Sometimes the easiest of tasks is the most difficult to accomplish. You’ve been puttting creamer in your coffee for 15 years. Every morning. That’s roughly 5,500 cups of coffee with the exact same amount of creamer.

Only this morning you put way too much creamer in your mug. How is that possible? It’s the simplest of tasks. A big doop of it, and then a second, quick wrist turn to get a little doop. Done. You’ve practiced and practiced and practiced, even under the duress of the eggs burning and phone ringing.

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Sometimes the easiest of tasks is the most difficult to accomplish. Free throws. Players shoot thousands of them in practice. They shoot them while tired. They shoot them under the duress of practice not ending and teammates running another suicide if they miss. How do they miss, unguarded from 15 feet?

How does a bad free throw shooter reel off a 6-6 night?

“It’s usually mental,” says Shaka Smart. “(The first thing) is technique; to make sure guys are shooting the ball the right way. This time of year you aren’t going to change a lot of mechanics. You shoot free throws in practice with some level of game-like pressure but that’s difficult.

“It comes down to ‘where is your confidence level’ and ‘do you believe you are going to make this shot’ and of course concentration. All those things come into play. (I think) making or missing free throws can be contagious. (We had) a guy go to the line and missed. Another guy and he missed. Then it gets inside guys’ heads.”

There’s no doubting the importance of free throws. Smart’s Rams missed three front ends and nearly lost an 11-point lead against Northeastern. Mike Morrison, who has made less than 50% of his free throws in his career, knocked down four straight to seal Mason’s win over ODU.

The mantra is the same for coaches and fans: just give me the first one.

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The team that made more free throws was 6-0 on Saturday:

Frantz Massenat broke a Drexel record by making all 15 of his free throws on Saturday in the Dragons sloggy win over Towson. Massenat finished with 25 points, six assists and just one turnover. I mentioned it in passing and I’ll restate it here: that kid deserves talk for first team All CAA, if not player of the year.

In the final two minutes of Mason’s win over ODU, Mike Morrison, a career 44% free throw shooter, hit all four of his shots from the line and Ryan Pearson made 5-6 FT. ODU was just 5-11 from the line in the first half and 10-18 overall. (Pearson was 11-13 on his own.) Keep reading for additional detail of this game, which didn’t feature much in the way of beauty.

UNCW freshman Adam Smith hit all 10 of his free throws and the Dubmen used a 17-2 first half run to down William & Mary. Playing without suspended KK Simmons (see below link), UNCW led the final 34 minutes of the game.

VCU missed the front end of three one-and-ones, helping winnow a 57-46 lead to a 59-56 win over Northeastern. The Rams were 12-24 as a team from the line. Troy Daniels hit five threes and Juvonte Reddic had his third double-double in the past five games to lead VCU.

Georgia State made 10-13 unguarded 15-footers and Hofstra just 6-12 in the Panthers impressive roadie win. The victory moves Georgia State to 16-8 on the season. With six regular season games left to play, the Panthers are guaranteed a winning season under first-year head coach Ron Hunter. It is their first winning season since 2003-04.

The Hens force-fed Jamelle Hagins–who made 9-13 free throws–and wore down JMU 85-80. Freshman Jarvis Threatt hit 8-10 on his own, and Delaware as a team was 24-32 from the stripe.

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Some random thoughts and numbers:

• Devonta White and Rashaad Richardson combined to go 7-13 from three in GSUs win. The Panthers defense has never been questioned, but CAA teams have adjusted to their offensive attack. Adding a long range element is what they didn’t have earlier in the year and makes them dangerous on both ends.
• Hofstra as a team was just 3-22 from three (13.6%).
• Also, Eric Buckner swatted six shots to break the school record for blocked shots.
• Ron Hunter chose to go six or seven deep on Saturday, a noticeable departure from season norm. James Fields played 25 minutes and Tony Kimbro just nine. (James Vincent made a cameo appearance as well–one minute). 
• The cliche is that if you look up the word ugly in the dictionary, you would see the ODU/Mason game. I’m telling you that Saturday’s rock fight should have its own Twitter account. It was that ugly, and it wasn’t all great defense.
• In the first 12 minutes of the game, Mason was 1-18 from the field, committed eight turnovers and scored seven points. And trailed by just six. The Patriots were their own worst enemy at times, too. Sure there were bricks and airballs, but the number of bad shots–terrible shot selection–was astounding. On four occasions, I’m sure Paul Hewitt did not call a play that asked someone to run really fast into three really big guys and throw the ball up off your hip.
• The Monarchs threated to run away but had its own problems. ODU scored 10 seconds into the second half to take a 28-20 lead but then went eight minutes without scoring, and 10 minutes without a field goal. The Monarchs missed 13 shots and had two turnovers during the drought. As if predestined, it took Mason nearly eight minutes to overtake them.
• Kent Bazemore made at least two lazy turnovers. One was a one-handed pass directly to the Mason defender, and the other was when Vertrail Vaughans picked his pocket when Bazemore turned to find out what play Blaine Taylor had called. The one thing you cannot do in this league is get careless.
• The Patriots made 13 field goals and 27 free throws. In fact, exactly half their points were scored from the line (19 of 34 second half points).
• Jamelle Hagins had a monster 23 points and 18 rebounds. Devon Saddler scored 22 points, but if Monte Ross wants the Hens to win big games, he needs Saddler to score the same number of points but shoot fewer than 19 times. Saddler was 9-19 from the field and had just one assist.
• JMU never led against Delaware and had four players finish with four fouls and Gene Swindle fouled out. Matt Brady only got 26 minutes from his bench–21 for Swindle and five from freshman Arman Marks.
• YouDee also led wire-to-wire against Mason on Wednesday–that’s 80 straight minutes without trailing for the Hens.
• AJ Davis scored 30 points on 10-19 shooting.
• This was the second straight game that one player had nearly half of the opponent’s rebound total against JMU, as Hagins had 18 of Delaware’s 36 after Chris Cooper had 22 of Old Dominion’s 47 against JMU on Thursday. JMU has now allowed an opposing player to grab at least 15 rebounds in a game five times this season, including two games in a row with at least 18.
• Josh Verlin of Philly Hoops gives you the good info from Drexel/Towson. It includes a great Bruiser Flint quote about Damion Lee’s homecoming: “Typical guy coming home to play–awful. All those guys are like that, they’re awful.” Flint said. “They go home, everybody’s in the stands…those guys always play awful when they go home. (Lee) was bad.”
• Pat Skerry gave you a reveal on Drexel’s rebounding principle. It isn’t ground breaking, but somehow Drexel does it as well, or better, than anyone: “They’re a tremendous block-out team…”
• Mull gives you UNCW report, which includes a note about Tanner Milson asking to schedule William & Mary 14 times next season.

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What ever happened to Herman Favors? You remember the diminuitive, spunky Georgia State guard. He nearly led the Panthers, who were 3-15 during the CAA regular season that year, past George Mason in the 2006 CAA tournament. The Patriots survived in overtime. Imagine how CAA life is different if Favors has gotten his team over the hump.

What is going on with KK Simmons? In case you missed it, the UNCW freshman was suspended by Buzz Peterson for conduct detrimental to the program. It sounds like, for once, the problem is actually detrimental conduct and not code for something else.

Do you know the name Torrance Archie? VCU fans remember Archie from the Sonny Smith days. Archie is an example of college athletics at its finest: community college to VCU. Gets his degree. Pursues basketball for two years and eventually puts his degree to work starting his own business.

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