Good morning everyone. I’m still waiting for the word on the rosters for the upcoming GMCBCA Senior All-Star Game, which is scheduled for April 17th at Perth Amboy High School. Hopefully, I will get them today. When I do, I will put them up as soon as possible. Anyway, what I wanted to talk about was last night’s NCAA Men’s Championship Game between two top seeds from their respective regions, Memphis and Kansas. First, I want to make a correction, and that was that Memphis was actually 38-1 going into last night’s game, not 39-1 as I had indicated in my blog entry from yesterday. Moving on to the game itself, Kansas once again played tough, and took it to its opponent like it did in its victory over North Carolina in the National Semifinals on Saturday.
Nevertheless, Memphis should have won the game. True, Kansas made big plays down the stretch including Mario Chalmers huge three to tie the game at the end of regulation. True, Joey Dorsey fouled out down the stretch, which gave the Jayhawks a better chance to rebound inside. True, Memphis had a point taken away when freshman point guard, Derrick Rose, made an incredible off-balanced shot as the shot clock was winding down that was originally ruled a three pointer, but then was declared a two after review (Great job by the officials…good call). However, an achilles heel that had plagued the Tigers all season despite being downplayed by their head coach, John Calipari, and that was foul shooting. Over the final minute of regulation, Memphis, which had last played in a Final Four in 1985, and in a National Championship game in 1973, misfired on four of five free throws that set the stage from Chalmers late game heroics. Those charity stripe misses, often overlooked nowadays because athleticism and the high flying acrobatic dunks and plays have overshadowed fundamental basketball, cost Memphis not only its first ever National Championship, but also a spot among College Basketball’s great teams.
After beating UCLA in the first of two Final Four games on Saturday evening, Memphis had secured the most wins ever by a college basketball team in a season with 38 eclipsing the previous mark set by four other teams. Had they won on Monday night, the Tigers would have been the first team since the 1973-74 North Carolina State Wolfpack to go an entire season with just one loss. Keep in mind that they lost that one game to Tennessee by a meager few points. Memphis may go down in NCAA history along with the Final Four failures of the Phi Slamma Jamma and Guy Lewis at Houston in 1983 (memorable loss to N.C. State and Jim Valvano) and 1984 (lost to Georgetown), UNLV in 1987 (lost to Indiana in the National Semifinals) and 1991 (lost to Duke in the National Semifinals), and Oklahoma of the late 1980s and early 1990s.
The ending of this game was similar to the 1987 Final between Indiana and Syracuse. The Orangemen, which won the Eastern Regional after defeating top seeded North Carolina at the Meadowlands, advanced to the final by defeating Rick Pitino and a guard named Billy Donovan in the Final Four. In a classic game that went down to the wire, Syracuse had a chance to win it, but wouldn’t you know, free throws, a weakness the heralded Big East program has always seemed to have dealt with, came up and bit them. With 38 seconds to go in the Championship, senior Howard Triche made only one of two at the line, then after a Keith Smart drive and score, and a timeout, Derrick Coleman was fouled, and went to the line with a chance to ice the game, but missed the front end of the one and one, which set up the memorable shot from Smart to win the game. See the video (Keith Hughes from Carteret is in it on the bench for Syracuse).
Let’s not take anything away from Kansas though. Perhaps underestimated due to the fact that North Carolina was the tournament’s overall number one seed, Memphis was so athletic and talented while demolishing several teams to get to the Final Four, and UCLA was of course, a big story since the school was making its third straight Final Four appearance, and is a major force in college basketball thanks to the dynasty the school had during the John Wooden era of 1964-75. Nevertheless, Kansas, with its coach Bill Self, who made fine runs in the NCAA Tournament with teams from Tulsa and Illinois (one of the four schools that had won 37 games in a season, the most prior to Memphis this year), also has a proud basketball tradition, and the Jayhawks hit their free throws (14 of 15 at the line for a scorching 93.3 percent versus 12 of 19 for 63.2 percent by Memphis). The Jayhawks also outrebounded the Tigers (39-28), and limited Memphis to just 40.3 percent shooting overall from the floor while making 52.7 percent of their attempts themselves. On top of that, Kansas, which didn’t make many three point shots during the course of the game, 3 of 12 for 25 percent versus 6 of 22 by Memphis for 27.3 percent, sank two treys during the end of regulation run that forced the overtime.
At long last, March Madness had reclaimed its rightful place with another classic Championship Game thanks to these two teams.