The ACC’s Best Free Throw Shooters

A key statistic for team success

There’s never a good time to lack awareness of the free throw proficiency of an opposing player. But it’s a bit of intelligence that’s particularly germane when the games are dwindling to a precious few and any edge can spell the difference between a season that’s regarded as a success or a disappointment.

The chart below reveals the best foul shooters in the ACC, the players you least want to foul when a game’s on the line. Or, conversely, the player you’re most confident will prosper if you set him up to intentionally get the ball when an opponent is fouling to take advantage of your inbounds play.

Of this elite contingent of superior foul shooters, only Pitt’s Jaland Lowe and Duke’s Kon Knueppel are underclassmen, and perhaps not as hardened as others to the pressure of making game-deciding free throws. Most are seniors. Most of the top free throwers also have qualified for official ACC leadership by converting at least 2.5 foul shots per game played.

A few individual performances at the line are particularly noteworthy following as the season comes to an end.

North Carolina’s RJ Davis is poised at the brink of the ACC’s all-time top 10 in career free throw percentage at .8597. That’s a shade ahead of Clemson’s Marquise Reed (.8592 from 2017-19) and .015 behind the tenth-best foul shooter ever in the ACC, Duke’s Jon Scheyer (.8612 from 2007-10).

Two players are perfect at the line to date. Clemson’s Jake Heidbreder (from Floyds Knobs, Ind.) was 12-12 in 24 games. And, most impressive, Louisville’s Reyne Smith, already well-known for his 3-point accuracy (.935 on 46 tries), has made every one of his 30 free throws in ACC play, with an overall .938 conversion rate (45-48). That would officially be the league’s best if he had just a few more tries from the line.

On another free throw-related note, Duke has five players converting at least 80.6 percent of their foul shots. Overall the team was hitting .774 of its free throws through Feb.17, third-best in program history, after only the .791 conversion rate of 1978 and the .785 of 1973. Oddly, Pitt and Stanford were this season’s ACC team leaders through Feb. 17 with those identical percentages.