you cannot shoot FTs consistently, you lose close games, period.  And we're not good enough to blow out good teams such that it doesn't become an issue.  My expectations for
 this season have gone way down at this point -- I'll be happy with whatever we can manage to accomplish, and will only be truly disappointed if we fail even to make the NIT.  That would be a big waste of a lot of athleticism (which sadly is not quite the same as true talent...)

-- robert
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