How Tre Jones executed his miracle missed free throw to save Duke
In a situation no player really wants to be in, Tre Jones relied on the work he’d done to miss a free throw.
With Duke trailing North Carolina 84-82 and 4.4 seconds remaining in regulation, he not only had to miss the second of his two free throws, it had to miss bad enough so he could grab the rebound.
Whether or not the No. 7 Blue Devils would complete their furious comeback from 10 points down in the final two minutes of play relied solely on Jones.
“I felt like the position we were in, being down and everything, it was on me,” Jones said. “I wanted it to be in my hands. If we were going to go down, I wanted it to be on me.”
Fortunately, he’d practiced just this situation with Duke associate head coach Jon Scheyer.
They’d talked about how to miss the free throw and create a long carom so the shooter could run to his right and secure it.
That’s what happened, leading Jones to hitting a 17-foot jump shot as the buzzer sounded to send rivals Duke and UNC to overtime.
Once in the extra period, as time wound down, Jones airballed a shot with the game tied, only to see Wendell Moore grab it out of the air and score on a buzzer-beater of his own to give Duke a miraculous 98-96 win.
So, in the course of one game, one where he scored 28 points, one that added another amazing chapter to the Duke-UNC rivalry, Jones experienced his happiest moments by missing a free throw and a jump shot.
If he didn’t execute the missed free throw, the overtime sequence never happens.
The roots of that successful play go back a few weeks when Jones was spending extra time working on making free throws. But Scheyer brought up a different scenario — what would you do if you had to intentionally miss?
So often, Scheyer and Jones discussed, the attempt to intentionally miss causes the ball to bank in the basket. Or the attempt misses the rim altogether, a violation that gives the other team possession.
To counter that, Scheyer said, he told Jones to take a step to the right from where he normally shoots his free throws.
UNC thrust Jones into a situation that called for that play.
Duke had possession under UNC’s basket with 6.1 seconds to play and the Tar Heels leading 84-81.
The Blue Devils needed three points to tie but UNC was determined not to let them attempt a shot from beyond the arc. After Jones took an inbounds pass from Moore, Andrew Platek fouled him near midcourt with 4.4 seconds left.
Jones sank the first free throw, leaving Duke down by two points.
Krzyzewski subbed in three new players as Matthew Hurt, Jack White and Javin DeLaurier replaced Moore, Alex O’Connell and Cassius Stanley.
Standing at the free throw line, Jones slid to his right just as he and Scheyer had discussed before sliding back a half-step to his left.
Jones’ teammates had no idea he’d practiced that play. But Scheyer noticed him setting up to execute it.
“Thanks to him I knew exactly what to do,” Jones said. “I felt like if I stood on the right a little bit, which he assisted me on, fired it off it should ricochet back to the right and we ended up getting it and getting a good look.”
Official Ted Valentine bounced the ball to Jones on one hop for the free throw attempt. Jones quickly fired it off the rim and it bounded to his right, all the way out beyond the 3-point line.
Hurt ran over and got a hand on it, but Jones was already there, too.
With 3.7 seconds left, he secured the ball with his back to the basket. UNC guards Cole Athony and Leaky Black had also descended on him.
With three seconds left, Jones had turned to head toward the basket when Anthony blocked his path.
At 2.7 seconds, Jones dribbled to his left with his left hand, only to have Black deflect it slightly with 2.2 seconds left.
At 1.6 seconds, Jones had regained possession and dribbled to Anthony’s right to find daylight.
With Platek closing in from his left and Anthony to his right, Jones fired a shot with 0.6 seconds on the clock.
The buzzer sounded as the ball flew toward the basket and swished through the net.
“He made not a good play, that was an amazing play,” Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said. “That’s one of those clinic things.”
Said Jones, “We put ourselves in position to come out with a win. So on that free throw when I got the ball back, I was not looking to pass. I knew I was taking the shot. What happened is what happened.”
With that, Jones flashed a big smile. A few minutes later, Scheyer had a different description than calling it, oh, a basketball play that happened.
“It’s the most amazing thing,” Scheyer said, “I’ve ever seen in a basketball game.”
This story was originally published February 8, 2020 at 11:25 PM.