A little more than three years ago when he was coaching the Memphis Tigers, John Calipari appeared on Pardon the Interruption during the five-minute interview segment.
PTI host Tony Kornheiser asked Calipari about his team’s terrible free throw shooting, noting that although Memphis was going to be a No. 1 seed in that year’s NCAA basketball tournament, the Tigers were shooting 59 percent from the charity stripe.
Calipari said, “My teams have historically not been that great of free throw shooters. We typically make 58, 62, 59 percent during the regular season.
But in late game situations, we hit them. Against UAB, the last point for us was a free throw. And in the NCAA tournament last year, we shot 72 percent. If I had a list of 25 aspects of recruits’ games that I find important when recruiting them, free throw shooting would be 26th.”
And now you know why Kentucky got bounced out of the NCAA basketball tournament on Saturday when they made only 4 of 12 free throws in losing to Connecticut 56-55.
Some will argue that the Wildcats lost the game because DeAndre Liggins and Josh Harrellson didn’t play well, or others will point to Brandon Knight’s poor shooting performance.
The Wildcats faithful may say the game was lost because the team only shot 33.9 percent from the field. You might find those who believe that Kentucky lost because of their lack of depth and the obvious fatigue that set in late in the game.
But when it comes down to the nitty gritty, Kentucky lost for the same reasons that Memphis lost the 2008 national title game against Kansas when they blew a nine-point lead with 2:12 left.
The Wildcats and Tigers lost because they didn’t make free throws, and the reason they missed them is because Calipari isn’t all too concerned with that aspect of the game.
I’d be willing to bet Kentucky’s players would say about the same things that Memphis’ players did in 2008.
The Tigers’ players said they could knock down free throws in practice, but when the game was on the line that’s when the clanking noises started.
And that’s exactly what happened to Kentucky against the Huskies.
Even though the Wildcats were coming into the tournament shooting 71 percent for the season from free throw line, the Final Four and all its pressures, especially for a young team like Kentucky, has a funny way of making you miss the easiest shot in basketball.
And no doubt Kentucky was fatigued because of their lack of depth, but that’s not an excuse. The Wildcats have played with a limited bench all season, so the fatigue issue wasn’t a factor like some suggest.
The real factor was Calipari’s continued inattention to free throw shooting that ultimately cost Kentucky. And what’s most baffling is that he knows an inability to make free throws cost him a national championship when he coached Memphis.
But let’s give Calipari credit where it’s due. I honestly believe this was his best coaching job considering that this year’s Kentucky team was nowhere near as talented or deep as last season’s team.
Last season many believed the Wildcats were Final Four bound, but they lost to West Virginia in the regional finals. No one gave Kentucky much of a chance this season after damn near everybody left the program to enter the NBA.
Even with a highly talented recruiting class, this season’s Wildcats’ team wasn’t in the same league as the 2009-10 squad, but Calipari figured out a way to coach this team within one point of making an appearance in the national championship game.
But poor free throw shooting continues to haunt Calipari and his teams, and until he begins to place the proper amount of emphasis on that element of the game, he could very well have more heartaches awaiting him on the horizon.
