Ball Durham
Fansided

Duke Basketball: Free throw shooting will come back to haunt Blue Devils

By Kevin Connelly

COLUMBIA, SOUTH CAROLINA - MARCH 22: Zion Williamson #1 of the Duke Blue Devils attempts a free throw against the North Dakota State Bison in the second half during the first round of the 2019 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament at Colonial Life Arena on March 22, 2019 in Columbia, South Carolina. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)
COLUMBIA, SOUTH CAROLINA - MARCH 22: Zion Williamson #1 of the Duke Blue Devils attempts a free throw against the North Dakota State Bison in the second half during the first round of the 2019 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament at Colonial Life Arena on March 22, 2019 in Columbia, South Carolina. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images) /
facebooktwitterreddit

Free throws have been an issue all season for the Duke Basketball team, but now in a single elimination situation, the charity stripe could come back to haunt the Blue Devils.

Throughout the season Duke hasn’t endured many issues on offense, but the biggest problem for the Blue Devils has been at the free throw line.

As a team, Duke is shooting 69.0% from the charity stripe, but it has been the missed free throws late in games that should cause great concern for the Blue Devils.

More from Ball Durham

While Duke has struggled at the line since the first game of the season, the issue didn’t truly become an issue until the win over Florida State in Tallahassee.

Despite winning on a Cam Reddish buzzer beater, the game could have been tied and going to Florida State if R.J. Barrett converted on the second of his two free throws.

Barrett missed the attempt, but after the ball went out of bounds off Florida State, Duke was awarded the ball back and Reddish took over from there.

The same thing happened in the following game against Syracuse when Duke was trailing by one with under 20 seconds to go and Zion Williamson heading to the line.

Williamson made the first, but missed the second and after a missed Syracuse jumper at the buzzer, Duke went onto lose in overtime by four points.

More recently, the issues at the free throw line reared its ugly head in the ACC semifinals against North Carolina.

Winning by one point with 13 seconds to go, R.J. Barrett missed two free throws and all Carolina needed was a basket to win the game. Luckily for Duke, Coby White missed a fadeaway jumper and Duke won the game.

And most recently, the win over UCF where Zion Williamson could have tied the game after an ‘and-one’ with a made free throw, but after missing he was bailed out by Barrett with an offensive rebound and layup to win the game.

Jack White is Duke’s best free throw shooter at 85.2% (23-for-27) on the season, but White is not normally on the floor in late game situations, especially on offense, and now trying to recover from a hamstring injury, he is still questionable for this weekend.

Cam Reddish and Tre Jones are next at 76.8% and 76.7%, respectively, which still isn’t a great percentage, but it’s what Duke has to work with.

After Reddish and Jones, the next best free throw shooters are Alex O’Connell and Marques Bolden.

O’Connell is a 76.0% free throw shooter, while Bolden has improved greatly at 71.8%.

The concerning part in listing Duke’s best free throw shooters?

I have named six players, and none of them were Duke’s best players, Zion Williamson or R.J. Barrett.

Barrett is a 66.2% free throw shooter while Williamson is just a 65.0% shooter from the charity stripe.

Duke will continue to get the ball to Barrett and Williamson, but if the two are not able to consistently hit their free throws, Duke might not be in the NCAA Tournament for much longer.

Home/Duke Basketball