Horrid Free Throw Shooting Ends UConn Huskies' Title Run

The UConn Huskies have let me down. It’s hard to pinpoint exactly how it happened. It would be too easy to blame homefield advantage for our loss; we did this to ourselves.

Maybe it was A.J. Price’s lack of finding the open man.

For a guy who averaged nearly five assists a game this season and over five during the tournament, Price only dished out one against Michigan State—on the Huskies' first possession of the game.

Maybe it was the Huskies all around dismal perimeter offense. Craig Austrie and Price, both seniors, combined for over 100 three-balls during the season. Against the Spartans, they were a combined 1-5.

The lone three-pointer was hit less than three minutes into the first half by Mr. Price. The Huskies were 2-6 on the night from behind the arc; athletic freak Stanley Robinson made his only attempt less than five minutes into the first half.

No. It wasn’t Price’s lack of assists. It wasn’t the Huskies’ not hitting three pointers that ended their title run. What was the cause of this most epic meltdown: missing 12 free throws.

There’s a reason it’s called a “free” throw. It’s supposed to be a guaranteed point. It’s supposed to be the easiest shot in the game. It’s supposed to be the most fundamental and one of the first things a young basketball player learns from his first basketball coach.

For whatever reason, the Huskies could not hit from the line against the Spartans.

Free throw shooting was the achilles’ heel for Jim Calhoun’s squad this year. The Huskies made 552 free throws this year, third in the Big East and 23rd in the nation. But they were also 14th in the country in getting to the line, and when they did, they only hit the shot 67.7 percent of the time, which made them worse than over 150 other Division I schools.

Out of the five starters against the Spartans, only Price and Austrie average better than 70 percent from the line, and that’s not even that good.

The seniors were 6-6 from the line that night, and Robinson, who averaged just 63 percent from the line, hit all four of his attempts. The rest of the team did not follow suit. The rest of the team shot 11-23, a mere 48 percent.

Calhoun’s gameplan all season has been driven by getting the other team into foul trouble early. It worked against the Spartans. The Huskies got into the bonus with nearly nine minutes left in the first half.

They were in the double bonus with over two minutes left. In the second half, the same thing happened. They got into the bonus at around the same time-mark as the first half, but they were in the double bonus for over four minutes left when they were trailing 66-58.

The Spartans were in foul trouble the entire game it seemed. Five players had at least three fouls, three of which were starters, one of which was their best player, Goran Suton, one of which was their second leading scorer of the night, Raymar Morgan, one of which fouled out with less than two minutes left in the game, Draymond Green.

Despite all of that, the Huskies could not capitalize.

At the end of the night, the Spartans had seven more team fouls than the Huskies, and 13 less attempts from the charity stripe. However, getting 13 less attempts is usually neutralized when the other team misses 12 of their attempts.