LINCOLN — Doc Sadler sometimes wonders if Nebraska is only 15 feet away from being a pretty good basketball team.

That's the distance between a Husker free-throw shooter and the basket. Right now, it might as well be a mile.

NU is 283rd nationally out of 347 teams in free-throw percentage (.643) entering Saturday's 3 p.m. home game with Maryland-Eastern Shore (3-8).

“If we don't get that free-throw situation corrected, it can make for a bad year,'' Sadler said. “We're shooting them decent in practice.''

But not in games, where most coaches consider 70 percent from the line a minimum.

Nebraska (10-3) has three regulars at that mark: guard Brandon Richardson .824 (28-34); forward Ryan Anderson .765 (29-38); and forward Brandon Ubel .708 (17-24).

Post players Quincy Hankins-Cole and Jorge Brian Diaz have been the most efficient at getting to the line per minutes played. But Hankins-Cole is shooting .345 (10-29) and Diaz .536 (15-28).

“In the last two years,'' Sadler said, “free throws are what has kept this team from being an NCAA tournament team.

“If you look back at games we've lost — close games where we shot less than 60 percent — then you would have had two or three more wins each season.''

What's the solution?

“That's one area I don't know how to get corrected,'' Sadler said, “other than to shoot free throws.''

Not obsessing over a dry spell helps, too.

“Sometimes you've got to make just one or two to get on a roll,'' Sadler said. “That's what the team has got to understand.

“In a three- or four-point league game, those are free points you can't leave out there.''

NOTES: Husker forward Myles Holley (bad back) had missed practice the past two days and is “50-50'' for today, Sadler said. ... Maryland-Eastern Shore is 0-7 away from home with an average margin of defeat of 23 points. ... According to the realtimerpi.com Web site, Nebraska is No. 107 and UMES No. 321.

Contact the writer:

444-1024, lee.barfknecht@owh.com

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