As Erving Walker stood at the free-throw line for a one-and-one with his team down by a point and 1:09 left, Gators fans looked on with bated breath.
There was a palpable sense of anxiety in the O’Connell Center, as one of UF’s biggest flaws was about to decide the outcome of the game.
Although Walker is one of the team’s most clutch free-throw shooters, the junior guard missed the front end, keeping South Carolina ahead and negating UF’s first shot at a lead in nearly 30 minutes.
“I can’t ask for a better situation to be in at the foul line, but I just missed it,” Walker said. “It’s real frustrating. We don’t want to leave those free points out there, especially down the stretch.”
Sixteen seconds later, Gamecocks center Sam Muldrow drilled a three-pointer to give South Carolina a two-possession lead that UF would never overcome.
Thanks partially to its 12-of-22 performance from the free-throw line, including five straight misses to close out the contest, Florida (13-4, 2-1 Southeastern Conference) fell 72-69 Saturday against South Carolina (11-5, 2-1 SEC), thus bringing an end to its five-game winning streak.
The Gators have been leaving points at the line all season, connecting on just 65.1 percent of their free-throw tries — a figure that ranks 11th in the SEC and 267th out of 346 teams in Division I.
“That’s huge,” senior center Vernon Macklin said. “The bad part about it is we actually work on free throws a lot.”
Coach Billy Donovan and his staff have been stressing the importance of free throws throughout the season and have been trying to work on correcting the problem in practice.
In many instances, the coaches have attempted to generate pressure situations for their players, usually by requiring them to make a certain number of free throws to move on to the next segment of practice.
But as much as the coaches try to fix the problem, there is only so much that can be done as a group.
“It’s the only thing not team. We just got to go out there and, individually, just make free throws,” senior forward Chandler Parsons said.
While guards Walker and Kenny Boynton have combined to shoot 75.8 percent from the line, frontcourt starters Macklin, Parsons and Alex Tyus hit just 54.9 percent as a unit.
This deficiency can be a major detriment to UF, as frontcourt players are more likely to be fouled as defenses look to prevent easy looks close to the basket.
“A lot of times, being a great free-throw shooting team has to do with how well your frontcourt players shoot it,” Donovan said. “Tyus, Macklin and Parsons, they’re on the floor, and they’re going to continue to get fouled a lot.”
Macklin in particular has been a questionable free-throw shooter his entire career.
The senior center is shooting 41 percent from the line this season after connecting on 58.8 percent of last year’s attempts and 31 percent of his shots in two years at Georgetown.
These struggles have prevented Donovan from using Macklin in late-game situations, as teams are likely to foul him intentionally in order to extend games.
“Vernon Macklin, his whole career, has not been a great free-throw shooter,” Donovan said. “And I wish I had a magic potion to make him a 90 or 85 percent free-throw shooter, but it’s not going to happen.”
