Free throws are, well, free.
But you have to make them. No one is going to give them to you.
N.C. State found that out the hard way Thursday night in its 83-80 overtime loss to St. Louis in the Midwest Regional of the NCAA tournament.
The Wolfpack shot 54.1 percent from the free-throw line, connecting on just 20 of 37.
"Our players are heartbroken," N.C. State coach Mark Gottfried said, per the News Observer. "I'm proud of our team. I'm proud of the year we had but we're always going to feel like we let one slip away."
N.C. State had a 16-point lead with eight minutes left in the game and had a six-point advantage with one minute left in regulation.
T.J. Warren scored 28 points for the Wolfpack (22-14), but made just 6 of his 14 attempts from the line.
"It's hard to explain, we're a good free-throw shooting team," Gottfried said. "It kind of steamrolled on us there from the foul line."
The former Alabama coach took the brunt of the Twitter criticism, not his team.
Mark Gottfried has sat on those timeouts while the Pack unraveled #NCStatevsSTL
-- Jim Dunaway (@jimdunaway) March 21, 201