I held myself back from posting last night, because anything I wrote would have resembled gibberish in all caps, OHYEEAAH!DEFENSIVELOCKDOWN! OHNO,IDIOTDECISIONMAKING!OH!YES!NO!YES!
UNBELIEVABLE! MARIOCHALMERSSHOTINCRUNCHTIME! OVERTIMEDOMINATION!WOW! JAYHAWKSAREBESTINTHEWORLD!!
Question: Was that one of the best NCAA championship games of all time? Answer: Absolutely.
I felt very confident that the Jayhawks would win for the entire first half, as they owned Memphis defensively, shutting down Derrick Rose (Forget Billy Packer's ridiculous suggestion that Rose was "making himself easy to guard") and limiting Chris Douglas-Roberts' touches.
Then towards the end of the first half and for most of the second, KU's offense started looking as awkward as a pimply kid with braces, and we were very, very nervous. The 'Hawks failed to get shots off, dropped passes, dribbled balls off their legs, doing the old schizophrenic act that's shown up a few times this season.
But after the Jayhawks repeatedly tried to give the game away with poor decision-making, bad ball handling, and stale offensive sets, Rose and CDR missed those game-ending free throws, and Mario Chalmers decided, What the heck, this is is still a game, so let's play it that way.
I think KU can now officially adopt the Phoenix as their new mascot, since clutch shots resurrected KU's championship hopes from the ashes. Unbelievable. As you can imagine, Lindsay and I were on our feet for the final ten minutes of the game, hovering between the carpet and the ceiling as we levitated every few seconds, clapping and waving our arms at very high speeds.
After Mario Chalmers' dagger of a three-pointer, the game was effectively finished. In overtime, the deflated duo of Rose and Douglas-Roberts never found their stride, and the Jayhawks remembered they were the team that had dominated UNC and took over. Oh yeah, and they hit their free throws.
All I need to go now is go out and buy my T-shirt. Where does the world's best college basketball team live!
In Lawrence!! ROCK CHALK, BABY! NCAA euphoria has arrived!
Photo is property of the KC Star.
Tuesday, April 08, 2008
Jayhawks Never Say Die, Rock Memphis, Own World
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3 comments:
So, uh, who were you rooting for? ;)
That was an incredible game.
The stolen inbounds pass and subsequent drained three late in the game brought me to my feet.
It was indeed a fine game, Ariel. Credit where due. Kansas' deep bench won it; I think a lot of folks forgot that Memphis isn't all that deep by comparison.
Memphis's missing those free-throws, after Calipari's arrogance--err, explanation last week that his guys were hitting free-throws now because they counted--was also more than a little sweet irony to those of us (well, me at least) who think free-throws always count. Their losing it--or at least not winning it--at the foul line when they had the chance(s) to put the game out of reach almost made up for their screwing up my bracket by beating Texas. Almost.
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