Badgers continue to struggle from the free throw line

This Wisconsin Badgers basketball team has the potential to make some noise come March, but in order to do so, they must get better at the free throw line.

After an uncharacteristically poor 2017-2018 campaign the Wisconsin Badgers have bounced back and currently find themselves in the top 25 rankings with a few signature wins under their belt.

With All-American candidate Ethan Happ, workhorse Brad Davison, sharpshooter D’Mitrik Trice and the emergence of Nate Reuvers, this is a Wisconsin Badgers team that can beat just about any team, on any given night as we saw against then number two Michigan.

However, as good as this team has shown us that they can be, their Achilles heel is at the free throw line, where they have struggled all season long.

From what we’ve seen up to this point in the season at the free throw line, it could hold the Wisconsin Badgers back from making a run in the Big Ten and NCAA tournaments. Poor free throw shooting makes it much more difficult to come from behind when down, as well as being able to put a game away in the final minutes. To pull off wins against top-tier talent, you have to do all of the little things correctly.

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As a team this season the Wisconsin Badgers are shooting just 66.1 percent from the stripe, this ranks tied for 306th out of all NCAA division one teams and 12th out of the 14 Big Ten teams. Specifically, in conference play, the Badgers are shooting an abysmal 59.9 percent from the line, which ranks last in the Big Ten.

In Wisconsin’s six losses they are shooting a combined 56.01 percent from the free throw line and two of those losses could be blamed on their poor performance from the stripe. Against Marquette, Wisconsin lost in overtime by five points going 10 for 21 at the line. Then when they faced Minnesota, the Badgers lost by seven, making only 7 out of their 17 free throw attempts.

Even in the 16 games that they’ve won, the Wisconsin Badgers don’t do well from the free throw line. In those games, they’ve shot 67.3 percent which is still tied for 280th compared to every other division one schools overall performance.

In addition, it’s not as if the Wisconsin Badgers are taking a huge number of free throw attempts every game, they are averaging 15.3 attempts per game which ranks 323rd in the entire country. So they are already taking less free throws than their opponents and are failing to capitalize on those opportunities.

Another major concern for the Wisconsin Badgers are the struggles that their star Ethan Happ has had from the line. In the final minutes of a close game you want your best player to have the ball in his hands, but with Happ shooting just 47.4 percent on the season, opposing teams may result to hack-a-Happ to send him to the line. As stated above, this is going to make winning those close games much more challenging.

At this point in the season, we have seen a fairly large sample size from this Wisconsin Badgers team, so this just may be who they are. But if they hope to make some noise in March, their free throw shooting must improve.