The Badgers have been much better at getting to the line this season, and a big part of that has been the play of Nigel Hayes. He reminds me a lot of Jared Sullinger when he was a freshman with the way he gets into defenders and gets his shot into their arms to force the officials call. Sullinger obviously was a bigger part of the offense as a freshman than Hayes, and he finished his freshman season with 267 FTA and 410 FGA.
According to this site Nigel is currently 48th in the nation, and 3rd in the Big Ten in free throw rate (free throw attempts/field goal attempts). The two Big Ten players ahead of him are lower usage players, Iowa's Anthony Clemmons and PSU's Geno Thorpe. Neither has more than 36FGA. Nigel is at 91 FGA, and 85 FTA. I couldn't find a way to compare Nigel to other players with similar usage, but perhaps when I have more time I'll investigate. I would guess he is near the top in the country for free throw rate for similar usage.
I like the comparison to Sullinger.
ReplyDeleteKenpom requires 60% of minutes played to qualify for FTR, but if Nigel qualified he'd be about 10th nationally.
Today will be a test because OSU doesn't foul much -- 9th nationally in defensive FTR. (badgers are first, of course). So we'll probably get a low free throw, low possession game that know-nothing's will label "boring" and "unwatchable".
Last the the Badgers shot 18 FTs in 3 games against OSU, and didn't get to the line once in their game at Collumbus.