South Florida's Kendall Puryear Goes Viral for a Shot-Put-Style Free Throw: She Missed Both but Still Finished With 12 Points and Nine Rebounds
On November 2 at the Yuengling Center in Tampa, Florida, the University of South Florida women's basketball team opened its season with an 80-54 rout of Furman. The game itself was one-sided, but what spread across social media afterward was a free throw by Bulls forward Kendall Puryear: her shooting motion looked less like a jump shot and more like a shot put throw. According to Fox News and USA Today's For The Win, the clip quickly went viral, with fans calling the form "diabolical."
According to Fox News, Puryear went to the foul line in the second quarter with 3:54 left in the first half. She took her time and jolted upward as if about to shoot normally, then cocked her right arm back and chucked the ball toward the basket from her shoulder. She missed both free throws, the only two she took all game. The form did not spoil her night: in 28 minutes she finished with 12 points, nine rebounds and three steals in the Bulls' win.
There is a backstory to the motion. Per her Purdue bio, cited by For The Win, Puryear is herself a shot put thrower who was ranked No. 1 in Missouri, her home state. For The Win noted that she is a career 57 percent free-throw shooter and speculated that she may be trying something new or working on her mechanics, adding that it remains to be seen whether her free-throw shooting improves as the season goes on.
Puryear, a 6-foot-3 junior forward, spent her first two college seasons at Purdue, where she averaged 6.6 points and 3.2 rebounds during the 2025-26 season, before transferring to South Florida. She was a McDonald's All-American Game nominee and a finalist for Miss Show-Me Basketball in Missouri. Sports Illustrated's SI:AM newsletter also listed her free-throw form among the five most interesting things from college basketball's opening night.
Source: Fox News
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 比赛场馆资料图（佛罗里达州Tampa的Yuengling Center，南佛罗里达大学女篮主场，TheCustomOfLife摄，公共领域，经Wikimedia Commons）
