Chalk one up for the Jayhawks

By Drew Wilson

Published: April 8, 2008

SAN ANTONIO, Texas — Kansas guard Sherron Collins dribbled the ball to midcourt as the fireworks and confetti rained from the ceiling of the Alamodome. The Memphis Tigers could only watch after letting the national championship slip right through their hands.
After leading by nine with less than two minutes to go, Memphis crumbled as Kansas came on strong. The Jayhawks forced overtime with a late 3-pointer and dominated the extra period for a 75-68 victory in the NCAA championship game.
It’s Kansas’ first national championship since 1988 and its third overall.
Kansas (37-3) shut down Memphis (38-2) and allowed the Tigers just one field goal in the final seven minutes, including overtime. The Tigers had their chances to put the game away at the free throw line, but an old nemesis came back to haunt them.
Memphis had struggled from the foul line for most of the season despite entering Monday’s game on a bit of a hot streak. But the Tigers turned ice cold in the final minutes, missing five of their last six free throws in regulation.
That left the door open for Kansas, and Mario Chalmers hit a 3-pointer with 2.1 seconds to tie the game at 63-63 and force overtime.
“I think the play was just go flat and have a penetration pitch,” said Chalmers, who was named the most outstanding player. “I seen that Sherron kind of fumbled the ball. I relocated behind him. I was able to get a good look at it.”
“It will probably be the biggest shot ever made in Kansas history,” Kansas coach Bill Self declared.
Darrell Arthur led all Kansas scorers with 20 points, along with 10 rebounds. Chalmers added 18 points.
Arthur and Brandon Rush joined Chalmers on the all-tournament team, along with Memphis’ Chris Douglas-Roberts, who led the Tigers with 22 points and Rose, who finished with 18 points.
Memphis took control in the second half when point guard Derrick Rose, who had been silent for most of the game, broke through midway through the second half to score 14 of the Tigers’ points during a 16-6 run that gave Memphis a 56-49 lead with 4:09 to play.
“The main thing is for us to just stay focused,” Kansas’ Darnell Jackson said. “For a while, guys was kind of getting down. A lot of us thought the game was over. We kept saying, believe, there’s a lot of time on the clock. Coach did a great job of making us focused. Every time we got the ball out, we made some great plays. Mario made an unbelievable shot.”
Memphis coach John Calipari said when a team is up with five minutes to go, that team is supposed to win. But being outrebounded 10-3 in the final seven minutes and struggling from the foul line late hurt the Tigers.
“So I take as much responsibility in this,” Calipari said. “You could say rebounding or free throws or whatever. Supposed to win that game.”
The game lived up to all the hype, especially in the first half. Although Memphis took an early 9-3 lead, Kansas stormed back. The Jayhawks turned that six-point deficit into a 22-15 advantage with 8:24 left in the first half. Memphis tied the game twice before halftime, but a three-point play by Rush and a shot in the lane by Arthur put the Jayhawks ahead 33-28 at the break. The Tigers might have been down by more had Douglas-Roberts not scored 13 points in the first half.
Just like at the start of the first half, the Tigers played the aggressor at the start of the second. Robert Dozier got a quick dunk and a Kansas turnover led to 3-pointer by Antonio Anderson that knotted the score at 33-33 before the Jayhawks had even made it past center court. Rose took over soon after.
“At that time, I was just trying to keep us in the game,” Rose said. “They were sagging a little bit. I just thought that if I started making shots, that everybody else would start getting open. And I was just trying to drive the ball and just make them come toward me so I could pass it out.”
The game featured the nation’s two winningest programs since the 2002-03 season (Kansas 174 wins, Memphis 171 wins), and it was the first time the two schools had met since 1987.
The last national championship game that went to overtime was in 1997 when Arizona beat Kentucky 84-79.