Isaiah Evans may have figured out the root of Duke's unacceptable FT struggles

The Duke men's basketball team played incredibly well against the California Golden Bears on Wednesday night. In fact, the Blue Devils outperformed their opponent in nearly every stat column... other than at the free-throw line.

Once again, Duke struggled to make the easiest shots in basketball, free throws, shooting an abysmal 47 percent from the charity stripe, a mark that is entirely unacceptable for a top-tier team.

After the Blue Devils' win over Cal, junior guard Isaiah Evans was asked about the team's inconsistency at the line, and he pointed out a factor that not many people had thought about.

Could Duke's free throw shooting be affected by the ball?

Now, there aren't a lot of excuses for shooting poorly from the free-throw line, much less shooting under 50 percent.

However, Evans pointed out that in the game against Cal, the team had to use Wilson Evolution balls instead of the balls that Duke has grown used to in Cameron Indoor, which are Nike.

"We have been working on that," Evans said. "I'm not the type to make excuses, but that ball, that Evolution ball, is not my favorite."

Against Cal, Evans shot just 33 percent from the line, while the other Duke starters missed a combined six free-throw attempts.

Also read: Duke Blue Devils excel at Jon Scheyer's biggest 'point of emphasis' vs Cal Golden Bears

Now, the Blue Devils were able to shoot 45 percent from the field, which isn't the worst percentage ever, but they were also only able to make 22 percent of their three-point attempts, which is pretty far from ideal.

In comparison, when Duke visited the Florida State Seminoles (where they used Nike basketballs), the Blue Devils shot 92 percent from the stripe, 53 percent from the field, and 44 percent from beyond the arc.

You can't blame everything on the basketball in your hand, but Evans honestly might be onto something when it comes to how head coach Jon Scheyer can work toward correcting this flaw.