Free throws still testing Tide

TUSCALOOSA | For a basketball team that has a slim margin for error and needs every advantage it can get, the easiest phase of the game might seem like a logical place to start.

But even from the foul line, the University of Alabama men’s basketball team is having issues.

The Crimson Tide is shooting just 57.5 percent from the foul line, a total that ranks 11th in the Southeastern Conference at this juncture. Only Auburn — at 52 percent — is worse. That’s an anomaly for Alabama, which has been a decent foul shooting team in recent years, and it has already had an effect during the Crimson Tide’s 6-3 start.

Alabama will be looking to improve on that statistic — and several other phases of the game — tonight at Coleman Coliseum. The Crimson Tide will host Texas-Pan American (6-7) in the second round of the Findlay Toyota Las Vegas Classic beginning at 7 p.m.

The Crimson Tide won its first round game over Wofford 80-73 on Monday night, but was pushed to the final minute by the Terriers. In part, that was due to Alabama’s inability to make foul shots. The Crimson Tide was just 12 of 24 from the foul line in the game.

“We hurt ourselves,” Tide head coach Mark Gottfried said on Tuesday. “We missed free throws, including the front end of some one-and-one situations. We left points at the line, and when you get to the end of the game, it’s the difference in being ahead by 10 or 12 points instead of being ahead by five or six and that’s a huge difference.

“I think it’s a mental thing, and I think it’s contagious. We work on it every day. We devote significant time to it in practice, which is when you have to work on it. In a game, you want the shooter to be relaxed. You don’t want him about to shoot a foul shot and all of a sudden the coach yells ‘make it!’ That doesn’t help anything.

“With some of our guys, there are technical things that we can correct, but some of them are good shooters and it just becomes a mental thing.”

The free-throw bug has affected almost the entire team. The only two Tide players who are making over 70 percent of their foul shots are guard Justin Tubbs (83.3 percent) and forward Justin Knox (71.4 percent). Neither Tubbs nor Knox saw action in the Wofford game.

Forward Richard Hendrix, who gets to the foul line more than any other Alabama player, has hit 32 of 56 free throws (57.1 percent).

“I can do better,” Hendrix said. “It’s just a matter of concentration.”

Perhaps even more worrisome is the inconsistent foul shooting from the Tide guards. The three players who have shared the point guard position this season — Brandon Hollinger, Mikhail Torrance and Rico Pickett — are a combined 13-of-28 from the line. That’s less than 50 percent.

“When you list the characteristics of a good point guard, free throw shooting might be No 1 on the list,” Gottfried said. “That’s the player who is going to have the ball in his hands in crucial situations.

“In Rico’s case, there are some fundamental things that we are working to improve. He has a hitch in his motion and we are trying to correct that. But we’ve all got to get better.”

Tonight’s game

Texas-Pan American brings a 6-7 record into tonight’s game after losing to Missouri State 64-53 in a first-round Las Vegas Classic contest on Monday night. Three of the Broncs’ six wins have come against non-Division I opposition. UTPA has now lost three straight games.

“They played pretty well at Missouri State,” Gottfried said on Tuesday. “They’re very athletic, especially on the perimeter, and their two big guys do a pretty good job.”

Brian Burrell, a 6-3 senior guard, leads UTPA in scoring at 15.5 points per game. ZachTrader, a 6-7, 240-pound forward, averages 15.3 points per game.

Former Mississippi State player Tom Schuberth coaches the Broncs.

Reach Cecil Hurt at cecil.hurt@tuscaloosanews.com or 205-722-0225.