FSU Basketball: Free throw woes are killing Seminoles this season

FSU basketball has lost seven games this season – and many of them could have been won if they had just hit their free throws like it is practice.

Wednesday night, the FSU basketball team suffered their seventh loss of the season when they dropped a 59-55 decision to the No. 2 ranked Virginia Cavaliers. While it’s not all that upsetting to lose to the second ranked team by just four points, it is frustrating when you had a six point led and couldn’t hit a field goal in the final nine minutes of the game.

It isn’t all that surprising that misses at the charity stripe are what cost the Seminoles a game this season. In their seven losses – each of which game by seven points or less, including four that were by four points are fewer – almost all of them were decided by missed free throws from a team who is shooting a combined 69 percent this season.

One look at the game logs show what I am talking about:

"Oklahoma State (1 point loss) – 16 of 24 free throw shootingDuke (7 point loss) – 16 of 22Miami (6 point loss) – 17 of 26Louisville (4 point loss) – 9 of 13Boston College (6 point loss) – 16 of 18Wake Forest (4 point loss) – 12 of 20Virginia (4 point loss) – 13 of 19"

For most of the season, we here at Chop Chat and other outlets have taken shots at how the Seminoles have had struggles from the field and how the three point shooting has been abysmal at points this season – when FSU basketball could easily have four more wins (OkState, Miami, Wake and UVa) if they did their job from the charity stripe.

Entering this weekend, Florida State has just one player – Braian Angola – who is shooting over 75 percent from the free thrown line and just four players (Angola, C.J. Walker, M.J. Waker and Terance Mann) who are above 68 percent from the charity stripe.

Next: FSU Basketball faces most important three game stretch

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that FSU basketball will not do much in the post season if those numbers are going to continue. With their next two games being against teams shooting around 76 percent from the line (Notre Dame and Clemson), the difference between a win and loss could come to one or two trips there.