So Close: Three Ways Memphis Could Have Won the NCAA Championship

In the aftermath of last night’s delightfully entertaining championship game, some people would prefer to point the most obvious shortcoming on the losing team’s squad and hold that flaw up as the only reason they lost the game.

That would be too easy and wouldn’t be the reason you read these here articles. Don’t get me wrong: I’m not saying that free throws don’t matter in close games (yikes, sorry Ken) or that Memphis shouldn’t have fouled on that last play as instructed by John Calipari.

Instead, why don’t we dig a little deeper into the Memphis meltdown? C'mon everybody, put on your Monday morning quarterbacking helmet!

For starters, let’s eschew any journalistic pretense and pursue this via bullet point format (I’ll number them too!). 

Second, how about we assume that even if Memphis missed all of their free throws, they would probably win the game if they avoided the following three plays?

Third, we'll begin with a Kansas timeout with 1:54 to go. Memphis is up 60-53...

1. Derrick Rose doesn’t cough up the ball on the inbounds (1:53 left).

Kansas had just called a timeout, allowing them to set up a full-court trap. Memphis had the same amount of time to set up their press break. It didn't appear that it was run, because Rose ran directly to the corner a press-breaking no-no.

There was a fumbled exchange between the inbounder (Chris Douglas-Roberts) and Rose. It seemed to catch Memphis by surprise when it shouldn’t have. The broken play leads to a wide open Sherrod Collins three.

2. Joey Dorsey doesn’t foul Mario Chalmers 25 feet from the basket (1:23).

Look, I know there was a screen and you’re supposed to switch, but was this foul necessary? Even if Chalmers gets by Dorsey, there’s still a whole host of defenders that he’d have to get by and maybe he does score, which is not necessarily a given with the length of the Memphis players.

This play resulted in (a) Chalmers scoring two freebies with the clock off and (b) Dorsey’s disqualification.

Dorsey probably would have fouled out at some point as Kansas kept going down low, but still, you’d rather have him hack the snot out of a big man (I bet Sasha Kaun blows a mean rocket—sorry, couldn’t help myself) than a bump so far away from the basket.

3. CDR doesn’t drive straight into Darrell Arthur on a two-on-one break (16 seconds).

To me, this was the most egregious of the three plays. Antonio Anderson has just made a huge, HUGE block on Collins jumper. His block could have easily been the play of the game if not for CDR’s boneheaded play, which is a shame because on the whole CDR played brilliantly.

There are 16 ticks left on the clock, no clear lane to the basket, and Memphis is up by two points. Kansas is going to have to foul at some point. Why initiate contact by going to the basket? Why not run an extra three or four seconds off the clock, maybe more, with some additional passes?

Perhaps CDR thought he could put the game away with a nifty layup and avoid the possibility of returning to the heinous charity stripe. I’m not sure.

However, the extra seconds would have forced Kansas to rush just a little more with the final shot. I’m not saying they couldn’t have gotten it off or they couldn’t have made it from further back, but maybe it turns out differently.

In a championship game like this, it’s all too easy for this observer to call attention to the foibles of a game I watched from the comfort of my own home. That is to say, I wasn’t playing, how do I know what could’ve happened?

We ought to celebrate both participants in an outstanding game, but when your favorite hobby is nitpicking, what can I say?