Road to San Antonio: The Journey Ends Here

Today, we close the book on the 2008 college basketball season, and boy, was that some finish. The Jayhawks overcame improbable odds to rally from nine down in 2:00 minutes, and the foul shots finally came back to bite Memphis in the ass at the absolute worst possible time. I know I'm probably biased at this point, but when you factor in the Memphis choke and the Chalmers three as time was winding down, that had to at least be the best/most memorable championship game since the Michigan-North Carolina game.

Really incredible experience to witness all of this live, from the elation of Kansas finally winning its first title in 20 years after falling short so many times, to the deflated look of all Memphis fans as they watched they dream crumbling before their eyes. There is no way to describe the different state of emotions displayed on the faces of Memphis fans from the 2:00 mark, when it was all but assured they were going to win that National Championship that no one said they could do, to the moment Chalmers hit the three and they knew they were toast heading into overtime. Hell, they already had the t-shirts printed up....



But the Jayhawks pounced on Memphis mistakes, and they get all the glory and shining moments. I've got a plane to catch, but I'll have the rest of the pictures up tomorrow.

Danny Manning Has Basketball Magic In Him

Man, it feels great when your team wins a championship.

My neck is locked up, my throat is raw, I have pretzel salt in my left eye, and I think I’ve soiled my lucky boxers.

But it feels good. Damn good.

I vaguely remember the feeling from 1988, when I was a freshman at KU. Of course, that night I flew out the door of my dorm, ran around campus high fiving and hugging everyone I saw, and I don’t think I went to bed until the next afternoon.

Now that I’m a dad, I had to try not to wake up my son with my shouting, or blow out a knee jumping off the couch, but to think that I get to write the story on my Jayhawks at the end of my first season writing about college basketball on a daily basis is incredible.

I feel a serious pang for Memphis fans, because that was one hell of a team. A championship team, for certain. When Derrick Rose remembered he was Superman, and started to score, the game felt over. I’m man enough to admit that my team was lucky to get to overtime, where the loss of Dorsey to foul trouble really meant something.

Looking at the box scores, I see things that were never obvious in the flow of the game. Darrell Arthur had 20 points and 10 rebounds? Really? Pierre Niles only weighs 310 lbs? No Way!

One friend who called me said “This is how you know you’re old. You’re watching Danny Manning cut down the nets again, but he’s in a suit this time”. Which is true. Championships make those years without just water under the bridge. And speaking of water under the bridge, I have one thing to say to any of my fellow fans who are still nursing a grudge - let the Roy Williams thing go. The guy showed up wearing a Kansas pin after getting booted by his former team. That’s a class act. It’s time to let it go. And you may want to stop riding your bike past your ex-girlfriend’s house and leaving flaming bags of poop on her doorstep, too.

Let’s throw away the anger and bitterness and just enjoy the Bill-Simmons-mandated five year grace period. No bitching, no complaining, just the beatific smile that a fan gets from the perfect storm. After all, it takes a season without recruiting scandals, without season-ending injuries, and without a loss in six straight games to end up feeling this way, and in all honesty, us fans are just along for the ride. So let’s give credit where credit is due - congratulations to Bill Self (sorry, Will) and the 2008 National Champion Kansas Jayhawks.

Now, who wants to sex Sasha?

Road to San Antonio: Championship Time

There are close to 8,000 signs here in San Antonio that mentions that “The Road Ends Here”. Well, today the road official ends. We’ll crown our champions when Memphis takes on Kansas. I think it’s fitting that we started this journey on STF way back on November 10th when the season tipped off with Memphis and we are going to end with those same Tigers.

While Kansas fans out-number Memphis fans about 2-1 (but the Memphis faithful are quite vocal), my rooting interest is still undecided. I ‘m thinking of pulling for Kansas because I like Bill Self, a man whose gotten a bad rap almost form his arrival at Lawrence and for Eric, who is a Jayhawk diehard and was nice enough to jump on-board this college hoops journey back in September when absolute no one had even heard of STF. On the other hand, it’s tough not to root for a Rocky-like Memphis squad that has been disrespected in just about as many ways as a 37-1 team can be. That, and Derrick Rose is the most exiting college basketball player this season not named Stephen Curry.

Either way, it’s going to be blast. I’m on my way to the dome and I’ll have all the postgame reaction later tonight.

Championship Game Preview and Prediction

Whether you loved this all-#1 Final Four or hated it, you have Larry Brown to thank. The king of the basketball gypsies played his college ball at North Carolina and went to the Final Four with UCLA in 1980. He also coached at Kansas, taking them to their most recent Championship in 1988 before bolting for the Clippers.

So what’s his connection to Memphis? Brown mentored John Calipari, taking him on as an assistant at Kansas in the late 80’s. But wait, that’s not all! He did the same with Bill Self, at around the same time. Cal went out on his own in 1985, the same year Self was hired. That Brown guy has quite an eye for coaching talent, eh?

Looking at the programs, they seem very different. The University of Kansas was founded in 1865, and still had cows roaming the campus around the time James Naismith assembled the first-ever Jayhawk team in 1899. Naismith, who had a losing record at Kansas, begat Forrest C. “Phog” Allen, a man who provided nearly 50 years of stability and helped forge the reliable foundation that has led to legendary status for coach and program alike.

Memphis has been an urban campus all along, fielding their first squad in 1920. Under the name Memphis State, Coach Gene Bartow and player Larry Finch took the 1973 Tigers to the Championship game, where they became one in a long line of victims of UCLA’s dominance of the era. Bartow went on to succeed John Wooden at UCLA two years later, and the Memphis State/University of Memphis program continued to be very, very good, if not yet great. The Pyramid helped recruiting fortunes, but it was the hiring of former UMass coach Calipari in 2000 that signaled the beginning of the current rise of the program.

As it stands right now, however, this is a matchup of two blue-chip squads, each of them hungry to finish dominant seasons with the ultimate - an NCAA championship.

Memphis relies heavily on two superstars. Chris Douglas-Roberts and Derrick Rose are clearly the top scoring options in the innovative Dribble-Drive Motion offense. For Kansas, Brandon Rush is the most talented player on the floor, but when he goes through a scoring drought (which has happened often in this tournament), he has three more guys averaging double figures to back him up. The emergence of freshman big man Cole Aldrich in the UNC game gives Bill Self another big body to throw in the mix.

I’ll be accused of being a homer, but the tale of the tape is all I have to go with right now.

Storming the Floor’s Predicted NCAA Champion: KANSAS

Road to San Antonio: Day One in Pictures Part Two

Picture post #2...

That's how Memphis celebrates a Final Four victory

Some weirdo we found at the beer gardens.


Carolina-Kansas when they score was about 40-3 in the first half

Picture of the introductions from a place that was clearly not my seat. Big fan of the Obama #44 jersey to the right"

Yes, our seats were pretty damn high. We actually spent part of the time in the camera area, which is in the last row of the dome. If you can't tell, that's UCLA-Memphis.

More pictures after tonight, when we'll spend a good amount of time on the Riverwalk. Hopefully, I'll see someone more interesting than Nevada coach Mark Fox in a McDonald's bathroom.

Road to San Antonio: Day One in Pictures

I promised some pictures from the first day in San Antonio, and here they are (first of two posts)

The actual, physical road to San Antonio...

If I didn't find tickets, I was just playing on following the beer truck

The famous Riverwalk, home to the bodies of several UCLA fans

Fans walking to the game, just about as blue as you can get

My favorite picture by far, Duke fans are in such denial that the Dookies didn't make it to the Final Four that they figured they would just show up anyway

(Post II on the way)

STF Final Four Recap

One side of the bracket held the dazzling freshmen, the other side was about upperclassmen. The meeting of the West Champs and the South Champs had the Eye of the Tiger. And the meeting of East Champs vs. Midwest Champs had the Wig of the Jayhawk. Or something like that.

Memphis 78 - UCLA 63

I’m sure a headline writer with a schmaltzier sense of humor will make something vomit-inducing out of this one, but I’m just going to say Rose > Love in San Antonio. Memphis guard Derrick Rose is from Chicago, and he pulled out moves reminiscent of a certain Bull in this one. The high-flyer put in 25 points to go with 9 rebounds and 4 assists. Oh, and that included 11-12 FREE THROWS. In fact, the Tigers hit 87% last night, but according to the box score, only two players even shot FTs for Memphis. Chris Douglas-Roberts has the Magna Carta* tattooed on his arm, and he laid down the law in this one - 28 points. Next game, it might behoove the Tigers to get a couple more players involved in the game.

*This is a lie, but I hope my High School History teacher is reading this.

Kansas 84 - North Carolina 66

The Jayhawks built a lead in the first half that was so huge even they couldn’t choke it away. Still - give them credit for trying. A 2-2 tie in the opening minute was the closest North Carolina came to a lead, but a flurry of points from Danny Green cut holes in what was once a 40-12 gap. With eleven minutes left in the second half, the Kansas lead was cut to four, but the Tar Heels didn’t have enough gas in the tank to seal the deal. Davidson-killer Sasha Kaun spent much of the game on the bench with foul trouble, allowing Bill Self to introduce his latest hulking white man to the world - Freshman Cole Aldrich was impressively cool, scoring 8 and grabbing 7 rebounds, as well as hitting all four of his free throws. Throw on one of those pencil-thin beards and you got yerself the poor man’s Kevin Love.

So, your NCAA Championship game is set. If there were underdogs in this Final Four, these are them - Kansas vs. Memphis for the title. I’ll make my official predictions closer to game time, but for now, I think I can confidently say two things. One, John Calipari can get you in a nice Hyundai for no money down, and nobody beats his prices. Two, Bill Self may actually say “Golly!” in a live televised interview. Meanwhile, Roy Williams and Ben Howland will have some time to visit the Alamo.