Carson Towt plays significant minutes for Notre Dame during his fifth season of college basketball. However, he cannot shoot a free throw.
The 24-year-old graduate transfer has the yips. Permanently.
Towt’s free throw shooting percentage is on a steady decline since the start of his college basketball career. It is more than 15% worse today than it was during his freshman season.
Who is Carson Towt?
As a native of Gilbert, Arizona, Towt did not get any Division I scholarship offers out of high school as someone who mostly played guard. A late growth spurt transformed him into a power forward and Northern Arizona saw the potential. It offered Towt a position as a preferred walk-on.
He accepted the offer and blossomed into a star. Just not right away.
Towt used his redshirt during the 2019-20 season. He averaged only 5.6 points points, 1.3 assists and 4.6 rebounds in 21.3 minutes during his debut season as a redshirt freshman in 2020-21. His numbers only increased from there.
- 2021-22: 8.4 points, 8.8 rebounds, 3.7 assists in 29.7 minutes
- 2022-23: 10.1 points, 7.8 rebounds, 3.0 assists in 28.3 minutes
An injury forced Carson Towt to sit out the entire season in 2023-24. The 6-foot-8 power forward returned to the court with 13.3 rebounds, 3.4 assists and 12.4 rebounds in a career-high 33.7 minutes per game last season. It was a breakout year. He led the nation with 423 (!!) rebounds.
Because of the two redshirt seasons and blanket waiver of eligibility in 2020-21, Towt was able to run it back in 2025-26. Notre Dame brought him in as a transfer and his teammates love him.
Carson Towt is bringing joy (and the 8 P’s) to the gym one practice at a time 😂#GoIrish☘️ pic.twitter.com/JD7dCmRLpy
— Notre Dame Men's Basketball (@NDmbb) January 8, 2026
The big fella dominates the boards!
just doing his job 🫡
— Notre Dame Men's Basketball (@NDmbb) December 27, 2025
Carson Towt absolutely dominating the boards this season!#GoIrish☘️ pic.twitter.com/9eXfN3QwU4
Carson Towt currently averages 9.3 rebounds per game for the Fighting Irish. He actually entered into the Top 75 all-time in rebounding just last week.
Notre Dame’s seventh-year senior can’t shoot a free throw.
Although he makes his living on the glass, Towt also scores an average of 6.3 points per game on an impressive 61.7% shooting for Notre Dame. His free throw percentage is so much worse.
Carson Towt made 51.2% of his free throws as a redshirt freshman in 2020-21. That number is all of the way down to just 35.4% this season.
- 2020-21: 51.2%
- 2021-22: 46.3%
- 2022-23: 40%
- 2023-24: 37.9%
- 2025-26: 35.4%
I can only attribute this decline to a bad case of the yups. Towt simply cannot put the ball in the hoop from the charity stripe.
New style of free-throw miss just dropped pic.twitter.com/eBzMtH8tvV
— Mike Rutherford (@CardChronicle) February 5, 2026
It is a huge deal when one finally goes in!
Towt has attempted 48 free throws so far this year and made only 17. He is 0-10 in his last 10 attempts and 2-17 in his last 17. That’s astonishing. The ball just won’t fall!
For as good as Towt has been from the field, free throw shooting will forever be his downfall.