Walking in Memphis

Oh What Could Have Been...

The celebration flowed like sweet jazz until the early morning on Beale Street. The "dream team" had done what no other Memphis squad ever could. Bring a title home to the city.

John Calipari had claimed from the outset that foul foul-shooting would not deter his squad from reaching college basketball's loftiest perch. "They'll make 'em when they need to." he said over and over. Monday night they did just (barely) that. Despite a few late missed attempts the Tigers made enough of them early and often, including 4 straight by All-American Chris Douglas-Roberts with several minutes to go in the contest.

The real turning point in the game was when Kansas coach Bill Self elected to go to a box-and-1 defense on Douglass-Roberts. This was all the opening Freshman sensation Derrick Rose needed to assert himself and take over the game. Rose, the Final Four MOP said, "I took the challange. They decided to focus on CDR, and I knew my team needed me to make something happen."

Make something happen he did, scoring a quick seven points and changing the tenor of the game back to Memphis's style. The Jayhawks never recovered.

Bill Self, arguably now the front-runner for title of Best Coach to Never Win A Championship (along with UCLA's Ben Howland) was classy, yet despondant after the game. When asked if the Oklahoma State rumors had any impact on his team, he replied flatly, "None. None at all. My focus was on MY team, and on finding a way to beat Memphis. They just executed and made a few more plays. It was their night."

Perhaps the most important execution of the night came on the final play when Calipari elected to have Douglass-Roberts foul Mario Chalmers with 3.2 seconds remaining. The Tigers, clinging to a three point lead wanted to prevent Kansas from attempting a game-tying three point shot. Chalmers calmly sank the first free throw, and intentionally missed the second. Dozier corralled the hard rebound and fired the outlet pass to Rose who threw the ball jubilantly towards the rafters. With that toss, Memphis capped off a dominant tournament run in which they beat Michigan State, Texas, UCLA and Kansas with the school's first national championship.

The sweet sounds of victory flowed from campus to dowtown, a title in Memphis, the Tigers, walking with their feet ten feet off of Beale...