Duke needs to rectify 3-point and free throw shooting before it’s too late

The Duke Basketball team is the top team in the country, but the Blue Devils must become better 3-point and free throw shooters before it comes back to haunt them.

When you are the No. 1 team in the nation, you must be a pretty good basketball team, and that’s that the Duke Blue Devils are, a pretty good basketball team.

Duke has the potential to be one of the best defensive teams in the country and the firepower to pound the ball inside and create many problems for opponents.

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However, the Blue Devils must become better shooters from the 3-point line and the free throw line to avoid a potential disaster.

For the past few years, Duke hasn’t been a 3-point shooting team and it hasn’t affected the Blue Devils, making back-to-back Elite Eights, with chances to advance to the Final Four.

As a team, Duke is shooting 30.4% from the 3-point line and although not bad, the team collectible hasn’t had a great game from beyond the arc.

Several players have experienced success shooting the 3-point ball this season, including Tre Jones, Alex O’Connell, Vernon Carey Jr.,and Matthew Hurt, but that success on a particular night hasn’t resulted in team success.

It’s a bit early to panic about the team’s poor 3-point shooting but it is definitely something to monitor as the season progresses.

Switching the to the free throw issues without rehashing the events from last season, the charity stripe was an issue for Duke all season and it ended up costing the Blue Devils a chance at the Final Four and potentially a National Championship.

This season the Blue Devils have only played four games but there is a trend starting at the free throw line and it’s not good.

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The charity stripe has not cost Duke a game yet or put the Blue Devils in danger of dropping a game, but only shooting 64.3% from the free throw line should have the alarms sounding in Durham.

In a two-point win against Kansas, Duke was just 14-of-23 (60.9%) from the free throw line while that was followed by a 11-of-18 (61.1%) performance against Colorado State in Cameron Indoor Stadium.

Duke significantly improved in its win over Central Arkansas, shooting 12-of-14 (85.7%) from the line but that did’t last long as free throws were a reason why the Blue Devils couldn’t put Georgia State away, only shooting 17-of-29 (58.6%).

Joey Baker and Matthew Hurt are the only players yet to miss a free throw this season, of those who have taken at least on, but Baker is only 3-for-3 on the year while Hurt is just 2-for-2.

The three players who had the ball in their hands the most this season, Tre Jones, Vernon Carey Jr., and Cassius Stanley, are a combined 33-of-53, which is just 62.2%, right on par with the team’s percentage this season.

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There is one problem with trying to rectifying the poor free-throw shooting and that is there no scheme or set that Mike Krzyzewski can run to fix the issues. It’s not like the 3-point shooting issues where Coach K can run a play to get a shooter open, free throw shooting is completely on the players to stay in the gym after practice and take extra free throws and carry that over to the game.

Duke will head back to a gym where it had trouble shooting free throws and that is Madison Square Garden as the Blue Devils will face the California Golden Bears on Thursday, November 21 at approximately 9:30pm EST in the first round of the 2K Empire Classic benefitting the Wounded Warriors Project.