Amid protracted silence, between the echo of the bouncing ball and the time Darington “Butter” Hobson’s first free throw attempt left his fingertips in overtime, a tinge of uncertainty befell the sold out Pit throng.
Little did they know — Hobson had been here before.
No fans were privy to Hobson’s previous preparation, the countless time he spent after practices, hell-bent on perfecting his free-throw stroke.
For three weeks, he’d shoot in solitude, after his teammates had long departed. Just Hobson, the ball and the hoop.
“I shot until I felt my wrist was getting tired,” he said.
And now it had come to this: First place in the Mountain West Conference on the line. A tied ball game, 86-86. The ball in Hobson’s hands. Five seconds left in the game.
With the help of a quick jab step and slight pump fake, Hobson baited Aztecs’ forward Billy White into fouling him.
Now he’d step to the line, a place where, like the Bermuda Triangle, the Lobos’ fabled guard often found himself lost.
“Games like that — that’s what I live for,” Hobson said with a covert sense of confidence. “A player of my caliber, I think that’s a game that you have to step up for.”
Still, as multi-talented as he is, Hobson and free throws didn’t go together like “Butter” and bread.
After all, this was the same Hobson who entered Saturday’s game as the Lobos’ second-worst free-throw-shooting guard at 62.9 percent, trailing behind Jamal Fenton.
“I knew the game was on the line,” Hobson said. “I knew it was going to be tough.”
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Instead there was no nail biting, as Hobson steadied his hands, swishing the first of a pair of free throws and giving UNM an 86-85 overtime advantage.
Upon seeing his shot softly caress the bottom of the net, Hobson breathed a sigh of relief.
At long last.
“It’s all mental. You have to be able to shoot when you’re fatigued,” Hobson said. “Coach tells us every single day, ‘It’s a 15-foot shot with no one guarding you.’ Coach Neal tells me every day that you have to learn to let plays go. I think that was my problem during the beginning of the season. When I’d miss free throws, I’d sit and dwell on it and get frustrated and worry about why I missed instead of just moving onto the next free throw.”
But in this game of unscripted theatrics, he was the standout thespian.
Hobson finished with his sixth double-double of the season, falling one point short of tying his career-high: 29 points, 12 rebounds, six assists and, most importantly, no turnovers.
When he wasn’t hitting 55-foot circus shots, he was tossing pinpoint passes, one in particular at the 15:23 second-half mark — a no-look feed to Phillip McDonald, which translated into a transition dunk that gave the Lobos a 51-43 lead.
“He had one of those special nights that a special player has,” said Lobo head coach Steve Alford. “He’s very, very gifted. For him to make the plays, even in overtime … not a lot of people can put up those numbers. … Sometimes those big-time players have big-time days. This was one of them. He did everything.”
No one could stop him, not White in overtime, nor Kawhi Leonard in regulation, or anyone on the Aztecs’ roster, for that matter.
With 14:42 left in the second half, Hobson hit a 15-foot, step-back jumper over Aztecs’ Kelvin Davis. In typical Hobson style, the Lobo guard stared down Davis, head cocked to the side.
“I felt like that was a pretty good shot, a tough shot that I hit,” said Hobson, who knows and has a budding rivalry with several members of SDSU’s basketball team. “I was feeling it a little bit. I think that my emotions got the best of me a little bit. That’s just how I am. I’m a very emotional player.”
Yet, as demonstrative as he is, Hobson hasn’t been T’d up all season.
“You gotta know when to control it,” Hobson said. “You got to know when enough is enough. I’m not going to go overboard and hurt my team, getting a tech. I know when to say stuff and when to get the crowd going and when not to.”
And, oh, you should have heard them roar after that free throw.
