Oh those fouls shots...
Among the NCAA rules that have been polished over the years:
- Between 1939 and 1952, teams could decline shooting the free throws and instead elect to inbound the ball at half court.
- In 1990, the NCAA started allowing three free throws to be awarded if a player is fouled during a 3-point shot.
- The one-and-one free throw is introduced in 1954, which in certain situations allowed for a second free throw to be shot only if the first one is converted.
At first, the free throw was controversial. Why, some wondered, should a game potentially be won or lost on a shot that doesn't allow for any defense to be played?
By
John Branch
March 3, 2009
https://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/04/sports/basketball/04freethrow.html
For Free Throws, 50 Years of Practice Is No Help
One thing has remained remarkably constant: the rate at which players make free throws.
Since the mid-1960s, college men’s players have made about 69 percent of free throws, the unguarded 15-foot, 1-point shot awarded after a foul. In 1965, the rate was 69 percent. As teams scramble for bids to the N.C.A.A. tournament, it was 68.8. It has dropped as low as 67.1 but never topped 70.
In the National Basketball Association, the average has been roughly 75 percent for more than 50 years. Players in college women’s basketball and the W.N.B.A. reached similar plateaus — about equal to the men — and stuck there.
The general expectation in sports is that performance improves over time. Future athletes will surely be faster, throw farther, jump higher. But free-throw shooting represents a stubbornly peculiar athletic endeavor. As a group, players have not gotten better. Nor have they become worse.