Men’s basketball: Gophers’ poor free-throw shooting resurfaces this season

The margin for error for the Gophers men’s basketball team is proving to be razor thin this season. Four of their opening six games have been decided by four points or less.

The final 20 seconds of Monday’s 68-65 win over Central Michigan came down to Minnesota going 2 for 4 from the free-throw line, and the Chippewas making 1 of 2 from the stripe and missing two game-tying 3-pointers.

The U could have put the game away if they would have done better at the line. Instead, they shot 10 for 17 (59%) over 40 minutes.

In this season’s small sample size, Minnesota is shooting 63% from the line, which ranks 334th in the nation. This isn’t a recent dip. The U shot in the 60s in the previous two years, after making 72% in head coach Ben Johnson’s first season. It can literally be a matter of wins and losses.

The Gophers will need all the points they can muster in the ESPN Events Invitational in Orlando, Fla. this week. Minnesota (5-1) plays Wichita State (5-0) at 11 a.m. Thursday. If they win, they will play in the championship against either No. 18 Florida (6-0) or Wake Forest (6-1) on Friday. If the U falls, they will play that other game’s loser in a third-place game.

Johnson said Monday that he tries to tread lightly on his team’s free-throw shooting.

“If you are a head coach and you harp on it so much, who do you think is going to feel that? Your players,” he said. “So, if I make such a huge deal about it — like over the top — and they can sense that I’m iffy about it, they feel that.”

Johnson is trying to instill confidence in his players to find what works for them when they are shooting at the practice facility at Athletes Village and carry it over to games. He feels like a few early makes from the stripe can be contagious for the next guy.

“Once that happens, then there is confidence throughout the room of like, ‘This is what we do now,’ versus if a couple of guys go up there and they don’t have success early then that is in the back of players’ minds,” Johnson said. “That is just human nature.”

One gripe from fans is that players should practice foul shooting more often. “It’s always funny to me that people don’t think that every college team doesn’t put a crazy amount of time on free throws,” Johnson said.

The Gophers practice it aplenty, but sometimes it doesn’t translate when game pressure is added to the equation. “It’s a totally different shot when there are fans in the crowd than when you are in (Athletes Village), shooting in an empty gym or shooting them with teammates,” Johnson said.

But one baseline is how only four of the Gophers’ eight veteran rotation players have careers shooting percentages over 70 — Dawson Garcia, Mike Mitchell, Lu’Cye Patters and Brennan Rigsby. Four others are under 60%.