Brandan Wright All-Stars: Big 12

Yes...Smell the delightful stench of glory!

Every basketball team, no matter what level has had this kind of player at some at some point. He's very skilled; in fact, he may be your strongest overall weapon. He has very few weaknesses. However, the principal flaw in his game is also one of its most basic fundamentals. For some big men, it's ball control. For others, it's finding passing lanes. For some offensive juggernauts, it's playing defense. And for some players who shoot lights out from the field, it's shooting the gimme shot of all gimme shots.

For Carolina, that player was Brandan Wright. When he graced our court for one season, he was one of the most versatile players in the ACC. However, trying to hit free throws must have felt a bit like this:



In his spirit, we celebrate these [insert bad pun here] of the free throw line. These...are the Brandan Wright All-Stars of the Big 12.

Center: DeAndre Jordan, Texas A&M. Despite the fact that he leads all Big 12 starters in FG shooting, he's only 44.2% from the stripe this season. And that's after hitting 10 of 17 in his last four games.

Forward: Shang Ping, Nebraska. The only Husker basketball player to make any All-Star team since the Danny Nee era, Ping shoots only 40.7% from the line this season despite the highest field goal percentage on his team.

Forward: Blake Griffin, Oklahoma. 58.8 (58.9). Perhaps the most exemplary BWAS yet, Blake Griffin is perhaps the best player on Jeff Capel's roster right now. Yet on at least one occasion, the local high school phenom's free throw shooting may have cost his team a victory. Griffin did it all in the Sooners' January 14th game against Kansas State: 27 points, 14 rebounds (including 8 offensive), an assist, two steals, and getting both Bill Walker and Michael Beasley into serious foul trouble. He came up big in the final seconds, hitting two free throws, stealing the inbound pass, and hitting a huge shot to tie it at 82 before Beasley hit the game-winning layup on the other end. Prior to the final minute, however, Griffin was 5 of 11 from the line. If the Big 12 continues to provide nail-biters, Griffin's free throw shooting could decide the Sooners' tournament fate.

So...no pressure, dude. No pressure at all.

Guard: Damion James, Texas. While his FT percentage (53.8) is slightly higher than his percentage from the field (46.8), James also makes the team from sheer sample size. If you have a bad field goal percentage after 10 free throws over 15 games, it may just be because you're cold from the bench. However, having attempted over 90 foul shots this season proves James' inability to accept "charitable donations".

Guard: Marshall Moses, Oklahoma St. Guards are partuclarly difficult to select for BWAS. Usually, it comes down to a player whose free throw shooting is bad but whose shooting percentage is even lower (like in Damion James' case) or a guard who has only has a ridiculously low percentage because they've only put up ten freebies all season. The latter is the case with Marshall Moses (50.0 FT%, 52.2% FG) who is 4-8 on the year.


Dishonorable Mention: Ron Anderson (Kansas State), Sasha Kaun (Kansas), Josh Lomers (Baylor), those two Serbian dudes at Texas Tech (Suljagic and Rizvic).