So what went wrong? The entire city of Memphis was united behind their Tigers. They were all sporting enough blue on Monday to even make the Smurfs a little uncomfortable. Everything was fine until 3 seconds remained in the game and Mario Chalmers sank a three point shot that eerily resembled a dagger flying through the air.
The Alamodome = The House of Flying Daggers, write that down.
It was not a murderous dagger though; it was more of a very deeply wounding dagger. Hey John, describe the dagger, “Ten seconds to go, we're thinking we're national champs, all of a sudden a kid makes a shot and we're not.” The dagger ultimately led to an uncontrollable loss of blood. “It hurts”, said CDR. The 43,257 fans in attendance at the Alamodome in San Antonio were witnesses. I feel like we’re about to play Clue and I already know that I will win.
After the game Coach Calipari was further asked his thoughts on the end of regulation; his reply, “we tried to foul them.” Ahh I see, good coaching there Cal, I agree with that decision too when you’re up by 3. Sorry it didn’t work out. Jay Bilas, Bob Knight your thoughts? Jay you first, “they had multiple opportunities to foul and did not”. Ok so you disagree with Coach Cal’s statement. Bobby Knight, you’re up, “they clearly didn’t know what to do, whether they should foul or not.” Whoops.
Ok, we’ll look past that, so you go to overtime. Big deal, it happens. Except it had been 10 years since Arizona and Kentucky last took a championship game into overtime. Why does that matter? It doesn’t. What does matter? Umm Coach Cal think fast, “it hurt us having Joey on the bench”. Correct you are sir.
Joey Dorsey, whom you can’t help but love according to a recent Geoff Calkins article which I will refer to again shortly, fouled out with several minutes remaining in the second half. Yes he was also 40 feet from the basket but that’s not the point, kind of. Shortly after he made his exit as only Joey Dorsey can, Kansas went on a 12-3 run, enabling the Jayhawks to overcome a 60-51 deficit with less than 2 minutes remaining. Coach Cal went on to add, “In overtime, they kind of beat us down…I didn't sub a whole lot, because I was trying to win the game at the end.” That’s a good time to try to win it John, I respect that. If only you still had Dorsey.
But lets back up a little further and look at the apparently controversial Derrick Rose three point shot, that clearly was not a three point shot. The officials reviewed the shot once and agreed it was a three, somehow. Then they viewed it again during the timeout and deemed it a two, which it clearly was. And so after the game when our newest contestant of 21 questions was asked about this call John Calipari said with a smirk on his face, “I don't like this being able to go to the monitor, I’m going to work on getting that changed.” He wasn’t a fan of the review that took a point off the board for his team, and understandably so. But if it were the other way around ole Cal and his boys would be over at his steakhouse a week from now yuckin’ it up about how they got away with one. They could be talking about how stupid people are for emphasizing fundamentals and free throws. Too bad that conversation will never happen.
I decided to save my biggest point until last because it is the most controversial and you all know exactly what it is. It’s the same thing your coach/friend’s dad harped to you in 4th grade when you stopped picking up one leg to dribble through your legs; that is of course, free throw shooting. I feel so cliché right now drawing back on this quote but hang in there because it really is essential.
Mid-season Coach Cal, please tell us your thoughts on the teams dismal free throw shooting.
“We’ll make them when it counts”. Remember back to the game against Texas? Memphis made them when it counted.
Well how about tonight John, you went one of five there at the end of regulation, and you only needed one point to win the game, your thoughts?
“Did we have our guys at the line shooting them that we would want?”
Ooh nice rhetoric John, I like that. Turn that around on us to think and redirect the emphasis. Yes, Memphis did have the guys they would want at the line. What else you got for us Cal?
“These kids are not robots…they miss them sometimes”.
I like the sci-fi feel there too. I like to think that the infamous Star Wars kid was glued to his TV the entire game and post-game and would probably agree with Cal’s statement, citing his five perfectly created robots as examples of what mere mortals can’t do.
But all joking aside, I agree with that statement in one sense. CDR is indeed not a robot. In every other sense though, I disagree with the idea behind his statement. I bet Coach Cal’s elementary school basketball coach is cried himself to sleep Monday night for having failed him as a human and coach. And all season long I’ve tried to give him the benefit of the doubt and say that he just says that free throws aren’t a big deal to the media so that his players don’t continue to let it get to them mentally. I would be able to rationalize that, and maybe even support the logic. But then the other day I read the Calkins article referenced earlier. Here’s a little excerpt…
“It happened at the 2007 Conference USA Tournament. After hitting a foul shot, Dorsey pointed up into the stands.
Who were you pointing at, Joey?
‘A guy who was telling me what to do on my foul shots,’ he said.
Oh. Of course it was.”
Maybe it is best not to be hard on your players for missing free throws more often than I do, but the evidence displayed Monday night points to the contrary. The team had done very well in shooting them all tournament long to his credit. They had certainly shut me up. And then Monday night happened and all of the fans like me who had been making a mockery of Calipari’s free throw logic crawled back out from under the couch. Really John? It’s not a big deal? We’ll make them when it counts? Guess not.
I was really annoyed by the way that after the game he then tried to continue the charade of acting like it wasn’t the free throws that cost them the game by naming other reasons why they lost. Fact is that free throws are the most logical and simple reason why they lost.
I’d like to see how Calipari would fair on a 1 question coaching exam…
You lost the game Monday because of:
A. Free throw shooting at the end of regulation
B. Only 4 fast break points the whole game
C. Your starters averaging 38.8 minutes each and Derrick Rose not getting one break
D. None of the above
I honestly think the man would pick D. Free throw shooting may not be the only potential reason why the Tigers lost, but it certainly is the primary one. To say anything else is foolish. Had they made even 2/5 this whole post wouldn’t exist. I think brother John just didn’t want to admit he was made to look like an idiot on the grandest stage in college sports.
I’m not advocating that Calipari should have locked his team in the gym until they were so good at free throws that they physically couldn’t miss one even if they tried. I just think that they should have actually made it a point of emphasis to the point where the players are mentally tough enough with them to do better than 1/5 at the end. And I know the guys aren’t robots and even good shooters miss them under pressure (see: Darius Washington Jr., or don’t if you aren’t a fan of tear jerkers), but for heaven’s sake Dorsey is taking pointers from fans. I’m surprised that Shaq didn’t retire and join the staff as the foul shooting coach as lightly as Calipari seemed to take them. How many games have we all watched through the ages where time after time it comes down to which team makes free throws at the end of the game? It just blows my mind that a coach at this level can be so successful and have overlooked that aspect of the game the way he does. And I’m sure he does think they are important, I know he isn’t that naive, but he treats them as a nice potential added bonus if he gets guys that can shoot them well as opposed to a key to winning.
Finally, I really am sorry for Memphis and their fans who had so much emotionally invested in the Tigers. I even wore a blue shirt all day in my support for them. And although I had picked Kansas beating them in the championship before the tournament ever started, I truly wanted Memphis to win. Unfortunately the team that went 14/15 from the line beat your guys that went 12/19, while your coach dismissed free throw shooting and instead complained about having a two point shot only count for two points.
As anticipated…
Clue scoreboard:
Me- 1
Coach Cal- 0
Winning guess:
Suspect- Kansas
Weapon- Duel attack, free throw shooting and a very sharp dagger
Room- Alamodome
Losing guess:
Suspect- John Cahill, Ed Hightower, and Ed Corbett
Weapon- Replay screen
Room- Alamodone
The Joey Dorsey article referenced can be found at:
http://www.commercialappea
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