It’s one of the most routine plays in sports. Step to the line, receive the ball, dribble two or three times and shoot.

It sounds simple enough. But MSU’s inability to consistently knock down free throws has been the difference between being one of the better teams in the country or potentially being out of the tournament picture altogether.

As of Monday, the Spartans are shooting 62.1 percent on free throws. It’s not only the worst mark of an MSU team since the 2001-2002 season, according to the earliest stats available on ESPN.com, it’s the worst free throw shooting percentage in the Big Ten since the 2004-2005 season.

MSU has lost five games by five points or fewer this season, and poor free throw shooting was a factor in each loss. Most recently, the Spartans lost to Illinois at home Saturday, 59-54, after missing eight free throws in the first half and two key ones in the final minute.

Men’s basketball coach Tom Izzo was visibly angry after the Illinois loss. Frustration is mounting for both players and coaches, who are witnessing the season away with each missed free throw.

“I was as mad as I’ve ever been, I’ll be very blunt and honest with that,” Izzo said about his press conference after the loss Saturday. “Because I think it’s ridiculous what we’re going through.

“If you win three more games, you’re 18 and whatever, five, you’re ranked in the top 15 in the country.”

Inexplicably bad from the line

In shooting categories in the Big Ten, the Spartans have the fourth-best field goal percentage (47.1) and second-best 3-point percentage (39.1). But when they step to the free-throw line, the deft shooting touch evaporates.

Counting players who have appeared in more than 10 games, five Spartans are shooting less than 60 percent from the line this season.

More concerning are the free throws missed by MSU’s key shooters. Junior guard Bryn Forbes and senior guard Travis Trice missed clutch free throws against Illinois Saturday that could’ve clinched the win. The players who should be steady from the line are coming up short in close games. The free throw problem has become a mental hurdle.

“We’ve lost one game in a blowout, one game,” Izzo said. “So we got to be doing something right to be knocking on the door all the time. But I think we all know one thing we’re doing wrong, one thing. And is part of the mental toughness part of that? It might be.”

The Spartans are putting in extra time during practice to improve the free throw woes, but have yet to see results. According to Izzo, even a 3 percent increase in free throw percentage could drastically change the season for the better.

“It’s not effort-related things,” Izzo said. “Right now we’re not mentally as tough as you need to be. I voiced that early in the year, too. Some of that, we’re just going to have to have guys spending more and more time, and I don’t know, it’s going to happen, it’s going to come. There’s good enough free throw shooters to shoot well enough, there’s good enough 3-point shooters to shoot well enough, and like everybody else you hope it doesn’t come too late.”

Finding a solution

Players struggled to come up with answers for MSU’s bad free throw shooting after the loss to Illinois.

Trice said they have done everything they could possibly do in practice to improve.

“Just knock them down,” Trice said. “We’ve done everything we can ­— worked on them and everything. So just gotta knock them down.”

Junior forward Matt Costello, a 70.4 percent shooter from the line, denied the Spartans are suffering from a lack of confidence. But players are frustrated.

“I don’t think the confidence is an issue, we all know we’re a good enough basketball team,” Costello said. “Players are just not playing well. It’s frustration more than confidence.

“We know (what) good shooters we are, we know we can make them. It’s just frustration, and that leads to other things.”

Players are rightfully frustrated. Beyond shooting, the Spartans are performing well in several other key categories. They are the best rebounding team in the conference (39.5 per game), boast a top-four scoring defense, and are holding opposing teams to 38.6 percent shooting, the stingiest mark in the Big Ten.

This makes the free-throw line struggles even more perplexing. Izzo has called the Spartans a good, but not great, team. If the Spartans were middle-of-the-pack at the line, it’s not outrageous to suggest they would be the second or third best team in the Big Ten and comfortably in the NCAA tournament conversation.

“If you think I am making too big of a deal about free throw shooting I kind of go by the theory that if there is a problem, keeping your mouth shut isn’t the way to fix it,” Izzo said. “You better address the problem and deal with the fact that it is a problem.”

On the bubble

On one hand, it could be a source of comfort that MSU’s primary weakness is one that, in theory, should be straightforward to correct. On the other hand, there’s reason to believe that if the Spartans haven’t figured the free throw issue out by now, it will remain their Achilles’ heel for the remainder of the season.

“With the skill of the team we have, I wouldn’t think we’d still be dealing with this,” Trice said. “It’s something we have to correct, really. We’re running out of time, so we have to correct it.”

With a month remaining in the regular season, missing the NCAA tournament is a real possibility for the Spartans. MSU is one of the first four teams out of the tournament in CBS Sports analyst Jerry Palm’s latest bracketology, published Sunday.

Izzo’s streak of 17 consecutive NCAA tournament bids is the third-longest in the country, behind only Kansas (25) and Duke (19). Keeping the streak alive is a priority for Trice.

“It means everything, especially when our goals are what our goals are,” Trice said. “Not being in the tournament would definitely change that, so we’ll definitely get in. I don’t want to be part of that class is the first one not to make it.”

The 2004-2005 MSU basketball team, which made free throws at a 77.7 percent clip, struggled with making clutch free throws until tournament time. That Spartan team finished in the Elite Eight round.

Izzo isn’t hedging his bets on a dramatic turnaround in free throw shooting this season. But the Spartans understand one thing — making the tournament starts with making free throws at a more consistent rate.

“I don’t want to jump the gun on what to try until I make sure that some guys that refuse to understand they’re struggling a little bit get in here and work on it because that, to me, is the best way to remedy the problem,” Izzo said.

“I can promise you this: If that changed, we would be talking a lot differently right now. And I’m not talking shooting 75 percent as a team. Just give me the worst in my era — prior to this — and we have three more wins, easy.”