Besides, when I get home from work, I have a nice glass of Zin. It's nowhere near warm enough to drink Sauvignon Blanc yet. C'mon irun, you know better. Makin us all sound like philistines!
Yeah, how you can call it *boring* is beyond me. I mean, though, you did say you didn't care about either of the teams, so that might be why. Yes. Freethrows. That was the UMem bugbear all season and ,even though it ran off to the shadows during the dance, it came back to strike when I expected it to. (I'm sorry to say) I think, honestly, the gamechanger was Dorsey's fouling out with 2 mins left, and his absence was especially felt in overtime. A fantastic game, but it didn't keep me from being sad all day. Kansas will be there and get it again. Memphis? I might not live to see it.
I was the guest of Delta Airlines for most of yesterday, and I got home just in time to watch the last few seconds of regulation and the OT. From that small snippet and the remarks of the commentators, it seemed to me that Kansas richly deserved the win. Memphis had a weakness and Kansas exploited it. That's fair play in sports and warfare. Chalmers shot was NBA caliber, and made for a truly exciting finish. I'm not sure that Memphis had a chance to foul before the final shot in regulation, because the ball was outside the 3-point arc for the entire posession. Any Kansas player feeling contact could have then thrown the ball in the general direction of the basket and earned 3 from the line. It might have given Memphis a few extra seconds to get a final shot, but nothing else. Hawkguy, that must have been quite a time in Lawrence. I'll bet you had fun.
Howard, it was amazing. I was 18 and down town after the 1988 championship, and maybe it's because it was 20 years ago, but this seems more special to me. I think it's because of the fact that it's not "Danny and the Miracles." I don't want to take anything away from that season, but this time it's a bunch of guys who all shared the spotlight and are forgoing the star role for the sake of the team. There were at least five players in double figures all throughout the tourney. As corney as it sounds, I am still getting chills watching coverage of the stuff that happened today.
Hawkguy! What a coincidence. I was an 18 year old freshman in '88 as well. I was up on campus that night though. A great time to be a fan. I stayed home in KC for this year's celebration. The kids don't need a bunch of old men crashing their party. I had the chance to buy Manning a beer and say thank you a few years back. He was pretty cool to b.s. with. I would imagine this year's team will be drinking on this one for a long time too.
for the record: I didn't say the game itself was boring, I said the hype around the game was less than it could have been, and I had failed to be interested in the winner. I even added that the end of the game added some excitement.
Congratulations to Kansas, the team that played a full 45 minute game. Memphis not making their free throws in the last two minutes; worse than Chris Webber's timeout call.
It's been said all year by many different people that free throws would come back to haunt Memphis and they were all right, but that is not the whole story. How many D1 coaches(Calipari) seem to have no game ending strategy, time -outs, fouls etc......... Granted Memphis had a good percentage when there was zero pressure, but choked at crunch time. Could it be that maybe the Memphis team puts more emphasis on practicing the 3 point shot, than they do shooting free throws at the end of every practice, or maybe they have dunk competitons. I saw Calipari on Sports Center about 1 month ago say that free throws would not be a factor with this team, WRONG! Let's face it, Self is flat out a better coach. I also heard Calipari say on a sports show that he was going to put this game in the hands of the players and let them do their thing. As I have said many times before that is AAU team coaching mentality that seems to prevail in basketball coaching today, wether it be a the D1 level or grade school level. You can go to a local park in your city and see this type of basketball any day of the week, it's alley ball! I have no dog in this fight but I think a fundamentally solid basketball team will beat a group of superior athletes that have basketball ability any day of the week. Congrats to both teams they certainly deserved to be there, but the best COACHED BASKETBALL team won.
Kansas deserved to win the game. The shot that "Super" Mario Chalmers hit will forever be remembered and Memphis will be known as the team that won the most games of any team in history and lost the game with poor free throw shooting in the last 2 and a half minutes. Kansas also made all the right plays down the stretch and dominated in overtime. I am happy for Kansas and I never liked Memphis anyway, I think their players are very arrogant. And sportnut what happened in the game is not because of the best coached basketball team but also how the players play. Calipari won coach of the year, remember that. I think that Calipari is still a better coach, the Kansas players just had more heart and guts to win that game. I will say this tho, one of the Memphis players should have fouled with about 5 or 6 seconds left. They probably would have won the game if they did that. I want to end by saying that Rose is a beast and CDR is a very skilled player altho he could have won the game for Memphis at the free throw line.
Putting Memphis on the free throw line was, as Coach Self mentioned, strategic. I think that makes it more of a Kansas doing a positive thing than Memphis doing a negative thing. Putting a team with weak free throw shooting at the line to try and get back into a game with time running out is a strategy a bad high school coach would employ. Nothing special about it. Basketball 101. I'm always surprised at the defensiveness that comes out when missed free throws are brought up. If I said "memphis could have won if they weren't out rebounded so badly" no one would bat an eye. I'm guessing because in that example the other team would have something to do with it. But with missed free throws it falls only on the losing team. The other team had nothing to do with it. If memphis hits their free throws, they win. That doesn't mean they gave it away. It's a facet of the game they failed at. It could have been rebounding, or 3-point shooting, but in this case it was free throws. Kansas did what it took to win the game. The missed free throws wouldn't have meant anything if they hadn't been almost perfect at the end. It doesn't take away from the kansas victory to admit the truth. There's no need to try and spin the missed free throws into something positive for kansas. It was a negative for memphis. Taking advantage of it is what was positive for kansas. I think a fundamentally solid basketball team will beat a group of superior athletes that have basketball ability any day of the week. If that were the case the best coached team would win every year. The team that wins usually consists of fundamentally solid superior athletes. the Kansas players just had more heart and guts to win that game. Did their heart and guts cause memphis to miss free throws? The game was decided on a 3 pointer that probably wouldn't go in 50 percent of the time. If it clangs off the rim does that mean they lacked heart? Complete BS.
That doesn't mean they gave it away. That's the point I was trying to make with the comment about fouling Memphis being a strategy. An earlier comment in the thread mentioned that Kansas didn't win, Memhis gave it away. And I just didn't see it that way.
My point about coaching is painted with a broad brush. All I'm saying is that alot of what is mentioned in the thread in regard to winning and losing the game came down to what a player is doing or learning in the weekly practice. - " All the right plays down the stretch" End of game strategy is or should be a daily drill in practice. - " No foul shows lack of game winning strategy" Same as above. - " Kansas being perfect at the end" Apparently something that was taught in practice by Self and staff or they would not have been perfect down the stretch. - "Memphis foul trouble". This is something taught in practice also. How and when to use your fouls. I hear week after week that the team is a reflection of the coach, so heart and guts, and how the players play in a game are 2 catagories where I think coaching plays a major part of the success of a team. I thought it was a great game and both teams were very talented and could have won the game. I also think that fate / or luck has alot to do with the out come of the game. Maybe good coaching puts a team on the more positive side of luck or fate when the game is on the line.
Maybe good coaching puts a team on the more positive side of luck or fate when the game is on the line. Probably so. I'm not devaluing the importance of good coaching in general or in this game. In such a tight game decided by so little it's tough to point to any one thing, but in the broad sense I do agree with you. An earlier comment in the thread mentioned that Kansas didn't win, Memhis gave it away. And I just didn't see it that way. I think that's the minority view, and I agree, lame. Every game, especially with two teams so evenly matched, one team does what it takes to win, one to lose. Same here. The winner deserves to win, the loser deserves to lose.
