Mount St. Mary’s Chris Wray’s YOLO free throw against Villanova (Video)
By John Buhler
Mount St. Mary’s Mountaineers forward Chris Wray apparently shoots all of his free throws with one hand. This one versus the Villanova Wildcats was ugly.
Free throws are an important part of the game of basketball. However, some big men struggle with the art of an isolated single-point shot from the foul line. Mount St. Mary’s Mountaineers forward Chris Wray goes about them in an unorthodox way.
Since he was shooting a miserable 31.5 percent of the line during the 2016-17 NCAA season, he has resolved to attempting free throws with just his left hand. With his team about to be eliminated from the NCAA Tournament by the top-seeded Villanova Wildcats, this was not his best attempt from the charity stripe.
dre135: Ummmmm ok.... CBS NCAA Basketball Tournament: Villanova vs. Mount St. Mary's/New Or… https://t.co/97aF1nX8fi pic.twitter.com/92PlioEHNb
— FanSportsClips (@FanSportsClips) March 17, 2017
Mount St. Mary’s was already down 70-48 to the reigning National Champions at the First Niagara Center in Buffalo. With 3:01 left in the second half, Wray attempted his first free throw of the game. He clanged it horribly as one would expect a left-handed free throw from a big man to look like.
The Mountaineers had a short, but interesting time in the NCAA Tournament. They knew that Villanova was going to be a buzz saw in the Round of 64. The game was well out of reach before Wray went to the line. Not wanting to deviate from his new approach to the art of free throw shooting, Wray just went all southpaw in a you-only-live-once kind of way.
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Underhanded free throws have worked before in basketball. Just ask the Barry Family. Rick Barry did a great job of using the underhanded toss when he was starring with the Golden State Warriors in the 1970s. His son Canyon Barry attempts granny-shots at the line for the Florida Gators.