IU won wire-to-wire vs. Minnesota. But here's why you could hear Hoosiers' fans groans.
BLOOMINGTON – Even as IU got a wire-to-wire win over Minnesota on Friday, a fraction of fans shared groans and boos in the crowd. There wasn’t a bevy of turnovers that caused this, nor was Minnesota spraying 3s over IU like many opponents have this season.
This portion of displeasure came because of Indiana’s lackluster free-throw shooting. Indiana — as it usually does — got to the line. The Hoosiers attempted 27 free throws. The problem is they only made 16 of them (59.3%).
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IU continues to struggle to convert basketball’s most-efficient shot. It has only shot above the national average of 71.1% once in the past eight games. Friday’s woeful free-throw shooting follows a 4-for-15 outing in IU’s loss at Rutgers on Tuesday.
This team gets to the charity stripe too frequently for the amount of freebies it misses. Indiana takes 23.8 free throws per game but only hits them at a 66.2% clip.
The Hoosiers have five players — Anthony Walker, Xavier Johnson, Malik Reneau, Kel’el Ware and Mackenzie Mgbako — who draw over five fouls per 40 minutes (per KenPom). Those players are masterful at taking contact and getting to the line. But as a whole, they don’t capitalize on enough of those opportunities.
“If I had a magic pill that I could give them about making free throws, I would,” Indiana coach Mike Woodson said after the Rutgers loss. “It’s all mental. … When you get fouled and you gotta go to the line, they’re free. So you should feel good about yourself and go up and knock them down, and punish them for fouling you.”
Per KenPom, IU’s free throw rate of 42.8% ranks 16th in the country and second in the Big Ten. To simplify, IU shoots 4.28 free throws for every 10 field goals it attempts. That’s a lot.
But that only means so much when you sit at the bottom of the Big Ten in free throw percentage. IU is only at the middle of the pack in total free throws made despite the abundance of attempts.
The Hoosiers played their most complete game of the season to beat Minnesota, but there’s still one thing patrons went home frustrated about. To hear fewer groans in the future, IU can maybe make a few more shots at the line. As Woodson said, “They’re free.”
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Indiana basketball continues to struggle from free throw line
