Does the Dome Hurt The Orange Free Throw Shooting?

The Syracuse Men's basketball team has always had a reputation as being a poor free throw shooting team. Last week's close game against Monmouth brought back many painful memories, as the Orange shot 10-21 in the second half and let their opponent have a chance to tie at the end. Fortunately the Orange walked away with the victory. 

One of the questions asked by some fans was whether the JMA Wireless Dome (formerly the Carrier Dome) negatively impacts the team's free throw shooting. Does the cavernous feel of the Dome impact free throw shooters? I pulled the data from the last five seasons to see if that is true. I lumped together neutral court and away games as 'Away from Dome' because all we're really interested in is if the Dome impacts the shooting. 

	At Dome			Away from Dome
Season	FTM	FTA	FT%	FTM	FTA	FT%	Diff %
2020-21	194	244	79.5%	166	217	76.5%	3.0%
2021-22	238	318	74.8%	185	256	72.3%	2.6%
2022-23	249	329	75.7%	183	248	73.8%	1.9%
2023-24	245	340	72.1%	200	282	70.9%	1.1%
2024-25	252	365	69.0%	207	286	72.4%	-3.4%
TOTAL	1178	1596	73.8%	941	1289	73.0%	0.8%

Surprisingly, the Orange are actually better at free throw shooting in the Dome, as opposed to away from home.

A New Challenger to Syracuse's Free Throw Record

Syracuse's new center William Kyle has shown himself to be a high energy player and terrific defender early in the season.  He will be extremely valuable to the Orange, assuming they can keep him on the court.  Why would they remove him? During the two exhibition games Kyle showed one of the worst free shooting forms in college basketball.  He made only 17 of 43 free throws last season at UCLA, for 39.5%.  He was better at South Dakota State prior to being at UCLA, but that is all relative; his career free throw shooting before coming to Syracuse was 56.8%, on 138 for 244 shooting.

Hopefully Kyle's form improves and he can get back to being serviceable at the line. If not, does he have a chance at challenging the all-time worst Syracuse free throw shooters?  That is a tall task given the Orange legacy of charity stripe woes.

There have been 72 players who have attempted ten or more free throws in a season while failing to make 50%.  22 of those players took 40+ free throw attempts, a more significant number.  

The worst single season, by far, was Arinze Onuaku.  The big guy made only 29.8% of his attempts his junior season, easily beating number #2 Hakim Warrick.  Warrick's freshman year would be an aberration as he shot nearly 66% for his career.  Onuaku made the top 10 season list twice as did notable bricklayer Derek Brower (3rd & 7th).

Five players have taken 100+ free throws in a season failing to make 50%.

Onuaku makes that list twice coming in at #1 and #3.  Terrence Roberts impressively made the list twice too.  Long time fans will remember the high flying Stephen Thompson, who was unstoppable except if you fouled him.  Thompson, a guard/forward, made more of his field goals 56% than free throws 52.7% for his career.  You see big men have a statistical line like that but rare to see a smaller player.

I had mentioned 10+ attempts in my opening, and I wanted to share the bottom ten there, even though in small sample sizes large variations can occur.

First, please note that Paschal Chukwu did not have the requisite 10 attempts.  However even if he had taken one more shot and made it, he still would have been the worst.  0 for 9 is impressive.

Mike Stark was a multiple sport athlete at Syracuse, known for his defensive guard work in basketball.  And yes, that is football Hall of Fame tight end John Mackey on the list.  Fortunately he was better at catching the ball than shooting it.

And finally, here is the worst career free throw shooters at Syracuse, minimum 100 attempts.

Herman Harried was a highly recruited player who had a knee injury derail his career before it really ever got started.  Onuaku and Rick Jackson were teammates as were Derek Brower and Harried, and Jeremy McNeil and Josh Pace. McCroskey and Terrence Roberts were classmates.  Bourama Sidibe is the most recent member of the bottom 10 and Bob Dooms is the oldest having played in the early 1970s.