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Championship Recap: Choke City

Posted by Trips Right on April 8th, 2008 under Basketball

Evidently the Kansas Jayhawks remembered the Alamo. Okay, probably not, but they remembered Memphis’ poor foul shooting. In a championship gaffe that ranks up with Jean Van de Velde choking away the British Open, the Houston Oilers blowing a 4 TD lead in the second half of a playoff game, and the Houston Cougars upset loss to NC State, the Memphis Tigers were involved in one of the most memorable NCAA Championship games. And why? Because they got the yips at the foul line. The shanks, the laterals, the loser’s cough. The beneficiaries were the Jayhawks.

In the last minute and 15 seconds, the Tigers would go on to miss 4-5 FT’s including a front end of a one and one which allowed the heroic last second three from Chalmers to send the game into overtime. And with the only interior player that could bother Kansas inside Joey Dorsey on the bench after fouling out, the overtime outcome was all but academic. Kudos to the Jayhawks for maintaining contact with the Tigers to make foul shooting a factor, but I’m sorry, you cannot blow a nine point lead with two minutes to go and not be ridiculed. What a choke job, and a fitting end to the Memphis Tiger enigma.

Game Analysis

Kansas did an excellent job of moving the basketball around the perimeter to create post angles for Arthur, Jackson, and Kaun especially when Collins entered the game. His ability along with Rush to take the Tiger perimeter players off the dribble kept the Memphis wings honest and enabled the Jayhawks to run offense designed to enter the post.

Defensively, the Jayhawks stopped the ball and even got some steals when Memphis got into transition. Despite half a dozen early turnovers, the ‘Hawks transition defense was sound and kept Memphis from getting many cheap buckets. The Tigers finished the game with just 4 points in transition.

In the half court setting, I thought Memphis was bothered by Kansas’ perimeter athleticism, especially CDR. Rush’s length and quickness bothered the nation’s best scorer forcing him to make midrange shots and some tough 3’s. While CDR seemed to get untracked in the 2nd half, his first half problems were the main reason Kansas was able to build a lead.

As much as CDR struggled in the first half, Rose seemed to be even more off his game, and most of the credit for that is Robinson and Collins. Both are great on ball defenders, but I thought Collin’s presence and penetration on the offensive end forced Rose to expend a bunch of energy he’s not used to expending. Couple that with the star guard’s illness issues, and it’s easy to see why Rose seemed gassed in the first twenty.

For most of the game the Jayhawks played very soft on the wings, even fooling Billy Packer into exclaiming ZONE!! when there wasn’t one. Kansas would bunch up in the paint giving an initial zone look, but would follow cutters giving away man. It looked like they were enticing 3’s from Anderson and CDR and lucky for the Tigers, they fell at a decent rate, 5-16 before overtime. Kansas also showed a little box and 1 on CDR, but Dozier and Taggert effectively attacked it and Kansas was back to a soft M2M.

Offensively, the Jayhawks stopped getting the ball inside in the 2nd half and much of that was due to Memphis turning up the pressure on the perimeter. Still, the body blows that the Jayhawk bigs delivered in the first half in terms of fouls and points ended up paying dividends in the second half putting Dorsey on the bench which nearly guaranteed a Kansas victory once the game went to OT.

Key Players

Rush. Eventhough he had just nine attempts, on offense, his defense and length really bothered CDR and kept him from going nuts.

Mario Chalmers, hit the shot of his life, but under the radar had 4 huge steals effectively eliminating Memphis’ dribble hand-off technique as a means to drive the basketball.

Sherron Collins. If you did your homework you’d know Collins was an important piece in Kansas’ effort to wear down Rose by keeping him honest on the defensive end. Collins’ blow by’s in the first half also set the stage for Kansas to be able to get the ball in the post because of the attention helpside defense had to pay to his driving ability. It’s no surprise that Collins played 34 minutes which is the most he’s played in a game all year.

Darrel Arthur. Gave the Kansas fans the mismatch they had hoped for in the frontcourt. Credit him for simply outclassing Robert Dozier and putting tremendous pressure on the Memphis D.

The Goats

CDR. His late game yips will go down with Syracuse’s Derrick Coleman and Orlando’s Nick Anderson as the biggest charity stripe choke jobs in basketball history. He could have been called for a technical for his antics with 10 seconds left when he slammed the basketball 30 feet in the air. I’m guessing Chris Webber was rooting for the T.

Joey Dorsey. You’ll have a hard time finding a bigger thug during final four weekend. Two rebounds in the Championship game and zero points in the semifinal game. Karma’s a bitch Joey.

In any event, it was a great finish to a terrific season. I hope y’all enjoyed talking basketball as much as I did discussing it with you. I learned a bunch and had a ton of fun doing it. Thanks.

Thoughts?

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17 Responses

  1. dick said:

    April 8th, 2008 at 6:15 am

    Add Rose to the Goat list. Didn’t he go like 20 minutes without a field goal and have 4 TOs during that same stretch? There is no excuse for that. He played well the other 20 but it would have been another Memphis blowout if he doesn’t play like shit for that long stretch.

  2. kevwun said:

    April 8th, 2008 at 6:21 am

    Packer’s praising of the officials for not calling a technical on CDR pissed me off. How about you mention how incredibly stupid it was for him to spike the ball in that situation?

  3. kuelguapo said:

    April 8th, 2008 at 6:45 am

    kevwun – definitely agree with that. we were livid that they didn’t call the T…

    i would definitely add calipari to the goat list – probably at the head of it. it seems poetic that free throws cost them the game – especially after he scoffed about it all tourney long. self clearly outcoached him, especially late in the game. it’s like he didn’t know what to do when his players couldn’t just “out-talent” the other team. and don’t even get me started on his BS after the game – saying he was gonna lobby to get the rules changed so officials can’t use reply to review a shot. yah it sucks when the correct one of their mistakes, huh?

    all in all it was a great game – despite the mini-heart attack and even declaring that it was over when the lead got to 9. i’m still in disbelief that my ‘hawks pulled it out…

    now i just have to wait a few more months for ku football to kick back up. see if we can get revenge for that *’ing 4th and 18…

  4. Buddy Garrity said:

    April 8th, 2008 at 7:04 am

    Goat: Jim Nantz with the oh so clever phrase “Rock … Chalk … Championship”. Get Gus in there you CBS clowns (no Len though).

  5. South '06 said:

    April 8th, 2008 at 7:25 am

    Buddy, give him credit for not using Bill’s name like I thought he would.

    “Finally, Self got himSELF a championship” or something along those painful lines.

  6. The Source said:

    April 8th, 2008 at 8:33 am

    NOT fouling with a 3 point lead and 10.8 seconds left and counting… Should never have even gotten the 3 pointer up.

  7. Buddy Garrity said:

    April 8th, 2008 at 8:48 am

    I looked up Nantz’s line after UNC won it in ‘05 …. “There’s a new Dean in college basketball!”.
    Last night Packer said “Kansas has experience in overtime championship games, 1959 triple overtime thriller against North Carolina”.

  8. Facebook User said:

    April 8th, 2008 at 9:21 am

    NOT fouling with a 3 point lead and 10.8 seconds left and counting… Should never have even gotten the 3 pointer up.

    I think they were fouling Collins as he brought the ball up. That’s what Cal said after the game.

  9. Facebook User said:

    April 8th, 2008 at 9:30 am

  10. Paul Kemp said:

    April 8th, 2008 at 9:48 am

    To be fair, Buddy, Kansas was obviously drawing from that experience and it propelled them to the win.

  11. coach Callahan said:

    April 8th, 2008 at 12:48 pm

    For packer 1959 was just yesturday. He celebrates his birthdays geologically.

  12. mws said:

    April 8th, 2008 at 4:56 pm

    Russell Robinson looks like an Orc from Lord of the Rings.

  13. Trips Right said:

    April 8th, 2008 at 5:24 pm

    mws, I don’t know why but I got a pretty good laugh out of that.

  14. Horn In Exile said:

    April 9th, 2008 at 9:17 am

    Kansas vs. Syracuse in 2003 deserves mention with respect to choking free throws. KU was 12-for-30 – 40% as a team – and lost by 3.

  15. Facebook User said:

    April 9th, 2008 at 4:13 pm

    a
    h/t: Deadspin.

  16. hiphopopotamus said:

    April 10th, 2008 at 7:57 am

    Good breakdown. Though Kansas did play a little 3-2 zone later on in the game.

    May the date of April 7, 2008 go down in history as one of the finest this earth has ever known!

  17. comeonminers said:

    April 11th, 2008 at 9:34 am

    An incredible series of events had to occur for kansas to pull this one out. Most of those events involved a silver platter.

    More importantly, I want to thank you trips for the great columns on college basketball this year. Your in depth analysis, coupled with Dennis Miller-like humor and references both educated me and made me laugh at the same time. Look forward to your college basketball articles again next year.

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