“Icing the shooter” in basketball: The unintended consequences of time-out management when the game is on the line

While the sport of basketball is usually characterized by a non-segmented and mostly uninterrupted play, the stoppage of the time due to time-outs (TOs) is widespread when the game is on the line. In the current investigation, we studied the effects of TOs on free-throw performance when NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association) games were close and time was winding down (n = 99,026 combined sample). We generally found that time extension before execution undermined performance but not in the last minute of play when performance deteriorated altogether. In line, traditional icing when TOs were called by opposing coaches specifically to undermine performance in the last minute of play failed to exact the intended goal of lowering free-throw performance. •We analyzed whether time-outs affected free-throw shooting in close NCAA games nearing their end.•Free throw shooting subsequent to time-outs was lower in the last 5 minutes excluding the last minute regardless of who initiated the time-out.•There was no effect of time-outs on free-throw performance in the last minute of play.•‘Icing’ strategies hence do not seem to work in collegiate basketball.