Badgers’ Improved Free Throw Shooting a Big Part of Recent Success

With plenty of ups and downs this season, the Wisconsin Basketball team appears to be on their way to the NCAA Tournament and a big reason is because of their excellent free throw shooting.

It’s been an up and down season for the Wisconsin Basketball team, to say the least, but one area that they’ve greatly improved upon this season has been their free throw shooting. And it’s played a big role in their recent success.

If we look back at the 2018-2019 season for the Badgers, they weren’t just bad at the free throw line, they were one of the worst teams in the nation. As a team, they hit just 64.8 percent of their free throw attempts which ranked 332nd in the country according to Team Rankings. And as you’d expect, they were near the bottom of the Big Ten, ranking 13th in free throw percentage in front of only Rutgers.

It certainly doesn’t help either when Wisconsin’s best player at the time, Ethan Happ, made just 46.6 percent of his free throw attempts last season. In the final minutes of close games, opponents would intentionally foul Happ to put him at the line which then put head coach Greg Gard in a difficult situation as he would have to decide whether or not to keep Happ on the floor when they had the ball.

While Happ struggled the most, it’s not as if everyone else was lights out at the charity stripe either. Returning players Brad Davison and Nate Reuvers have both seen major improvements in their free throw shooting this season. Davison is up nearly eight percent from last year and Reuvers is up a whopping 13 percent. Not to mention that D’Mitrik Trice and Brevin Pritzl have remained steady, while Micah Potter hitting nearly 77 percent of his attempts has been a welcomed addition.

Overall as a team, the Badgers are now making 76.9 percent of their free throws this year which leads the Big Ten and ranks 22nd in the country. Their ability to knock down these shots at the end of games has certainly helped them put a few away this season.

Back in January when they beat then No. 5 Ohio State on the road, Wisconsin would hit 13 of their 16 free throw attempts in that game. Then in their big win against Michigan State, they’d make 12 of 15. And during their current five-game winning streak, the Badgers are shooting over 83 percent from the line, including some huge makes in the final minutes against Purdue and most recently Michigan, to help put the game away.

Had last year’s Wisconsin team been in these same situations, I’m confident in saying that, that team wouldn’t have won all of these games like this year’s squad did. And for a team that still doesn’t take many free throw attempts, it’s important to capitalize on the opportunities that they do have. Which is exactly what they’ve done.

I mentioned above that it’s been a roller-coaster type of season for the Wisconsin Basketball program, but now they sit tied for second in the grueling Big Ten, have five top-25 wins, and eight quad-1 wins. Despite the uncertainty that many had, even a month ago, the Badgers are on their way to the NCAA Tournament and a big reason is because of their success at the free throw line.

Stats and info courtesy of the Big Ten, Team Rankings, and College Basketball-Reference.