Beating a dead horse: George Mason's free throw struggles

Seems as if this topic comes up after every loss, George Mason's dreadful free throw shooting. It was painful to watch this season, so much so I had to look into it a little deeper. It may come to no shock to you that historically Larranaga's teams have never been great free throw shooters. See the chart going all the way back to his first year at Mason:

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During Larranaga's tenure at George Mason, his teams have averaged 66.6% from the free throw line.

You might already think it's bad but really the impact it had on the team this season is more than you think. The Patriots were ranked 304th in the nation this season in free throw shooting percentage and 11th in the CAA. As a team they went to the free throw line more than anyone else in the CAA this season, leading the conference in attempts. And normally you'd think that would be an advantage in the number of close games they had, but sadly it was pretty much a disadvantage. Look at the team's last three losses, total combined margin: 7 points. In their last win, at Delaware, they went 53% from the line and nearly lost to the CAA's last place team because of their inability to increase they lead late in the game.

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I'm not using these stats as an excuse because there are other areas the Patriots could have done better in to close out these games, but this particular area seems to be the most recurring element. You can't blame a loss on free throw shooting but it certainly doesn't make things any easier if your only making half your attempts, especially in late February. People have been emailing me all season basically saying "do they not practice free throws or something!?!" and I can tell you the issue isn't fundamentals. It could be a confidence thing this season as most of the players on the floor don't have much experience in dealing with the pressures of 6,000+ fans watching them try to put their team up with 2.2 seconds remaining.

So after taking a more in-depth look at it, am I making too big a deal of this or was it an area that held the team back all season?