Dykstra: Sell Into Strength

March Madness is upon us, and scorecards in Sports Illustrated's 2009 NCAA Tournament Preview suggest that you don't want to pick your team based on the number of players who perfected their free-throwing technique way back when in the family driveway.

UCLA guard Darren Collison may have the best scorecard, making free throw shots 91.2% of the time. But Utah has the best overall average this season, at 78.4%. Still, Utah doesn't even have one of the top 10 free-throwers. No matter. The better free-throw-shooting team does not have an edge in games where free throws decide the game. In fact, the best free-throw teams only win about half the time in games decided by up to three points, according to SI's data.

...