I know that Tiller had a previous injury and that it worsened with the foul. The fact is that Tiller was healthy enough to play just seconds after the free throws were shot. If Tiller is healthy enough to be an active defender then he's healthy enough to shoot free throws. He wasn't going to be as accurate as he normally is, but he was certainly healthy enough to shoot the ball, play defense, etc or else Anderson would have never put him immediately back into the game. Anderson used the old system perfectly and won a close game with it. I guarantee most any other coach would do the same thing if their in a tight game.
As a Missouri fan, I would expect you to know how active Missouri's guards hands are in playing defense. If a hand injury can keep Tiller from shooting free throws then it would certainly keep him from playing the active Tiger defense that Anderson loves. And let's not forget that Tiller played against both Memphis and UConn following the injury even leading the Tigers with 23 points against Memphis. The injury certainly affected his free throw shooting (he shot 50% from the FT line for the rest of the tourney) and thus why Mike Anderson was smart enough to pull Tiller for English at the free throw line.
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Originally Posted by Mizzou B-ball fan
Tiller had an injury on that hand, but it wasn't bothering him until he was hacked on the shot. When Marquette fouled him, it turned a sprain into two completely torn ligaments, which he played with for the rest of the tourney. I'm surprised he even shot 50% after that. The previous rule made perfect sense in that instance. Had Tiller not been hurt on the play, he would have knocked those shots down. Since ligaments were torn on that play, the coach who's player was injured SHOULD have the right to put in a new player.
He was put back in for defensive purposes. He wasn't going to shoot the rest of that game under any circumstances. You don't need to be able to shoot to play defense. I'm surprised a basketball fan doesn't know that.
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