MVN - Most Valuable Network

Kansas wins it all in dramatic fashion

As a person with ties to the University of Missouri who hates Bill Self, I was rooting for Kansas to lose all tournament, but they proved themselves to be the best team in the country last night.  Still, in many ways this game seems to be about what Memphis didn’t do rather than what Kansas did.

There are two thing’s that Memphis fans will be asking themselves for a long time:

1. How can you miss 4 of 5 free throws with the game on the line and allow KU to come back from 9 points down?

The pundits on TV talked about it all year, and Memphis’ free throw shooting woes finally came back to bite them.  Either this is just a group of guys who can’t figure it out at the line, or John Calipari isn’t putting enough emphasis on free throw shooting in practice.  Sure, Memphis made their free throws in their previous games during the tournament, but a lot of those were after they had come out and steamrolled their opponent.  When the pressure was on, they buckled, and it cost them a national title.

2.  Why on earth did nobody foul a Jayhawk on Kansas’ final possession?

I saw a great highlight on ESPN in which they spotlighted one Memphis player in particular that, in an effort not to foul, clearly put his hands up and let the ballhandler go by.  John Calipari said after the game that they were in fact trying to foul on that possession, but the ball was in the pockets of the defense, making it hard to get a hand on someone.  After hearing his diatribe in the same press conference, however, about the Lord deciding whether they were going to win or lose, I stopped listening too very much of what he said.  Chalmers’ shot was well contested, but you have to foul in that situation.  Why Memphis didn’t call a timeout after Derrick Rose’s trip to the line with 10 seconds left, I don’t know.  If you do send them to the line, there’s always a chance they’ll be able to chuck it off the rim on their second attempt (assuming they make the first) and get the 3 points that way, but I’ll take my chances with that scenario rather than a jumper from the top of the arc.

Those are the two obvious things that led to the Tigers’ demise, but how about their lack of defense?  Against UCLA, Texas, and Michigan State, they played lock down defense that got their offense some easy looks off turnovers.  While watching the last 6 minutes of the UCLA-Memphis game, I said to myself, “There’s just no room for the Bruins to move.”  Memphis was playing suffocating D, but I guess they weren’t quite prepared to face a team that goes up and down the court as much as Kansas does.  Not only that, I think we all saw in the other half of the Final Four just how good Kansas’ offense can be and how hard it is to stop them.

While his team lost the game, I think Derrick Rose has definitely shown that he is ready to test the NBA waters.  He has an NBA-ready body, a ton of talent, and he knows how to win ballgames.  (Let’s not forget, this was only the second loss of the season for Rose and the Tigers.)  Since there hasn’t been a good point guard in Minnesota since Chauncey Billups, I wouldn’t mind seeing my Wolves snatch him up if he’s still available when they pick, but it’ll be interesting to see how he does regardless of which team he ends up on.  The fact that he’s only a freshman makes you question if he’s mature enough for the NBA, but then again, if he’s playing this well as a freshman, how good is he going to get?

Ultimately, the fact is that Kansas is a more complete team than Memphis.  The Tigers have a pretty good core with their starters, but Kansas’ starting five is just as, if not more, effective.  When comparing the two main bench players for each team last night - Sherron Collins for KU and Shawn Taggart for Memphis - Collins had 11 points and 6 assists while Taggart had just 2 points and 3 rebounds.  There are really just two main scoring threats for Memphis (Rose and CDR) whereas Kansas has at least 4 guys in their starting lineup that demand attention from the opposing defense and some pretty solid players after that.  A testament to just how evenly they distribute the ball, KU has 4 players that average between 10 and 14 points a game.

So congratulations, Kansas, and may it be another 20 years (or more) before your next one.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 8th, 2008 at 9:40 am and is filed under College basketball. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.