One area where each New Jersey team must improve, pronto

Rutgers is missing a ton of free throws. But what can we nitpick about 6-0 Princeton?

A nice, holistic and effective way for me to take stock of where all eight New Jersey teams stand is to build a roundup around a particular theme. I’ve done these here and there in the past, and I feel they’re going to be a good fit for the occasional Tuesday edition of Guarden State.

(Oh, for any of you who may not have heard yet: As I’ve begun writing three newsletters a week for the first time, Tuesdays are now for paid subscribers only. If you aren’t a paid subscriber, you are going to hit a paywall shortly. That’s OK! I am grateful for every free and paid subscriber I get. But if you’d like to subscribe for the reasonable price of $30 a year, you’ll get access to more stories each week. Tuesdays will be a mix of analysis, columns and likely some bracketology as we get closer to tournament time.)

With the 2023-24 season nearly a month old, let’s zoom in on one thing each Jersey team could stand to improve with conference games right around the corner. (Statistical rankings via KenPom.com and ESPN.com.)

Rutgers: Free-throw shooting

Could this entry have said “Shooting in general”? Sure. We know that’s been a constant work in progress for Rutgers teams. But the easiest shots to make are the ones nobody can defend.

Rutgers ranks a nice, round 300th in free-throw percentage at 65.4% as of this morning. The Scarlet Knights missed 14 foul shots against Boston, 10 against Bryant, 10 against Georgetown, 10 against Howard and nine in last night’s 71-40 rout of Saint Peter’s.

The culprits? While Clifford Omoruyi has missed eight, sophomore big Antwone Woolfolk is 6-for-18 and freshman guard Jamichael Davis is 7-for-18. Woolfolk’s season has gotten off to a really promising start – he even made his first career 3-pointer on Monday. But if that higher usage leads to a hack-a-Shaq strategy by opponents, you have to hope he hones his foul shot, too.

Seton Hall: First halves

Many items on this list will be based in metrics, but for the Pirates, you just want to see them have tighter fundamentals at the starts of games. Make more shots, get more stops, don’t dig yourself in a hole.

In their two games in San Diego against USC and Iowa, they fell behind by double digits during the first half before making a second-half charge each time, at least showing they can hang with these teams for stretches. Seton Hall only lost six turnovers against Iowa but allowed the Hawkeyes to have whatever they liked on offense, yielding 44 first-half points.