During a television timeout in the second half of Wednesday’s Terp men’s basketball loss to Wisconsin, Testudo, one of two mascots to attend the Maui Invitational, stepped to the free throw line at the Lahaina Civic Center.
While the teams huddled, the mascot mimicked taking a free throw and then celebrated as if his feigned shot had gone in. The student playing everyone’s favorite turtle probably didn’t mean his action to comment on his team’s struggles, but it was relevant enough.
Among the myriad of areas the Terps are coming up short in right now, free throw shooting seemed to be one of the least explainable.
In a pair of losses at the Maui Invitational last week, the Terps shot a disappointing 56 percent (27-for-48) from the charity stripe.
After his team scuffled at the line against Cincinnati, coach Gary Williams struggled to explain the Terps’ problem.
In his opening remarks after losing the next day to Wisconsin, Williams brought up the contrast between the Badgers’ hot three-point shooting and his team’s continued free throw deficiencies.
“That combination of things in a game like that isn’t good,” Williams said.
The Terps returned seven of their top eight scorers from a team that placed first in the ACC in free throw shooting at nearly 76 percent. For a team that carved out its success last season by overachieving, the Terps relied on their steady marksmanship from the line to pull out some close wins. Now, the Terps are shooting 65 percent from the line for the season.
But, there is a readily apparent answer. Those numbers are particularly being pulled down by the freshman big men. Forward Jordan Williams, who has shown a smooth free throw shooting form early in his Terp career, has hit just nine of his 20 attempts, or 45 percent. His protege, James Padgett, has been even worse in the early going. His 3-for-12 start means he’s hitting just 25 percent.
If you take away the freshmen’s attempts, the Terps have hit 61-of-80 shots from the line, or you guessed it, 76 percent. Even though steady guard Eric Hayes missed his very first free throw shooting attempt of the season and guard Greivis Vasquez uncharacteristically missed three free throws against Cincinnati, the Terps’ returning players have actually been pretty decent from the line.
So, yes, the Terps did have their issues at the line in Maui, but it would seem that one of the first steps to righting that stat would be to get the freshman forwards on track. If the Terps have a slim lead late in one of these upcoming games, don’t be surprised to see the Terps maybe use a four guard attack to get its best shooters and ball-handlers on the floor.
Or maybe, Jordan Williams and Padgett can just turn to their mascot for some shooting tips.
Eric Detweiler is The Diamondback’s Terrapin Men’s Basketball Team beat writer. He can be reached at edetweilerdbk@gmail.com. You can follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/edetweiler.