Kyler Filewich is quietly having one of the best seasons of any big man in college basketball as the starting center for Wofford. However, it is his unusual approach to free throws that went viral during Saturday’s SoCon matchup against Samford.
He recently decided to go with an underhand, granny-style approach after recording truly horrendous numbers during his first four seasons and into his fifth.
Filewich, a native of Winnipeg, is listed at 6-foot-9, 250 pounds. The big Canadian transferred from Southern Illinois to Wofford prior to the 2022 season and will conclude his college basketball career next month. His numbers are impressive!
In the entire NCAA, Filewich is top-36 in double-doubles, top-15 in rebounds and offensive rebounds, and top-35 in rebounds per game. Pretty solid.
The same cannot be said for Filewich’s free throw percentage. It was not good during his first three years and got even worse during his final two.
- 2020-21: 46%
- 2021-22: 50%
- 2022-23: 40.7%
- 2023-24: 31.6%
- 2024-25: 34%
I don’t know what happened between March of 2023 and November of 2023 to cause such a steep decline but it got even worse this year. The 34% number is deceiving.
Kyler Filewich made only 24 of his first 83 free-throw attempts (28%) prior to the month of February. There were multiple games where he went 0-4 or greater.
Something obviously needed to change so Filewich switched to his new underhand form at the start of February. Take a look:
Wofford’s Kyler Filewich shooting granny style free throws against UTC with varying degrees of success. 😂😂😂 pic.twitter.com/gNZa6oZrPL
— Rick Nyman (@RickNymanSport) February 6, 2025
It was a rather jarring adjustment but the adjustment has worked thus far! He went 56-185 in the last two seasons before switching to granny style. Filewich is up to a 60% clip since the switch including a 6-for-10 outing from the charity stripe on Saturday.
Wofford C Kyler Filewich will beludgend you in HORSE…. pic.twitter.com/6jJ0mH4O44
— Cole Cubelic (@colecubelic) February 15, 2025
Why did the big Canadian wait so long to mix things up? Whose idea was it to go underhand? Regardless of the answers to those two questions, the switch has been made and Kyler Filewich seems to have it figured out.