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Home > Mark Bradley > Archives > 2008 > April > 08
Tuesday, April 8, 2008
Think Calipari still believes ‘percentages don’t matter?’
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
San Antonio- OK, give Kansas credit for hanging tough, for applying pressure when all seemed lost, for making shot after big shot in the wildest finish of any NCAA final ever. But this will not be remembered as the title Kansas won. It will be remembered forever as the one Memphis cast away.
“Tough-minded guys hit free throws,” John Calipari had said breezily Saturday, the night his Tigers blitzed UCLA and made their foul shots. “Percentages don’t matter.”
File those under Infamous Last Words. File the final two minutes of regulation under the worst ever played by a team that was already celebrating its title. File this as the game Calipari will never, ever live down.
The Tigers led by nine - nine! - inside those two minutes. They’d seized control of a game going the Jayhawks’ way behind a dizzying display from the freshman guard Derrick Rose, and when Robert Dozier of Lithonia sank two free throws with 2:12 left (in regulation, and at the time overtime didn’t seem possible) the Tigers were up 60-51 and their reserves were smiling and jostling one another and readying for the playing of “One Shining Moment.”
And then … Choke City.
Darrell Arthur hit from perimeter. Antonio Anderson threw the ball away, leading to a Sherron Collins trey that cut it to four. “One Shining Moment” had just morphed into two frazzled minutes.
Chris Douglas-Roberts (remember the name) made two free throws. Back to six. But Joey Dorsey, the senior center of whom Calipari had said, “He does some of the dumbest things I’ve ever seen,” fouled Mario Chalmers 40 feet from the basket, fouling out in the process. Chalmers made his pair. Back to four.
And now it was serious free-throw time for the team that had made only 61.3 percent of its foul shots (and that number had gone way up during the Big Dance). Dozier had said Sunday: “We can make them. We all have great form. It’s not like we’re shooting curveballs.”
But then Douglas-Roberts turned into Bert Blyleven. He missed the front end of a one-and-one. Arthur hit from the baseline. Two-point game. Douglas-Roberts missed on a drive, and Collins fled for the basket, all but certain to tie the game. But Rose blocked the shot - what a reprieve! - and CDR was fouled again, only 16.8 seconds left now, the game his to seal.
And he missed. Twice. But Dozier somehow seized the rebound in the corner, and Rose was fouled with 10.8 seconds to go, the title now his to clinch. And he missed the first.
True, he made the second, but Kansas had one final window. And Chalmers drained a 3-pointer with 2.1 seconds left - it was a decent look, and it looked good from the instant it left his fingertips - and now Memphis had to play five minutes more instead of standing on the podium and hearing “One Shining Moment.”
Crushed, the Tigers never led again. Kansas scored on its first three possessions of OT - a layup, a dunk and another layup - and the championship had, for all intents and purposes, changed hands. Memphis came closer than any team has ever come (and this includes Houston in 1983 and Syracuse in 1987) to winning the gold-and-wood plaque only to see it fall into other hands. Nine up, two minutes to go: How do you not win?
“I thought we were national champs,” Calipari said afterward. “As a coach, when you’re up five with whatever seconds to go, you’re supposed to win that game.” And Memphis didn’t. It lost. It lost when losing seemed unthinkable. It lost because the free throws Calipari insisted his men would make went unmade.
“I guess you can boil it down to the free throws,” Douglas-Roberts said, and you can. So, just maybe, percentages do matter.
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Think Calipari still believes ‘percentages don’t matter?’
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
San Antonio- OK, give Kansas credit for hanging tough, for applying pressure when all seemed lost, for making shot after big shot in the wildest finish of any NCAA final ever. But this will not be remembered as the title Kansas won. It will be remembered forever as the one Memphis cast away.
“Tough-minded guys hit free throws,” John Calipari had said breezily Saturday, the night his Tigers blitzed UCLA and made their foul shots. “Percentages don’t matter.”
File those under Infamous Last Words. File the final two minutes of regulation under the worst ever played by a team that was already celebrating its title. File this as the game Calipari will never, ever live down.
The Tigers led by nine - nine! - inside those two minutes. They’d seized control of a game going the Jayhawks’ way behind a dizzying display from the freshman guard Derrick Rose, and when Robert Dozier of Lithonia sank two free throws with 2:12 left (in regulation, and at the time overtime didn’t seem possible) the Tigers were up 60-51 and their reserves were smiling and jostling one another and readying for the playing of “One Shining Moment.”
And then … Choke City.
Darrell Arthur hit from the perimeter. Antonio Anderson threw the ball away, leading to a Sherron Collins trey that cut it to four. “One Shining Moment” had just morphed into two frazzled minutes.
Chris Douglas-Roberts (remember the name) made two free throws. Back to six. But Joey Dorsey, the senior center of whom Calipari had said, “He does some of the dumbest things I’ve ever seen,” fouled Mario Chalmers 40 feet from the basket, fouling out in the process. Chalmers made his pair. Back to four.
And now it was serious free-throw time for the team that had made only 61.3 percent of its foul shots (and that number had gone way up during the Big Dance). Dozier had said Sunday: “We can make them. We all have great form. It’s not like we’re shooting curveballs.”
But then Douglas-Roberts turned into Bert Blyleven. He missed the front end of a one-and-one. Arthur hit from the baseline. Two-point game. Douglas-Roberts missed on a drive, and Collins fled for the basket, all but certain to tie the game. But Rose blocked the shot - what a reprieve! - and CDR was fouled again, only 16.8 seconds left now, the game his to seal.
And he missed. Twice. But Dozier somehow seized the rebound in the corner, and Rose was fouled with 10.8 seconds to go, the title now his to clinch. And he missed the first.
True, he made the second, but Kansas had one final window. And Chalmers drained a 3-pointer with 2.1 seconds left - it was a decent look, and it looked good from the instant it left his fingertips - and now Memphis had to play five minutes more instead of standing on the podium and hearing “One Shining Moment.”
Crushed, the Tigers never led again. Kansas scored on its first three possessions of OT - a layup, a dunk and another layup - and the championship had, for all intents and purposes, changed hands. Memphis came closer than any team has ever come (and this includes Houston in 1983 and Syracuse in 1987) to winning the gold-and-wood plaque only to see it fall into other hands. Nine up, two minutes to go: How do you not win?
“I thought we were national champs,” Calipari said afterward. “As a coach, when you’re up five with whatever seconds to go, you’re supposed to win that game.” And Memphis didn’t. It lost. It lost when losing seemed unthinkable. It lost because the free throws Calipari insisted his men would make went unmade.
“I guess you can boil it down to the free throws,” Douglas-Roberts said, and you can. So, just maybe, percentages do matter.
