The Kansas Jayhawks are the national champions. Wow. I can’t believe I finally get to write and say that.
If you read this blog on a regular basis, you know that I’m a huge homer for the Royals and the Jayhawks. In 2002, as a shy Woodberry freshman, I ran my Kansas flag up the Woodberry flagpole to celebrate our trip to the final four. This year I dug the flag out of a corner in my room and sent it to my brother, a Woodberry senior, by overnight mail (it was expensive, but well worth it). The flag made an appearance Sunday morning to remind WFS's 100 North Carolina students exactly how the throwdown between KU and its old coach had turned out. Perhaps we can get the Nachoman to add his thoughts on the flag and its appearance.
To be honest, I don’t even know how to describe Monday night’s game against Memphis. Much of it already seems like a blur. Let’s see if I can break things down in a more or less organized fashion.
First half: Kansas did an excellent job on the defensive end. Coach Bill Self knew that Memphis stars Chris Douglas-Roberts and Derrick Rose were going to get the majority of the touches, so the Jayhawks turned a rotation of guards loose on the those two players. Sherron Collins and Russell Robinson did a great job limiting Rose, who makes the Memphis offense click by driving to the basket and either drawing a foul, getting a lay-up or kicking the ball out for an open jumper. To counter this plan, Robertson and Collins worked to take away Rose’s drive and make him dump the ball off 25 or 30 feet away from the basket. This forced Memphis out of its usual free-wheeling offense and into a slower, more traditional half-court style. On the offensive end, Kansas did an excellent job of getting the Memphis big men Dorsey, Dozier and Taggart into foul trouble. At the same time, they got a handful of easy baskets in the paint but missed a bunch of shots from behind the arc. Kansas by five at the half. I spent the first five minutes shaking… literally shaking from anxiety! I was convinced that I was going to have an ulcer.
Second half: Here’s the problem with the Kansas team: we have a bunch of great players, but we don’t’ have someone who is going to be an NBA superstar. In fact, I don’t know if any of our players will even be all stars in the future. Derrick Rose is a future all star, and during the second half he just took over. We couldn’t do anything to stop him during the last 15 minutes of the game. He was making unbelievable shots, finding the open man – even banking in a three (later changed to a two because his foot was over the line) while falling down as the shot clock expired. In the meantime, my ulcer was growing progressively worse. I was having terrible flashbacks to all of the Kansas choke jobs I’ve seen in the last 10-15 years. Memphis led by nine with 2:12 left to play… I was sitting on my bed with my head in my hands while my roommates and girlfriend removed sharp objects and all potential projectile objects from my reach.
Let’s be honest. This game was over. Even after Darrell Arthur dropped in a turnaround jumper with 2:08 left, we were still going to have to foul and pray. That’s when all hell broke loose. Memphis knew Kansas was looking to foul, yet they couldn’t even get the ball in bounds! Kansas has three guards (Robinson, Mario Chalmers and Collins) who are great ball hawks. Sure enough, Collins grabbed the ball, fired it inside, and then took a kick-out and nailed the three (ah, so there’s that three point shooting we were missing earlier). Despite the three, Kansas would probably need to foul down the stretch.
I don’t need to remind everyone how bad Memphis has been at free throw shooting this year. Enough has been said on that subject. But let’s put it this way: In 2003, when Kansas lost to Syracuse 83-80 in the national title game, the Jayhawks went something like 13-30 on their free throws. The next year, Woodberry basketball coach Brent Bell started a practice drill called Jayhawk. Players had to shoot a one-and-one. Make both shots, and you stood aside. Miss the first and you ran 18 lines. Make one and miss one meant nine lines. Anyway, Kansas missed their first free throw Monday night and made the next 14, including every single one in overtime when Memphis was trying to rally. Memphis, at the end of regulation, saw the wheels fall off. Douglas-Roberts missed a pair with 16.2 seconds left and Kansas Down two. That pair came after he missed a short bucket with 30 seconds left, only to be bailed out when Collins tried to make a miraculous lay-up in traffic with two Memphis defenders in front of him. Amazingly enough, KU didn’t get the rebound after the second miss, and Rose got a chance to ice the game with 10 ticks remaining. He missed the first and made the second, allowing Mario Chalmers to launch what is sure to become one of the most famous shots in NCAA history. Tuesday morning, Mr. Bell e-mailed me. The “Jayhawk” drill will be called “Memphis” when WFS starts practice next year.
Chalmers’s shot, for all intents and purposes, finally exorcised the choke demons that have plagued KU since 1988. When it went up, I immediately thought about the 1997 Sweet 16 loss to Arizona, when Jacque Vaughn missed what would have been the tying three pointer from almost the same spot. I thought about 2003 (yes, the shot was still in the air… these thoughts were rather rapid) when Michael Lee’s three pointer to tie was swatted out of bounds by Hakim Warrick with two seconds left. This time, the shot dropped, and I let out a rather primal yell before collapsing onto my bed in a heap. I spent the commercial break before overtime doing something that was half laughing and half crying. Then I drank a beer (only my second of the night… I was too nervous to drink more) in the hopes that having something to do would distract me (Hah! Fat chance!). All my life, I’ve watched great Kansas teams fall behind, launch a furious comeback and come up just short. This time, the comeback actually worked.
How do you top a shot like that? When you’ve seen so many great teams upset in the early rounds or finally knocked out at the final moment, what do you do when the win finally comes? Intellectually, I know that shot only happened because Memphis pulled a massive choke job by missing all those free throws. I don’t care. Those last two minutes of basketball were brilliant. The Arthur bucket that cut it to seven was a flawless low post move. The steal and three pointer off the inbound were picturesque. And the Chalmers three was the dagger that really finished things off.
It’s no surprise that Kansas ran away in overtime. Memphis was gassed and had nobody left to guard Arthur and Darnell Jackson down low after Dorsey fouled out in the last two minutes. I had a minor heart attack when the Tigers cut the lead down to three with 55 seconds remaining, but after we pushed the lead out to five and got a stop I was finally able to start a long-awaited celebration.
Kansas didn’t have the best individual players in that game. We don’t have anyone who can compare to Michael Beasley, Derrick Rose or even Stephen Curry. But this time, at long last, we had the best team. We had a nasty lineup of hulking big men and a collection of ball hawking guards who could shoot, drive and play some defense.
The shot went down, and I can only hope that yell I let out means I’ll never have another flashback to the heartbreaking losses of my childhood. And I hope that my brother safely retrieved the flag from the flagpole. I think that thing is now officially a family heirloom.
Rock Chalk Jayhawk.
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