CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (AP) — Some of the nation’s top teams face a dilemma late in close games: Keep a top player on the floor or bench him because he’s a poor free-throw shooter.
The choice is often magnified in the NCAA tournament.
North Carolina forward John Henson knows all about the quandary.
For part of the season, the lean 6-foot-10 sophomore went to the line thinking about what could go wrong. UNC’s leading rebounder and shot blocker could swish a shot then barely nick the front of the rim — if at all — on another seconds later.
“Especially in the last minute of a close game, I think a free throw is more mental than form or anything,” said Henson, who has improved significantly of late. “You just have to hit them when it matters, when there’s pressure and people are like, ‘You need to make this.’”
Now if a player clangs one, a promising season could come to a crashing end.
And there are no shortage of candidates in this year’s tournament.
Top seeds Pittsburgh and Kansas rank among the 20 worst-shooting teams at the line in the tournament, joined by No. 2s North Carolina and Florida, No. 3 Syracuse, No. 4 Texas and No. 5 Kansas State. Those teams, as well as top-seeded Duke, have at least one key player ranked among the 20 worst shooters by percentage (minimum 75 attempts) entering the tournament, according to STATS LLC.
Plenty of teams have tripped over the foul line in the tournament. Most notably, Memphis missed 4 of 5 free throws late in regulation as Kansas forced overtime on a last-second 3-pointer and won the 2008 national championship.
Bob Fisher, a former high school coach and soil conservation technician in Centralia, Kan., has at least eight Guinness World Records for free-throw shooting and works as a shooting coach. He estimates the margin of error in a shooter’s release is a half-inch or less.