Kentucky Wildcats head coach John Calipari isn't too worried about a repeat of what happened the last time one of his teams faced the Kansas Jayhawks in a national championship game. Missed free throws proved to be the Memphis Tigers' downfall in 2008, when Mario Chalmers hit a 3 for Kansas that propelled them to a national championship.
Calipari has a bit of a history with the Jayhawks program, and with a decent free throw shooting this go around, he is looking to add to the positive memories rather the negative ones.
"Make free throws, that's what I learned," Calipari told the media on Sunday. "We're a terrific free-throw shooting team," he said. "I think we were No. 1 in our league in free-throw shooting. I have no issues with that whatsoever."
Calipari was asked if changed the way he coached free throw shooting since the 2008 collapse and his response was quite candid:
"Yeah. I've recruited better free-throw shooters."
It is important to note that prior to the championship game, Calipari's Tigers were shooting almost 81 percent from the free throw line in its previous three games. Still, it looks like the coach learned a valuable lesson.
Read more about the Jayhawks at Rock Chalk Talk.