Free Throw Conspiracy #2: Hewitt the Puppetmaster

Has Paul Hewitt developed an incredible ability to control his player's fouling tendencies with his mind? Has Paul Hewitt coached his players to react perfectly on whether or not to foul a player shooting or handling based on the opposing player's free throw shooting ability? Are his coaching abilities and/or superpowers limited to the confines of Alexander Memorial Coliseum? Let's look at the numbers to try and solve this mystery presented by loyal FTRS reader White & Goldrick.

First off, if Hewitt is using telepathy to control five players simultaneously for the sole purpose of fouling bad free throw shooters...it's possible that he's very good at using his power. Thirty five different opposing ACC players have shot free throws at AMC this season. They are shooting an abysmal 55.5% at Tech. On the ACC season, those same players are shooting 68.5%. However, we are not distributing fouls resulting in free throws over the players evenly. Forwards and centers are taking the brunt of Tech's hacks. Hewitt's hive mind loves hacking big men who are not faring quite as well (66.6%) as the little guards (71.6%) on the season.

Hewitt's genius is putting added pressure on the big men as they're hacked about two times per game during shooting attempts or during bonus situations. The knowledge that they're going to be beaten up by Hewitt's 5 surrogates has subtracted about fifteen percent of their accuracy on free throws. Guards haven't been able to rescue the big men either. Opposing guards are shooting 57.8% on free throws within the confines of the Thriller Boob. No one is safe from the supposed Hewittinesis.

Winfield suggested yesterday that perhaps Hewitt is coaching his players up to know who is the weakest link on the opposing squads so they know who to send to the foul line and who not to. However, the key flaw in this argument is that good free throw shooters are good shooters. You've got to defend them tight no matter what and that will generate fouls in the open court and during shooting attempts. If we only played the poor free throw shooters physically, then our opponents' star shooters and point guards would rack up 40 points/game on us.

Ultimately, this is where the Puppetmaster Conspiracy has its biggest flaw. Seniors seem to be unaffected by the combined powers of Tech Hoops, Atlanta, and the Yellow Jacket faithful. Eight opposing seniors have shot free throws in AMC. They were the most accurate and the most hacked of all the free throw shooters (Hewitt's genius backfired on us). Here's a table to show what I'm talking about:


The table is broken down by age, number of guys that shot free throws, their shooting percentages in Atlanta, their normal ACC shooting percentage, the difference between the two shooting percentages, the number of shooting fouls received (FTO), and the number of shooting fouls per player per game. For example, we're fouling seniors two and a half times per game either during shooting attempts or when their team is in the bonus. The Hive Mind needs to lock it up, in my opinion.

Any thoughts out there? What's the Good Word?