Despite the Win, Miami Still Can’t Figure Out the Free-Throw Line

Trinton Breeze

Thursday at 12:44 AM 2 min read

Miami beat Stanford 79–70 on Wednesday night. The win counts. That’s the good news. The bad news? The free-throw line is still a problem.

Miami did what they needed to do to get the W. Malik Reneau was a monster inside, finishing with 20 points, and Tre Donaldson got off to a hot start. The Canes looked like they were in control at times. That’s how you win games. But Miami made it harder than it needed to be. Missed free throws kept Stanford in the game. The Cardinals even took the lead at the end of the first half. In the second half, Miami couldn’t get the lead back until about the 10-minute mark.

Luckily the Cardinals didn't capitalize on Miami's missed free throws.

The Hurricanes were 19 of 31 (under 61%). That’s not good enough if you want to beat teams that don’t fold. We’ve seen this before—Florida, BYU—games that could have been wins turned into nail-biters because Miami can’t hit the stripe. Stanford didn’t fully make them pay, but a better team would have.

Still, Miami is winning games. That matters. The defense held up, Reneau and Donaldson came through, and the Hurricanes found a way to close it out. But until the free throws get fixed, nothing is ever easy. Every game is going to have a little tension.

Free points. One thing. Make them. This isn't just a one-game issue. Miami has had a tough time with free throws almost all season.

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Comments (27)

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Pentagon Cane

Thursday at 2:07 PM

AtlAtty said:
It helped that Washington, Reneau and Donaldson took the late game FT’s.

Yes and Allen made the last 2.

Tinman64

Thursday at 2:32 PM

What should we expect if we make the dance ?

AtlAtty

Thursday at 2:50 PM

Tinman64 said:
What should we expect if we make the dance ?

It really depends on the matchups at that point. But winning 1-2 games in the tourney is reasonable.

The ACC tourney should give us an idea of how Lucas is as a tourney coach, which is different from regular season coaching because the turn around time is so short that it’s harder to make major adjustments.

ShadowSpring

Thursday at 2:54 PM

Da Jumbo Mutombo said:
What do you mean by exposed?

This is a deeply flawed team, and what Jai has done and 17 wins so far is nothing short of a miracle.

People need to realize this team has greatly overachieved their expectations, but its not a team built for a championship (this year).

But I am so impressed by Jai this year, im just enjoying the ride. But if they lose, I They probably just lost to a team better than them, I dont call that being exposed, personally.

I cant wait to see Jai work the portal next year.

I for sure don't think they are a Championship team, but yeah they play hard. Just get into the dance would be a great accomplishment

Tinman64

Thursday at 3:07 PM

AtlAtty said:
It really depends on the matchups at that point. But winning 1-2 games in the tourney is reasonable.

The ACC tourney should give us an idea of how Lucas is as a tourney coach, which is different from regular season coaching because the turn around time is so short that it’s harder to make major adjustments.

Ty bro

Thursday at 3:36 PM

10 more ACC regular season games. Need to go above .500 to feel good. Feasible

JackMcClinton89

Thursday at 5:05 PM

This team has a ton of flaws (mostly revolving around lack of shooting and lack of depth), but still can put together stretches of good and fun basketball. Still probably an uphill battle for the NCAAT after the FSU faceplant, but the fact we are still in the running is a credit to the job Jai has done. Our starting 5 is definitely NCAAT caliber, and honestly probably close to second weekend caliber, but our bench would largely struggle to get minutes on even last year's trainwreck of a roster.

Fightinibis

Friday at 12:32 PM

Yeah I get that…that word gives some sort of connotation that this team was expected to be a top 10 team or something. From a reality perspective, this group has probably over achieved by any measure and it has to be expected there will lapses at times as they continue to get acclimated.