IOWA CITY — Whenever Jordan Morgan goes to the free throw line, he does his best to shut everything out, to channel his focus and look directly at the rim.

He tries to imagine the fans gone, the pressure gone. Just him, the rim and the free throw.

“Like it was just empty,” Morgan said.

That's what he tried to do Saturday, his team trailing by two points at Iowa, 65-63, with 12.2 seconds left and the Wolverines'' fate on his broad shoulders. He called them the biggest free throws of his 19-year-old life.

What did Morgan, who shot 52.7 percent from the free throw line entering Saturday, do? He made them both because he was able to clear everything out. The shots forced overtime and gave the Wolverines an opportunity to pick up a 75-72 road win.

“That time it was,” Morgan said. “Not every time, but it was just so important to the team and to me. I knew if I didn’t make both of those, we probably wouldn’t have had another shot.

“Just took a deep breath and get everything out and just focus on the rim.”

Morgan insists he isn’t a poor free throw shooter. He says he makes them in practice, but sometimes rushes during games. Numbers are numbers, though, and Iowa coach Fran McCaffery knew them.

He told his players if Morgan had the ball near the basket to foul him. Force him to block things out and focus on free throws instead of being almost automatic a couple feet from the hoop. After Morgan made the first, McCaffery called a timeout, trying to ice him.

“The kid made both with a timeout in between,” McCaffery said. “Gotta give him credit for that.”

There was no rushing Saturday. Morgan spent parts of the past week on his own, with his head coach John Beilein and with assistant coach Bacari Alexander working on fixing his free throws, anticipating a situation like this.

“Free throws, in my opinion, are a way to show toughness,” Alexander said. “Jordan Morgan showed big shot toughness today. It’s a testament to his mental fortitude.”

The free throws were merely part of Morgan’s 18-point, eight-rebound night and another step in his maturation process. But even he’ll admit those two, in particular, were big.

The were big for his own confidence. They were big for his team. They were the reason he was selected to stand on a chair and sing ‘The Victors’ after the game.

“You look at his percentages,” Beilein said. “He’s been working so hard on his foul shooting. But there was no question on either one of them.”

Michael Rothstein covers Michigan basketball for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached at 734-623-2558, by e-mail at michaelrothstein@annarbor.com or follow along on Twitter @mikerothstein.