“She’d yell, ‘C’mon Shaq! Let’s go Shaq!’ ”
Shaquille O’Neal was named the second-worst free-throw shooter in NBA history by the online basketball magazine All About Basketball and third-worst in a poll by Bleacher Report. He made 52.7 percent of his career attempts and he and Wilt Chamberlain are the only players to miss over 5,000 free throws.
Meanwhile, Thomasson, Wright State’s 6-foot-4 senior guard, has turned himself into something of a marksman at the charity stripe.
He came into Friday night’s game against conference kingpin Valparaiso as the leading free-throw shooter in the Horizon League with an 89.6-percent accuracy rate (43 of 48).
“I take my free throws seriously now,” he said. “I practice them every day and don’t joke around. I mean they’re points. If you like scoring points why wouldn’t you take them seriously?”
And Friday night he practiced what he preached against the Crusaders, making 14 of 16 free throws and finishing with a game-high 21 points to lead Wright State to a come-from-behind, 73-62 victory.
It was the Raiders’ ninth win in their last 10 games and for the second straight outing they overcame a formidable second-half deficit.
Monday night they trailed Detroit by 14 only to win 77-76 on a last-second 3-pointer by Grant Benzinger, who, by the way, was set up for the shot by a drive and perfect pass by Thomasson.
Friday night Valparaiso, which came into the game 16-3 and 6-0 in league play, led 41-32 with 13:22 left.
The Raiders then went on a 16-0 run to retake the lead. Thomasson scored six points in that spurt, but when he was really clutch was coming down the stretch. He made 10 of 12 free throws in the final 2:36 and six straight in the final 40 seconds.
“My teammates just gave me the ball at the end of the game,” he said. “They told me to get the ball and kinda don’t pass it.”
Valparaiso kept fouling him in an attempt to get the ball back, but this was no “Hack-a-Shaq.”
That may have worked on O’Neal, but not Thomasson.
He’s gone to the line in 15 of the Raiders’ 20 games this year, been perfect in 10 of them and nearly so in two others — Friday night and his 9-of-10 performance in the opener against South Dakota.
“I’m a little upset that I missed two tonight,” Thomasson said. “I want to go to the line at the end. Everybody has a different routine, but all I think about is making them. I don’t hear the crowd, the noise, the band, I just focus on making them and the team expects me to make them.”
The Raiders, now 12-8 and tied for first in the Horizon League with Valparaiso at 6-1, are expecting a lot out of each other these days.
After closing out last season with 10 straight losses and opening this year with seven losses in the first 10 games, you might think this team could have folded.
Thomasson, though, treated that thought as blasphemous.
“We believe in each other and we never stopped,” he said. “It feels good playing with guys who love each other and care about each other. Everybody has put their egos aside for the good of the team.”
He said the groundwork for that was laid by Coach Billy Donlon in the preseason:
“He had us do a lot. We did Navy Seal training and slept in the gym. We worked hard and now it’s paying off.”
When Thomasson is in the gym he said he’s serious about his free throw shooting.
“Coach makes us shoot 50 free throws every practice,” he said. “I shoot closest to the board so after every five I go write ‘em down and keep track of how many I make.”
And how many does he expect to hit?
“At least 47,” he said.
After the game, Donlon flinched when asked to talk about Thomasson’s free-throw shooting: “I’ll answer all your questions but I will not answer on free-throw shooting.”
Why?
“I worry that I’ll jinx it. I hope I haven’t said too much already.”
He paused, managed a half smile and did admit:
“I will say that Joe has chutzpah with his game. It’s what he has and who he is. And that’s why we’re successful. He’s the most confident humble person I’ve ever been around. And that’s not arrogance in any way, shape or form.
“It’s just that his self-confidence is unbelievable.
“And I will say this, there’s nobody I’d rather have at the line.”
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