Did Kansas win, or did Memphis lose?

A few thoughts the day after the NCAA Tournament championship game while cruising at 30,000 feet somewhere between Detroit and Washington, D.C....
I’m not sure that I will ever understand America’s fascination with failure. People seem to enjoy watching others come up short or make a mistake only to point fingers and criticize. Maybe it wouldn’t bother me so much when it comes to sports, except that Skip Bayless, Woody Paige and so many of the other screaming sports writers on television derive what can only be described as something just short of orgasmic joy from labeling a player as having “choked.” I can only assume that belittling young men with athletic abilities that a middle-aged white guy could never dream of having because the player might have been affected by the very real pressure of the moment makes them feel better.
Did Memphis get tight in the game’s closing minutes, with the national championship in its grasp? Without a doubt.
The Tigers made only one field goal in the final five minutes. All-American Chris Douglas-Roberts and sensational freshman Derrick Rose combined to miss four free throws in the final 75 seconds, all of which occurred as both nervously fell away from the charity stripe upon releasing the ball, seemingly fearing that their worst nightmare would come true before the ball ever reached the rim.
Coach John Calipari made arguably the biggest blunders, failing to call a timeout with 10.8 seconds left to communicate a gameplan, and as a result Memphis did not commit a foul to prevent the Jayhawks from attempting a game tying 3-pointer. Calipari said afterward that the Tigers were trying to commit a foul, but either his players didn’t know that was the plan or they did a terrible job of executing it.
For all of the mistakes Memphis made down the stretch, all it did was give Kansas an opportunity. The Jayhawks responded by making every crucial play necessary to win the game.
To say that Memphis choked away the championship is an insult to Kansas and everything it accomplished in overcoming a nine-point deficit with 2:12 left in the second half.
Let’s start with the most overlooked — yet most important — play of the rally. After cutting the lead to seven and calling timeout, Sherron Collins stole the ensuing inbounds pass, threw it to a teammate while falling out of bounds, then came back onto the court and waited behind the 3-point line until Russell Robinson passed it to him and he calmly buried a 3.
Fast forward 49 seconds to Darrell Arthur, whose twisting, off balance 8-foot jumper rolled around the rim, off the glass and in, cutting the Jayhawk’s deficit to only two points. With everything else that took place during the rest of the game, you might have missed that Arthur was KU’s leading scorer and rebounder with 20 points and 10 boards.
Then, after Rose made a clutch free throw to put Memphis up 63-60 with 10.8 seconds remaining, Collins exploded up court past Rose. Maybe the Tigers were going to try and foul him, but Collins made sure no one could touch him.
The burst of speed gave Collins enough space to make a hand off to Mario Chalmers, who calmly dribbled to the top of the key and sank a tightly contested game-tying 3-pointer that etched his name in championship game history next to North Carolina State’s Lorenzo Charles, Indiana’s Keith Smart and some guy from North Carolina named Michael Jordan.
Yes, Memphis made mental mistakes.
Yes, CD-R and Rose missed pressure-packed free throws.
But despite those errors, with the final seconds of the season ticking away and a championship on the line, Kansas still had to make a shot. With the opportunity for immortality in front of him, Chalmers accepted the challenge and came through.
The 2008 NCAA Championship game was one of the best ever — not because of a few mistakes, but thanks to fantastic performances by both teams.
That’s what I will remember.