2018-19 #WCChoops Schedule |  Crumpacker 2018-19 Archives  |  What We Think – 1/16/19

By John Crumpacker
#WCChoops Columnist

As proof that great free throw shooters are made and not born with the ability to drop ball through hoop from 15 feet away, consider the disparate yet similar examples of Portland’s Josh McSwiggan and Pacific’s Lafayette Dorsey.

A little more than halfway through the basketball season, they are the two best free throw shooters in the West Coast Conference. Dorsey is converting at a .904 clip while McSwiggan is at .902. Of the two, Dorsey is the more impressive as he’s hit on 66 of 73 chances while McSwiggan is 37 of 41.

The disparity is due to their playing styles. Dorsey is a 6-foot-1 guard who drives to the basket with regularity and is fouled with regularity. McSwiggan, 6-7, often roams the perimeter looking for a good shot.

Where they merge is in their preparation at the free throw line.

“I believe what makes a good free throw shooter is repetition,’’ Dorsey said. “You get your feet set, I get my three dribbles, I get a nice spin-out with the ball, catch it and hopefully, it’s cash. I’ve been doing it since I was young. It’s repetition.’’

“For me, personally, I try to do the same thing every time,’’ McSwiggan said. “I take a couple of dribbles and I breathe. I bounce the ball a couple of times then take a deep breath.’’

Sharpshooters both, their backgrounds could not be more different. Dorsey grew up in Los Angeles, where he went to … wait for it … Dorsey High School in south-central L.A., which occasioned joking questions from his classmates.

“Did I own the school,’’ Dorsey said with a laugh. “I got that question a lot of times.’’

Dorsey laughed even harder when informed of an anecdote involving late coach Jim Valvano when he was at Iona College. As the story goes, Valvano met a recruit and said, “I’m Jim Valvano, Iona College.’’ The recruit is said to have responded, “Wow, a young dude like you owns a college?’’

McSwiggan, who shares a birthday with a certain WCC columnist, was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland, and grew up in Loughborough, England. The backyard in his family home was not large but it was just big enough for a basket and a line 15 feet away.

“We only had a free throw line in my backyard,’’ he said. “There was not much space. I lived by a main road.’’

Both marksmen realized early on that they had talent from the free throw line. For McSwiggan, it was “probably 15 or 16,’’ around the time he started representing Great Britain’s national teams in U-16, U-17 and U-18 competition. For Dorsey, it was “right around middle school. I was a pretty good free throw shooter. I’d be the one shooting technical fouls.’’

Neither player was aware of how close they are in free throw percentage in the latest WCC statistics. Seems they spend more time practicing and playing (along with time spent in the classroom and studying) than they do perusing stats; that’s for others to do.

Dorsey, in fact, did not realize he was 66 of 73 from the line, causing him to say, “Not bad. Could be better.

“I want to have the best free throw percentage I can,’’ he said. “If it’s the best in the conference, so be it. My coaches (have always) encouraged me to drive because if I get fouled, I’ll get to the free throw line and it’s an easy two.’’

McSwiggan said, “I don’t tend to keep track of the stats. I focus on the games. If I can lead in any sort of way, it would mean something. The thing that means the most is winning.’’

The Pilots have not done a whole lot of winning thus far. After Thursday night’s 76-55 loss to San Diego, they are 7-12 overall and at 0-4 still looking for their first conference win. The Tigers got off to a better start in non-conference and are 11-9/1-4 following Thursday’s agonizing 53-52 loss to San Francisco at the Spanos Center.

Both players watch a fair amount of NBA games and the sight of some of the league’s worst free throw shooters launching bricks from the line has these marksmen shaking their heads. No one is trying to block their shots, after all.

“For someone who gets paid to do it on a regular basis, it does blow my mind,’’ McSwiggan said. “For me, it’s practice. It’s a routine. If you repeat the same thing every time, it should work.’’

Dorsey said, “You might laugh a bit. At the end of the day, that’s what you get paid for.’’

Another similarity Dorsey and McSwiggan share is they both play for coaches who had long and successful NBA careers in Pacific’s Damon Stoudamire and Portland’s Terry Porter.

“I like playing for coach Stoudamire,’’ Doesey said. “He coaches us in the game of life as well. He wants us to be great young men. … Most guys tend to give him more emphasis on what he tells us because he had a successful career. We try to do right by him.’’

The WCC’s two best sharpshooters do right by their craft by putting in plenty of practice time at the free throw line. Dorsey said he takes between 100-200 shots per day in practice and about 100 every day in the offseason. McSwiggan said he takes 100 free throws in practice and 100-150 in the offseason.

“It’s pretty much in the 90’s,’’ McSwiggan said of his practice percentage from the line.
“I try to limit myself to one miss for every 10 free throws,’’ Dorsey said.

The statistics – not that they consult them – indicate both players perform in games as they do in practice. It’s all about repetition, whether you dribble twice before shooting and take a deep breath or bounce the ball three times, spin it, catch it, and shoot.

They are the WCC’s Ninety Percenters.