Free Throws, Free Throws, Free Throws

It’s 15 feet from the basket . . . on basketball courts all over the planet. We shoot them from the time you begin playing basketball as a kid (although it might be from the bottom of the circle for the little ones!). In the end, you have to make your free throws in big games. Missouri State ended the game last night against Southern Illinois 15 of 25 from the line. The final score was 51-47 SIU.You can’t miss free throws and expect to win in the MVC or any other conference for that matter! The difference it seems in the game last night from my seat way up in the blue seats–poise. Southern Illinois looked and acted like they had been there before at the two minute mark . . . sadly, the Bears didn’t. Missed free throws, poor execution by the Bears. . . made free throws, poise in execution by the Salukis equals a win for SIU.

Sure the officiating was AWFUL (and seems to be worse every year), but it was awful for both teams. It depends how you are going to react to the horrible calls. Making or missing free throws doesn’t depend on the officials! They called their share of fouls on Southern Illinois, we just didn’t make our free throws!!

I really hope we can learn from this loss. We are probably going to have to win out the rest of the season and go deep or win the Valley Tournament to get to the NCAA Tournament. Missed free throws=Missed opportunities.

The pictures in the News-Leader say it all.