MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Guard Taz Sherman vows West Virginia’s free-throw shooting will get better. Mountaineer head coach Bob Huggins says there’s no excuse for it not to be.
Following a 12 for 27 showing from the charity stripe in Wednesday’s 56-53 win over No. 15 Connecticut, the Mountaineers rank better than eight of the other 349 Division I programs with a 61.2 percentage as a team.
“We’ll fix it,” Sherman said. “I promise you we’re each shooting 100 a day. It just wasn’t the day. I missed three today. We’re going to fix it and we’re going to be a better ball club when we start making free throws.”
West Virginia has made 101-of-165 free throws for the season. Perhaps more concerning is that Sherman, who was 4 for 7 against UConn, has made 42-of-51 attempts — meaning the remainder of the roster is barely above 50 percent (59 of 114).
Sherman has more than double the amount of free-throw attempts as the next closest Mountaineer, which is point guard Malik Curry, who has converted only 12-of-23 tries.
“There’s only one way you fix them and that’s go in and work on them,” Huggins said. “I think at least most of them will. They have the greatest facilities in America. That place is open 24/7 for them and there’s six baskets in there.“
Sherman and shooting guard Sean McNeil would unquestionably be considered WVU’s most reliable free-throw shooters, though McNeil is getting to the free-throw line at a low rate (14 attempts in eight games).
Six of McNeil’s attempts came against Connecticut, including two makes with 17 seconds remaining that stretched WVU’s lead to four after Sherman split a pair and WVU forward Gabe Osabuohien rebounded his miss, giving McNeil the opportunity to double his team’s lead.
“I think it shocked everybody that we kept going up there and missing,” Huggins said. “They figured one of them would go in and maybe they’d bank one or something. He’s good at that and he’s good at keeping balls alive.”
Moments later, McNeil had a chance to seal the victory with two free throws, but made only one, allowing for UConn guard RJ Cole to have a chance at a tying 3-point attempt as time expired.
Oddly enough, West Virginia’s nine opponents have hardly hit free throws at a higher rate than the Mountaineers, combining for a percentage of 62.8 on 129 attempts. That percentage dipped lower following the Huskies’ 6 of 11 showing.
With three non-conference games remaining before Big 12 play begins, West Virginia’s margin for error will diminish in the near future when it begins competing in arguably the toughest conference in college basketball.
For a Mountaineers’ team that ranks outside the top 200 in scoring at 70.6 points on average, foul shooting is a vital component that could allow Huggins’ team to produce more offense.
“They know what they have to do, particularly those older guys,” Huggins said. “If they’re going to be what they portrayed what they were going to be, they’ll get the rest of those guys in there. The thing that we’ve done really well here over the years is our older guys have said, ‘No, you’re not hanging out here. You’re going in the gym.’ That’s happened pretty much since I got here. I had a bunch of great guys to start with and my teams at Cincinnati were always that way. We didn’t always make them, but it wasn’t because they didn’t practice.
“They don’t have an excuse here. Across the street is the best practice facility in America. It’s like one-stop shopping. You go in there and lift, get your shots up, get treated. you have whatever that light bed thing is for rehab. You have everything, so you should use it.”