By Matt Weiner (@MattWeiner20) – MBB Beat Reporter
Remember that scene in “The Office” where Angela scolds Kevin for incorrectly filling out a spreadsheet telling him that, “A G.D. monkey could do it, I do not understand why you can’t do it,”?
If you do, just swap spreadsheets for free throws and a basketball version of this scene plays out in households and sports bars across the world during March.
“It’s a free throw! How hard can it be?” will be uttered more times than you can imagine in the next month.
During Fresno State’s 69-67 overtime win over San Jose State in round one of the Mountain West Tournament, SJSU went 5 of 14 from the line while Fresno State went 19 of 32.
From the perspective of the Spartans, shooting 36% from the line is a deathwish when trying to pull off the biggest upset of the conference tournament. Hitting your free throws at a clip of at least 80% is a prerequisite for pulling off a monumental victory.
You think you can escape it, but no matter what it will come back to haunt you like procrastinating getting a tooth checked out or paying your taxes.
Four players on the team pitched in as Ibrahima Diallo went 0 of 4, Omari Moore 3 of 6 and Alvaro Cardenas and Shon Robinson went 1 of 2.
A majority of the Spartans’ losses in conference play were blow outs so this was a new situation, but the lack of familiarity is no excuse for not answering the bell.
The biggest miss from the charity stripe on the day came from Omari Moore with 1:15 left in the game to keep the score at 59-58.
He made up for it by hitting a colossal shot over Orlando Robinson to push the game to overtime, but keeping the game tied into the final minute would have made the final stretch easier.
The Spartans aren’t the only ones with blood on their hands as the Bulldogs struggled mightily as well missing a whopping 13 shots.
Robinson did most of the damage going 8 of 15 while Anthony Holland went 5 of 8 and Isaiah Hill, Leo Colimerio and Donavan Yap missed one-a-piece.
By going 2 of 6 in overtime, they let the Spartans stay in the game and had to rely upon a Jordan Campbell teardrop with 0.6 seconds left to advance to the next round.
With Ibrahima Diallo picking up his fourth foul one minute into the second half and eventually fouling out with 6:29 left it looked like curtains defensively for the Spartans.
However, one clank after another, the Spartans just kept things within arms reach and were never truly out. You could look at it as a loss or they just ran out of time, either is applicable.
The Spartans 36% showing from the line is tortuous while also serving as a valuable lesson to the importance of free throws.
