It is not surprising that Valpo and GB are 1 and 2 in Horizon League FG% and rebounding margin, with GB 1 and Valpo 2 in scoring defense. What is surprising is that Valpo is 8th and GB 9th in FT%. What up with that!?!?!?
Valpo can move up a few slots before the season is over, 2% points separates them with the 4th place team Oakland. Green Bay though is significantly worse than everyone in the HL, they are over 5% points worse than us. If they don't fix their FT shooting they won't win the HL tourney, if they make their FTs in the game against us it doesn't come down to missing a game winning 2 attempt at the buzzer.
Side note the top two teams in terms of FT are two of the worst teams in the league: UIC and UWM.
FINALLY! Someone has proved that fundamentals are irrelevant. I've been arguing with my coaches since biddy ball.
My guess on the FT% is not focusing in individual drills/shooting effectively on proper free throw shooting. They may just see shooting 10 free throws as "getting them out of the way", instead of the Steve Alford style of making sure you focus on the mechanics and technique of every free throw attempt, even in individual shooting. The only difference I've found in our free throws is in Vashil's losing the "shakes" he used to do. Not doing that has greatly improved his ability to shoot free throws, and his confidence in wanting to get to the free throw line.
I forget what conference I saw this done with but I was interested in seeing how the HL did. This is based on KenPom's Adjusted Offense and Defensive stats. It's fairly self explanatory. The higher the team is the better at Defense they are the further to the right they are the better at offense they are. I used adjusted as opposed to raw since they shift based on your schedule.
This one is for all games played.
(https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7397/16266848277_179f8fec09_o.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/qMrRgk)
This one is in conference games only.
(https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7367/16265365320_593dca401c_o.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/qMjfr7)
I think it clearly shows there's a top tier of teams and then there's a team who is relying on outscoring their opponents and then a tier of also rans.