How long till an opposing team implements the Hack-a-Shaq strategy against the undefeated, foul-line inept Memphis Tigers? After yesterday's out-of-conference defeat of Gonzaga, John Calipari's team is now 19-0, and this despite shooting 58.6 percent from the charity stripe this season -- which puts them 324th out of 328 Division I teams through games of January 24. Mind you, it's not a case of one or two brick layers; the Tigers have free masons throughout their lineup, which raises questions about whether the #1 team will win tight games later in the season and whether teams should purposely start fouling this fast-paced, high-flying squad, whose biggest strength might be its transition game.

Below are the free-throw shooting percentages of the 10 Memphis players who average at least 10 minutes per game this season.


* Derrick Rose 68.0
* Chris Douglas-Roberts 65.6
* Robert Dozier 73.2
* Antonio Anderson 53.5
* Joey Dorsey 35.7
* Shawn Taggart 56.3
* Willie Kemp 64.3
* Andre Allen 55.0
* Doneal Mack 75.0
* Jeff Robinson 41.7

Those look the average grades of Florida State football players.

If you're an opposing team, why wouldn't you simply send in your end-of-the-bench guys, put Memphis in the bonus as soon as possible, then put your starters in and go from there? I mean, if the ball's ever in the hands of Anderson, Taggart, Robinson or god forbid Dorsey, who'd probably improve his percentage by drop-kicking his free throws, why wouldn't you play as aggressively as possible? Every time Joey "357" Dorsey touches the ball, he should be hit with pillow cases loaded with soap. "Oh, sorry about that, did I foul you?"

Shaquille O'Neal's inability to hit free throws at a respectable rate (52.4 percent over his career) has long caused NBA teams to foul him on purpose. Rather than give up an easy two down low, it's always been wiser to take your chances that the Diesel will miss one (or both) of his free throws. Despite this Hack-a-Shaq strategy, O'Neal has led his teams to four NBA titles, thanks in part to the complementary play of Kobe Bryant and Dwyane Wade. But if Bryant and Wade couldn't hit free throws either, wouldn't teams have hacked them as well?

Memphis is an exciting team, with Derrick Rose and Chris Douglas-Roberts pushing the ball down the court and pressuring the get-back abilities of opposing defenses. But when your primary ball-handlers don't even shoot 70 percent from the line, and one of your frontcourt players (Dorsey) shoots nearly twice as well from the field as he does from the line, you've got a glaring weakness that can definitely be exploited.

Is fouling on purpose unsportsmanlike? That's debatable. What's not debatable is that Memphis is a terrible free-throw shooting team, more or less from top to bottom, and that the Tigers will be hard-pressed to win close games (particularly in March) if they don't improve.

So far, Memphis has been winning by the second-highest margin of victory in the country (Kansas). The closest game they've played all season was Dec. 4 against USC, when they beat the Trojans by 4. In that game, the Tigers shot 7 of 18 from the field (38.8 percent), which was even crummy by their low standards.

In probably their biggest match-up all season, against then-#5 Georgetown, the Tigers channeled J.J. Redick, hitting 22 of 29 for an uncharacteristic 76 percent. And why'd they shoot that well? Because the vast majority of those free throws were shot by their three best free-throw shooters, at least among regulars: Dozier (6-6), Douglas-Roberts (9-12) and Rose (6-7).
(Dorsey, who had a monster game on the boards with 13 rebounds, sucked even worse than usual from the line, going 1-4.)

The Tigers next game is Wednesday against Houston, the second-best team in Conference USA. Then, down the road they play Tennessee, which is perhaps the best team, pre-tournament, which Memphis still has to face. Perhaps these teams feel capable of beating Calipari and Co. in a straight-up game. Or maybe they'll realize that Hack-a-Tiger might be the best way to slow down the country's last unbeaten team.