The Kansas Jayhawks are the national champions of college basketball after defeating Memphis 75-68 in overtime Monday night at San Antonio's Alamodome. Kansas was able to survive regulation and send the game into overtime thanks to Memphis' miscues and a miraculous three pointer. Chris Douglas-Roberts, Memphis' leading scorer, missed three straight free throws and Derrick Rose missed one of two free throws. That set up the final basket in regulation, which happened to be Mario Chalmer's three pointer to tie the game with 2.1 seconds left. Memphis did not call a timeout, and Robert Dozier ended up tossing a shot at halfcourt at the buzzer. In overtime, Kansas clearly had the momentum, as they only limited Memphis to five points in the overtime session. Kansas is a team that has failed itself in the NCAA Tournament in recent years. They lost to Syracuse in the national championship game in 2003 when they were favorites. Under Bill Self, they lost in the first round of the tournament two consecutive years to Bucknell and Bradley respectively. Now Kansas has played their best basketball in this tournament, beating Davidson, who seemed unstoppable at that point, North Carolina, the #1 team in the country, and Memphis, who seemed to be on a roll with convincing victories. Did Memphis mess up their opportunity or did Kansas outplay Memphis in the final minute? With Memphis missing their free throws down the stretch, was that something they should've paid attention to more during the season?
No comments:
Post a Comment