Kentucky must improve on late-game free throw shooting

On3 imageby:Zack Geoghegan12/04/22

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Over the final 40 seconds of a tight game, Kentucky’s starting backcourt of Sahvir Wheeler and Cason Wallace missed all four of their free throw attempts. While the Wildcats still managed to come away with a 73-69 victory over Michigan on Sunday afternoon in London, England, the late-game execution was eerily reminiscent of Kentucky’s loss earlier in the season to Michigan State. UK shot 16-24 from the charity stripe in that double-overtime loss and would have likely won the game outright had some freebies droped in down the stretch.

“We worked on execution, we were better today. We worked on ending games, we were better today except we missed free throws again, which is what we did to Michigan State,” Kentucky head coach John Calipari said following the win over Michigan. “We can say it was this, it was that, we should have done this. We make free throws, none of that stuff matters.”

Kentucky finished with a 10-20 mark for an even 50 percent from the free throw line against the Wolverines — the team’s worst percentage of the season so far. The poor shooting didn’t prevent the ‘Cats from beating Michigan, but it will surely haunt them again moving forward if not corrected.

Kentucky ranks 238th in the nation in terms of free throw percentage, per KenPom, converting on just 68.4 percent of those attempts. The national average is currently 70.4 percent.

“We got lucky here,” Calipari added.

Kentucky has quality shooters on the roster, so the numbers should rise over time. Oscar Tshiebwe is shooting a career-high (81.3 percent) from the line while CJ Fredrick and Chris Livingston are a combined 24-27 (88.9 percent) from the stripe this season. The issue is those guys aren’t the ones regularly taking these free attempts.

Jacob Toppin, Sahvir Wheeler, and Cason Wallace — who lead the team in minutes per game — are taking the bulk of the free throws, shooting a combined 39-64 (60.9 percent) this season. That trio has attempted over 40 percent of the team’s free throws so far, which truly isn’t a bad distribution rate considering how often they have the ball in their hands.

Kentucky is going to need those three, specifically Wheeler and Wallace, playing in games during crunch time. Wheeler shot 78.0 percent from the line a season ago but is down to just 61.9 so far this year. His missed free throw with 39 seconds left against Michigan was followed up by another miss with 12 seconds to go. Both gave the Wolverines chances to trim into Kentucky’s late-game lead.

“Now, what I told them after the game. I’ve got to have — in the game, at the end — guys who can make free throws. If you can’t make free throws you can’t be in at the end of the game,” Calipari said. “What that means — it’s not your percentage. Can you make shots with two minutes to go?

“We need Sahvir in the game. I have more comfort in him shooting free throws than he has in himself. I’m like ‘I want you at the line!’ Matter of fact I told him get fouled again and get up there and make one. He missed it again. Cason did the same thing against Michigan State. We make those we win that game. The worst one was we miss a free throw and because our heads our down, we give them a three and gave them a chance to beat us.”

Kentucky was able to survive a poor game from the stripe this time around, but it’s an area that has no excuse but to improve as the schedule rolls along.

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2024-03-28