Your team is up two points with 35 seconds left in an NCAA Tournament game. For all of the nearly 20,000 people packed into the arena, it’s difficult to find one who isn’t standing. You’ve just been fouled and are standing on the charity stripe with no other players moving. Two shots. There’s 15 feet between you, a steel rim that is 18 inches in diameter and a dream of helping your school advance to its third Sweet Sixteen in the past 26 seasons. 

You are junior forward Scott Wood. 

And even though you broke an ACC record earlier in the year by draining 66 consecutive free throws, this isn’t exactly like playing at Boston College. It’s the pressure of the bright lights with cameras and cheerleaders and pep bands and media from all across the country. 

So what’s it like? What is going through your head in that moment?

“Well most of it is just confidence,” Wood said. “You just have to know that you have a free shot,  so there’s no reason that you shouldn’t make it. Most of the time if you are comfortable and confident, it’s going to go in.”  

As automatic and predictable as Wood usually is at the line, he actually missed the front end of his two free throw attempts during last Sunday’s game against Georgetown. Tonight, inside of a football stadium that is considered cavernous by basketball standards, Wood may end up in a similar situation – with the addition of over 40,000 more people than the last go around. 

But it’s not going to be the most difficult environment he has ever taken a free throw in. 

“One time I had a high school game against New Castle, which has the biggest high school arena in the nation,” Wood said. “We are bitter rivals and their gym was completely filled. We were No. 1 in the state and they were No. 5. It was a one point game with a minute left and it felt like the whole gym was almost vibrating. I was so nervous, but I fortunately knocked them both in.”  

So even if a Kansas player fouls Wood as time expires and he has two shots to tie or win the game, at least the Edward Jones Dome won’t be violently shaking.