Published 4/8/2008
by Paul Salman
at Bleacher Report - College Basketball
A few weeks ago, while on Pardon the Interruption, Coach John Calipari was asked the importance of free throws to him. His reply was that when he recruits a player he has 25 things he looks for in that player. Free Throw shooting is 26th on that list. Basically, he couldn't be less concerned about the Free Throw shooting skills in the players he recruits. He said his teams never have high FT%, but do hit them when it counts. Before I break this down and show why Coach Cal is wrong and needs to re think ranking of what he looks for in a player, allow me to say that I agree that FT% would be low on my list as well. I would want players on my team that are like the guys that he finds: Athletic, fast, play hard, long arms etc.. However, I would not play down the importance of free throw shooting the way he does. The first thing Memphis defenders will say is that they shot around 70% in the tournament which is more then 8% better then their season average of 61.4%. Its easy to say that, "oh ...
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