COLUMBIA, Mo. – Every now and then, somebody asks Scooter Barry why he doesn’t shoot free throws underhanded like his old man used to.
On Saturday, the 6-3 son of former NBA great Rick Barry answered that question without words.
Barry made four free throws in bonus situations in the last minute-and-a-half as Kansas held off Missouri, 82-77, in the Hearnes Center.
“I know how to shoot ’em underhanded,” young Barry said afterward, “but now I’ve proved I can shoot ’em overhand, why change?”
Why, indeed? Barry is the best free throw shooter on the KU team – he’s made 33 of 38 foul shots – and, even though he played just seven minutes Saturday, it’s no secret why he was on the floor at the end.
It wasn’t to play Phi Slamma Jamma, that’s for sure. Barry had a wide-open layup with 32 seconds left, tried to stuff it and the ball bounced harmlessly away to the Tigers.
“I shrunk,” Barry confessed bout that embarassing moment. “I was about an inch tall after I missed it. I was relieved coach Brown was positive about it, though, because I knew I had messed up.”
Brown did not hook Barry after that glaring error, ostensibly because you don’t have an 87 percent foul shooter sitting next to you at crunch time.
“The whole team was worried I was gonna go completely off, I think,” Brown said afterward.
For the record Barry, who has only 17 field goals this season, numbers one stuff among ’em.
“It was against St. John’s and it was two-handed…which this one should have been,” Barry grinned.
As for the free throws, Barry will continue to shoot ’em one-handed overhand and not two-handed underhand.
At the same time, he knows his role, that he’ll be in there when Kansas needs free throws, like it did Saturday.
“I knew they would foul so I prepared myself,” he said. “I’ve been hitting ’em all year.”
Particularly of late. He’s made nine charities in a row, and 10 of his last 11.
