The total is now up to three.

Three coaches, that is, who complained about officiating following a game with Notre Dame.

First Seton Hall coach Louis Orr blasted the officials for whistling his team with too few fouls, citing a 29-9 disparity in free throws attempted. Then Rutgers coach Gary Waters made a thinly-veiled comment about the quality of Big East officiating after his team watched Notre Dame take 23 foul shots to the Knight's nine.

The latest member of the club? Boston College coach Al Skinner, who, after his team lost to the Irish 101-96 Saturday pointed out that the Irish made more free throws (31) than the Eagles shot (19).

But there's a good chance coaches wouldn't be complaining a lot if the Irish weren't deadly from the free throw line.

So far this season, the Irish have shot 75.7 percent from the charity stripe, a percentage that jumped to 77.6 in Big East play alone. That places the Irish second behind Providence in free throw shooting.

"We have a good free throw shooting team," said senior Matt Carroll, who is second on the team with a 82.6 percent free throw shooting average. "It's a big weapon we use to score. The more we drive, the more we get to the line."

Chris Thomas and Carroll lead the team in both free-throw attempts and percentage — Thomas has connected on a team-high 86.4 percent of his shots — a statistic that shows a newfound aggressiveness on the part of the Irish guards.

But the team's free throw shooting success has come as a result of solid foul shooting from Notre Dame's big men. In fact, in conference play, only Jordan Cornette — who has made five of his nine attempts — is shooting under 70 percent from the line.

"We have a lot of good shooters on this team," Carroll said. "Guys are confident, and they know if they want points, they can get some free ones from the line."

Part of Notre Dame's success from the line comes from a drill the Irish run to end every practice. Every member of the team steps to the line to shoot one free throw. The ratio varies, but on average, only two players are allowed to miss their free throw. If more than two miss, the whole team takes off running, only to return to the line to repeat the process until enough players make their free throw.

"It's a pressure shot," Carroll said. "You've got everyone watching you, and everyone wants you to make it."

Notre Dame's foul shooting, however, has bailed them out of many a tight game. Against Boston College Saturday, for example, the Irish made 31-of-42 attempts — including 12-of-17 in overtime — while the Eagles made 13-of-19.

The most impressive foul shooting performance to date by the Irish this season came against Rutgers. The Irish made 22-of-23 shots from the line, with the lone miss coming in garbage time by the team's best free-throw shooter, Thomas.

It's also no coincidence that two of Notre Dame's losses have come when the Irish shot their worst from the line. Against Creighton, Notre Dame made 55 percent of their shots, and against Pittsburgh, the Irish hit just 53.3 percent.

Notes:

The Irish returned from Boston Sunday without incident — which is more than they can say for the last time they took a road trip.

When the team was flying back from Providence after a 71-65 win Tuesday, the chartered plane touched down safely in Indiana. Only when the Irish looked out the window, the plane wasn't at South Bend Regional Airport.

Due to a mix-up, the Notre Dame charter plane landed in Elkhart Municipal Airport, some 15 miles short of their destination.

After a short delay, the plane took off again, cruised for five minutes and landed in South Bend around 2 p.m.

"That was crazy," Carroll said. "I don't know what happened, but it was crazy."

Irish sophomore Chris Thomas was named co-Big East Player of the Week, sharing honors with Miami's Darius Rice.

Thomas averaged 25.5 points, 6.5 assists and 6.5 boards in road wins over Providence and Boston College.

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