Columnist Ron Kantowksi: KU: Another brick in the NCAA wall

Ron Kantowksi

Thursday, April 10, 2003 | 10:14 a.m.

Ron Kantowski is a Las Vegas Sun sports writer. Reach him at ron@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4088.

After watching his team come up short in Monday's NCAA championship game against Syracuse, it should be clear there are three things that Kansas coach Roy Williams, to use the PG version of his postgame comments, doesn't "give a flip" about:

The third one is a slight exaggeration, because I'm sure the Jayhawks, like every other team in America, must chuck up a few charity tosses at the end of every practice.

But based on their abysmal 12-of-30 performance at the line in an 81-78 loss to the Orangemen, perhaps Kansas should chuck up a few more. The Jayhawks were so bad shooting free throws at the Superdome that they made Shaq look like Rick Barry. Or at least Jimmy Chitwood, that deadeye from Hickory High who never missed in "Hoosiers."

There's no excuse for a team of McDonald's All-Americans to shoot 12-of-30 from the line in perhaps the biggest game they'll ever play. Especially when you consider theirs wasn't the first championship game to be decided by bricks at the free-throw line.

The next time the NCAA chapter of the Masons convenes, 2003 Kansas will be introduced to 1997 Kentucky (9-of-17 in an 84-79 loss to Arizona), 1987 Syracuse (11-of-20 in a 74-73 loss to Indiana), 1983 Houston (10-of-19 in a 54-52 loss to North Carolina State) and 1979 Indiana State (10-of-22 in a 75-64 loss to Michigan State).

Billy Packer, the respected (by many, anyway) CBS analyst, says the reason good players miss clutch free throws is because they get tired.

"Billy Packer is full of hot air," says Mike Scudder, a counselor and basketball coach at Las Vegas' Von Tobel middle school.

You may not be familiar with Scudder, but if you're down one and need to put somebody on the line, don't foul him. His claim to fame is sinking 1,538 free throws -- in a row.

"I'm a 5-10 white guy," Scudder said, when asked what possessed him to turn shooting free throws into an art. "It was either learn to shoot free throws or don't play."

Scudder, 55, played at St. Joseph's College, a Division II school in Renssalaer, Ind. He spends his summer giving free-throw clinics, mostly to kids, although he has worked with the staffs of several major college programs, including Arizona and UCLA.

He uses a method called TAP -- Technique, Attitude and Practice -- to sink all those 1-and-1s and double bonuses.

To nobody's surprise, he says the "P" is by far the most important of the three elements. But if there's one thing players dread, it's practicing free throws.

When I was in high school, at least there was a good reason for it. Every time we missed, Coach Patton (not his real name) brandished his riding crop and made us run wind sprints. Today, I would guess the reason most players don't practice free throws is because making one rarely gets you on SportsCenter. Or a prom date.

Although it has been awhile since Scudder played competitive basketball, it's not as if he has never shot free throws under pressure. In fact, that's how his moonlight business began.

Scudder said he was sitting at a bar in Fort Wayne, Ind., one night, watching his beloved Indiana Hoosiers clang a bunch of free pitches against Purdue, when he boasted that he could make 95 free throws out of 100, and that he should call Bobby Knight to let him in on the secret.

Three burly guys on the other end of the tavern heard him, slapped $100 on the bar and bet Scudder he couldn't make 95 out of 100 right then and there. They took him to the gym where they worked -- as guards at a home for juvenile delinquents -- brought in about 80 young toughs as witnesses and basically said: "OK, free-throw boy, shoot."

To unnerve him a little more, the guards picked the biggest, meanest kid in the gym to rebound.

Scudder didn't make 95 out 100, as he promised. He made 259 out of 259. With the money he won, he treated every one of the kids in the gym to a Big Mac, fries and a Coke.

If he can teach those kids how to shoot free throws, Roy Williams' players should be a snap.