Free Throw Shooting Costs Memphis In Loss To Xavier In Puerto Rico

Whether it is the championship game of the NCAA Tournament or the championship game of the Puerto Rico Tip-Off tournament, you need to be able to hit your free throws.

Memphis' bad free throw shooting kept the door open for a magical Kansas comeback last April. Last night against Xavier, the Tigers missed 7 of 9 free throws late that cost them the game.

The Musketeers hit their free throws to salt away a 63-58 win over Memphis for the Tip-Off title.

Remember that last year, Memphis head coach John Calipari shrugged off the media's insistence that their bad free throw shooting would cost them. So I find it amazing that in the time since their overtime loss to Kansas and now they haven't gotten any better from the stripe.

Memphis went 15-of-30 from the line in this game and are shooting 67% for the season.

You would think the last thing Calipari told his players to do this offseason was to shoot free throws as much as possible.

That isn't the only thing that ails Memphis. They still don't have a point guard.

Antonio Anderson just isn't cutting it; freshman Wesley Witherspoon isn't ready; and Tyreke Evans is struggling. Evans went 11-for-36 during the tournament, blew a late layup and gunned a ill-advised three point shot that got him yanked from the game. He would be seen in tears as he left the locker room after the game.

That'll happen. He's a freshman. But there is no excuse for this team to continue to be so bad at shooting the freebies.