NEW YORK –– Jim Boeheim and Kris Joseph didn’t put the onus on Syracuse itself for the misses from the free-throw line. When recollecting on Syracuse’s tribulations from the line after SU’s 76-71 overtime loss to Connecticut in the semifinals of the Big East tournament Friday, Boeheim didn’t read into the worst free-throw percentage in 64 games at all. Joseph didn’t until asked a third time.

The Orange stooped to a near two-season low by shooting 45.5 percent from the free throw line Friday. Still, Boeheim saw more of a problem in how many free throws Syracuse attempted, rather than how many SU made. Joseph echoed his head coach’s sentiments through and through.

‘We only got 11 foul shots, we missed a couple,’ Boeheim said. ‘But when you only get to the line 11 times, something happened there.’

To Joseph, that ‘something’ wasn’t completely tangible. But in the locker room, a visibly dejected and frustrated Joseph hinted it could have been the judgment of tournament referees Michael Stephens, Jeff Clark and James Breeding. Stephens was the same ref from SU’s 69-64 win at Villanova on Feb. 21 that Boeheim spoke with at length during a late-game timeout, arguing with Stephens about Stephens retracted intentional foul call on a Dion Waiters layup with 14.1 seconds left.

And to hammer home the fact, Joseph brought up that the tournament’s sudden golden boy, UConn guard Kemba Walker, attempted a bevy of free throws himself. Walker shot 14 on the night — making 13 — to the Orange’s 11 attempts. He finished with 33 points.

‘We had 11 free throws as a team,’ Joseph said. ‘And one player gets 14 –– when one player on their team can outshoot us from the free-throw line, there is something wrong there.’

Added Joseph: ‘Refs, something. Something’s got to give.’

The apparent senselessness of the gap in free throw attempts between the Huskies (28) and Orange (11) made Joseph scratch his head. But the hard truth was SU shot its worst percentage in two years.

The drop in percentage was aided by a 1-for-4 stretch in overtime after 40 minutes of regulation was completed. In turn, the fact that the Orange attempted only seven free throws in regulation (a would-be season low) bolstered the argument of Boeheim and Joseph. Still, SU didn’t convert free throws in any situation. Worse – the Orange didn’t hit free throws when they mattered.

Of those four overtime free attempts, SU only made one. The Orange finished 5-of-11 from the line — six misses. Syracuse lost by five.

SU guard Brandon Triche said the percentage was ‘concerning,’ especially heading into the NCAA Tournament next week. Yes the Orange shoots 66 percent from the line on the year — and shot 91 percent and 69 percent in its last two games. But the close games in March are different. And the fact that Rick Jackson and C.J. Fair’s misses in overtime came on front ends of one-and-ones mattered more. In essence, SU missed four total free throws instead of two.

With Triche’s logic, SU shot 5-of-14 from the line, 35.7 percent, an imaginary number which would register as the worst percentage of any Big East team in any conference game all season. 

‘We are going to have close games I think it could have helped out,’ Triche said. ‘We missed a couple of one and ones. So, shooting 45 percent, we missed the first shot of one-an-one, that’s two shots we missed out on.’

And Boeheim and Joseph’s logic of SU’s free-throw misses not mattering nearly as much as the amount of free throws attempted also had flaws. In two of the past three games, SU has shot only 13 and 11 free throws, respectively. The 13 came against Georgetown, when the Orange still shot 62 percent. And the first 11 came in the regular-season finale in the Big East’s most lopsided win ever versus DePaul, when SU shot a remarkable 91 percent. Both wins rounded out the longest end-of-year winning streak in the Big East.

In its first game of the tournament vs. St. John’s on Thursday, SU shot 69 percent on 29 attempts.

But Friday – eleven attempts or not – was the worst in that 64-game span. And when prodded that third time, Joseph relented into the stone-cold truth.

‘We missed a couple of free throws. I missed one, Ricky missed two,’ Joseph said. ‘We only got there four times I think (in overtime). We needed those. Those were costly.’

[email protected]

Published on March 11, 2011 at 12:00 pm