MORGANTOWN, W. Va. — Derek Culver attempted 14 free throws Tuesday night.
TCU — and we’re talking the entire team here — attempted 17.
That’s the Culver effect, if you will, and it was in full force, as the 10th-ranked Mountaineers fended off the Horned Frogs, 74-66, to end a three-game losing streak inside the Schollmaier Arena.
In the paint, Culver could not be stopped. He had drop steps. He powered through defenders. He even had one bucket with a leaning finger roll and another while getting bumped away from the basket.
“He’s a guy who really absorbs contact,” WVU head coach Bob Huggins said. “He’s a really strong guy.”
Here’s the thing, though, Culver made just six of those 14 free-throw attempts.
“I left some freebies out there,” he said.
Well, no kidding.
In this particular game, it can be said those misses helped keep TCU in the game, even though the Horned Frogs never got closer than eight points over the final 10 minutes.
Now, this isn’t to dump on Culver, we simply bring this up to make a point.
That point: Culver’s free-throw shooting may cost him a real shot at Big 12 Player of the Year.
Make no mistake, Culver is going to be on the all-conference first team at season’s end.
His 18 points and 14 rebounds against TCU was his 11th double-double, making him the most dominant big man in the league.
Culver has earned every ounce of respect he gets from opposing teams and players each game.
But, for a moment, just imagine how much more would be thought of the young man if Culver was a 70% or 75% shooter at the line rather than 58%.
We’d be talking about the kind of individual season that is reserved for WVU legends.
We’d be talking about nights where 18 points and 14 rebounds was an off night, not a great game.
If that was the case, then Baylor guard Jared Butler — as great as he’s been this season — would not be the only candidate for Big 12 Player of the Year right now.
You’d have to look at Culver, too.
Honestly, you still might have to, because Culver is just the second player since 2012 to average better than 15 points and 10 rebounds per game in the Big 12.
But, again, what could those numbers look like?
Could he be a 20-10 guy on average? I think that would be the floor, not the ceiling if Culver was more steady at the line.
“It’s something I’m going to think about on the way home,” Culver said of the missed free throws. “There’s not much I can really do about it now, but it’s not like I was trying to miss.”
Maybe Culver’s best game to date was the 28 points and 12 boards he had in that loss against Florida. He was 14 of 17 from the foul line that day.
That’s the potential that lies inside Culver by making free throws.
All of a sudden, you look at Culver’s dominant play as a guy scoring 25 every game and you’ve got major awards coming to you, regardless of whether or not Baylor goes undefeated.
NBA scouts would have to take big-time notice, too, although that is a discussion for another day.
For now, the discussion is Culver is a first-team guy in the Big 12. That’s a no-brainer, but, man, what could it be if he could have made a few more here and there from the charity stripe over the course of 22 games?
“Probably, I would think if he was better at the line, he probably wouldn’t get fouled as much,” WVU head coach Bob Huggins said. “I thought we had it fixed, but it’s like anything else, when you get away from it and don’t do it, when you come back to it, you’re not as good as you were when you left. He hasn’t put the time in that he was putting in when he was shooting it a little better.”
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