Congrats to Kansas, but let’s face it- Memphis blew it and not just, or even mostly, because they missed four of their last five regulation free throws.
As you have no doubt heard by now, the Tigers could have fouled rather than allowed Mario Chalmers to get off the 3-pointers that forced overtime and guaranteed that Chalmers will never buy a drink in Kansas again.
John Calipari said after the game the Tigers intended to foul, but slippery Kansas guard Sherron Collins got away from them before making a lunging handoff to Chalmers. But watching the replay it was clear some of the Tigers - brilliant freshman Derrick Rose in particular - weren’t sure what they were doing.
Rose was on the line, his team up two with 10.8 seconds left. He missed the first, but made the second. Here’s where Calipari could have used a time out to make sure his players were straight on everything.
Calling the TO before Rose’s first shot might have been a mistake, because of the freezing-the-shooter issue but also because there were too many options - “What if we’re up two? Three? Four?”
But after Rose missed the first, or especially after he made the second, the situation was clear. And here’s another point, made this morning by Sunday News sports editor Jim Hersh: A two-point shot can’t beat you. It’s one of the few points in a basketball game when guarding the basket simply isn’t an issue.
If you know you want to foul, why not have all five players on the perimeter, chasing the ball around? It’s hard to believe five guys couldn’t corral one enough to foul him.
But the truth is Memphis wasn’t clear on whether or not to foul, as you can see in this video of the final sequence of regulation. At one point Rose is just behind Collins as Collins starts to lose his balance, just before kind of lunging/stumbling forward to hand the ball to Chalmers.
Rose could have reached over Collins right then, with around five seconds left, and fouled him without it even looking intentional. Instead, Rose raises his arms in “hands-off” gesture, as if to sell the refs on the idea that he hadn’t touched Collins. Clearly, this isn’t a kid who’s been instructed to foul.
Even after the shot went in, Calipari should have called time, with 2.1 ticks left, and tried to set up the Grant Hill-to-Christian Laettner thing. When the teams came over to the benches at te end of regulation, you can see Calipari saying something to a ref that includes the world “foul,” so maybe he knew what was up, but his players didn’t.
Ironically, in Memphis’ other loss this year, Tennessee coach Bruce Pearl opted to foul the Tigers in a very similar situation, and it worked.
It’s not that Calipari isn’t a good coach. He is. My sense is that at this time of year, coaches feel like their players have seen and handled everything, so bogging them down with instruction does more harm than good. They tend to trust their teams too much, maybe.
I think if Kansas and Memphis play 20 times, Memphis wins 12-13 of them. People think that’s an insult to Kansas, but it’s a compliment.
In other news: Yes that was former NBA rogue Rod Strickland on the Memphis bench.
His gig is “Director of Student-Athlete Development/Manager,” which involves “overseeing the team’s student managers and monitoring the student-athletes’ academic progress.”
You are welcome to make up your own jokes.
Here’s a picture of Strickland, presumably prior to his student-athlete development managing days, sharing a special moment with DJ Sixth Sense.
Eric Stark points out that for what it’s worth, Strickland is a Chicago guy and so is Derrick Rose. The previous holder of Strickland’s job at Memphis is current UTEP assistant coach Milt Wagner, whose son, DuJuan, was the number-one high school recruit in America in 2001 and, yes, ended up choosing Memphis.
Draw your own conclusions.
In a non-hoop local note- Remember Neal Walker, the star wide receiver of Pine-Richland High School who played such a large role in the 2003 AAA state championship game with Manheim Central, a.k.a. the Greatest Game Ever Played?
He’s now a switch-hitting 3B at Triple-A for the Pirates and considered a decent bet to be in the bigs this year. Anyway, Baseball Prospectus has a good interview with him here.
