Memphis Tigers Basketball, NCAA Basketball NEWS
Free Throw Woes Continue To Haunt Memphis
Published by MoonDog on November 25, 2008
Remember last season when the Memphis Tigers held a 9-point lead with 2:12 remaining in the NCAA basketball national championship game against Kansas? All the Tigers had to do down the stretch was make a few free throws and they would earn their first national championship.
Memphis' Robert Dozier Missed 3-of-4 Free Throws Late Against Xavier
But as they had done all season, Memphis had trouble from the charity stripe and couldn’t seal the win versus the Jayhawks. As things turned out, Memphis’ inability to make free throws when it mattered most cost the Tigers dearly.
Sunday night in San Juan, Puerto Rico, the inability to make free throws cost the Tigers again as they lost the championship game of the Puerto Rico Tip-Off to unranked Xavier 63-58.
Memphis only managed 50 percent from the free throw line, hitting 15-of-30 with senior Robert Dozier clanking three of four late in the game. Dozier finished 2-of-6 from the line while fellow senior Antonio Anderson went 3-for-6 and junior Doneal Mack went 1-for-5.
Memphis got better free throw shooting from their younger players, with sophomore Jeff Robinson connecting on all four of his attempts while freshman phenom Tyreke Evans hit 3-of-4.
At some point you’d like to believe head coach John Calipari would have an answer for the Tigers poor free throw shooting. But the reality is Calipari has never placed a lot of emphasis on a player’s ability to make free throws as one of his prerequisites for recruiting talented prep prospects.
It’s reached a point where Calipari doesn’t acknowledge his team’s continued poor free throw shooting. The Tigers could have won the national championship and Sunday’s game against Xavier with a respectable 70 percent from the charity stripe.
Tigers Guard Antonio Anderson was 3-of-6 From the Free Throw Line
But never do you hear Calipari talking about the problem in his post game press conferences. After Sunday’s loss, Calipari said, “This year’s team is so different from last year’s team and the year before. What disappointed me were our seniors down the stretch.”
“Hopefully, we get better as the season goes on. We had chances to win the game, but didn’t make the plays we needed to make to win. We had some guys that played tentative and not to lose tonight. I want guys to make plays and play to win. I wanted this game to be close.”
While all of that may be true, the bottom line is Memphis could have won the game had they made 21 of their 30 free throw attempts. Not once did Calipari mention that fact after the game, and he refuses to point to the poor free throw shooting as the reason Memphis hasn’t won games they should have.
Through five games this season Memphis is shooting 67 percent from the free throw line (104-for-156), which is actually better than last season’s 59 percent shooting.
However, the Tigers have shot better in their games against weaker competition. Just like last season and against Xavier, Memphis can’t make free throws when the game is on the line.
While Memphis is a good team, they don’t have the margin for error this year like they did last season. The Tigers will have an excellent chance to win Conference USA and make another trip to the NCAA tournament in March.
But their lack of size, experience, depth and propensity to miss free throws will ultimately be too much to overcome.
Calipari and his staff better find the answers to the Tigers free throw shooting problems very quickly, or Memphis is in for a lot more heartache this season.
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