When I went to bed last night, I thought the crucial moment of the NCAA men’s basketball championship game was Bill Self’s mystifying decision to go to a box-and-one on Chris Douglas-Roberts in the middle of the second half.
That’s because I went to be lat night with two minutes to play and Memphis up seven. I assumed that there was nothing left but free throws, missed threes, and Jim Nantz’s desperate attempts to say something immortal, or at least memorable.
Whoops. Memphis’s poor free-throw shooting finally came back to bite them in the ass, Kansas hit some big shots, and the Jayhawks won in overtime.
Congratulations to Kansas on their first championship in twenty years, and to Bill Self for his first title as a coach. I’m still baffled by the box-and-one decision, though…
Where to start. (OK, I should start by blogging about Great Moments in Commentary, but not tonight.) I’ll start by telling you that you apparently missed someone (I think it was Packer) saying that Kansas had experience with overtime in a championship game. [????] Then elaborated by saying that experience was in 1957. ROTFLOL.
If it is actually true that ncaa.com will have the entire CBS broadcast available for the watching, you might still get to revel in that one along with the clang and clunk of bricks hitting the rim from the foul line.
I was equally mystified by the box and one, but I think I understood better late in the game and in overtime. They were whipped. They also cut down on screens and motion on offense for a time. Memphis was also worn out, slowing the game to a walking pace at times when they were on offense. At the end, and in OT, Kansas was back to running pick after pick after pick until Memphis left them open for a shot.