A Tiger Fan's Perspective on the Championship Loss by Memphis

Congratulations are in order, I suppose, to the Kansas Jayhawks for their first NCAA Championship in 20 years. However, as someone that is a long time fan of the University of Memphis Tigers, I cannot say that those kudos are easy to say or swallow. If tonight had resulted in a Tiger victory, it would have been the first time in the history of the University of Memphis that the Tigers could call themselves NCAA Champions. However, it has still been a rather noble road.

Memphis began the season as a pre-season number one, ready to come back after two repeat Elite Eight appearances and losses. Both Memphis and Kansas remained in the regular season as the last two undefeated teams. Kansas tumbled first, but Memphis quickly followed after a very disheartening loss to major rival Tennessee at home. That would be Memphis's only loss in the season. Memphis went on to clench the Conference USA Championship. Despite Conference USA being ruled a weak conference, Memphis was awarded the second number one seed in the NCAA tournament. Kansas received the fourth. Memphis won the South Regional after wins against Texas-Arlington, Mississippi State, and Michigan State. This guaranteed the Tigers a return to San Antonio, and a chance for redemption. Memphis had two vendetta's to fulfill. The first was against San Antonio, and the truly embarrassing loss to Ohio State in the 2007 Elite Eight. The other against UCLA, the team that pushed Memphis out of the tournament in 2006. After the defeat of UCLA, Memphis obtained its 38th win in a single season. That victory at least did earn Memphis a place in the history books, as that is the most single season wins by a NCAA Division I basketball team. All of this set the Tigers up for the events of April 7th, 2008. A very sad day to be a Tiger fan indeed.

After tip-off the game remained close, with Memphis trailing only 5 at the half. Starting the second half, it appeared Memphis was going to truly prove itself. However around the two minute mark of the second half, Memphis began losing its almost ten point lead. It dwindled down and a last-minute shot by Kansas insured the dreaded overtime. As if this wasn't bad enough for the Tigers, Memphis would also be entering overtime without Joey Dorsey who fouled out shortly before the end of the game. With the start of overtime, Kansas had it. Memphis never regained the lead, and in fact remained scoreless throughout much of overtime. At the buzzer, Kansas gained another NCAA championship against the Tigers with its 75 to 68 victory. Living in Memphis, and watching the game publicly I do not believe I have seen so many sad faces in a room in a long time.

The Tigers have been the glue that has put Memphis back together the past few weeks. Suddenly the entire city was a Tiger fan, and none of your other qualities mattered. People forgot about the election. People forget about all of the standard issues. Memphis was a city brought together. I suppose I can expect it to unravel in the next few weeks, especially now that the bandwagon has broken down. However, I unfortunately cannot argue that Kansas deserved the win.

Throughout the season, Memphis's weakness has been very easy to spot. No doubt, Head Coach John Calipari himself can tell you that one of our biggest weaknesses is free throw shooting. Memphis in the regular season has danced with and even at times has had the worst free throw percentage of the 314 teams in the NCAA. However, just as last year the percentage improved upon entry into the NCAA tournament. Against Kansas, improvement just was not enough. Memphis was unable to get Kansas to play Memphis basketball, and that coupled with the successful Kansas defense and poor free throw shooting could not lead to a victory.

The two most important moments of the second half were both in Freshman Derrick Rose's hands. His three-point jump shot was reviewed and changed to a two-point shot after referees discovered his foot was within the three-point line when he jumped. It was a foul and subsequent free-throw that led to a Memphis loss. Derrick Rose's only free throw miss of the night, occurred with less than 11 seconds left in the game. With the miss, Kansas was still able to tie up the game, and tie they did. The first overtime in 11 years, and it ended in a Jayhawk victory.

There are many excuses Memphis fans may and probably will use. Dorsey did not play at all in overtime. Derrick Rose was limping shortly before the start of overtime. Calipari possibly did not effectively use subs. Maybe they were not sitting in their lucky seat, wearing their lucky clothes, and performing all of the good luck rituals they should have. However, even as a Memphis fan, I for one will not be using any of these. This was a year for the unexpected to happen. Memphis has been the underestimated team for the past few years. Every year, Memphis loses very few games, but still is ruled as a weak team because of their lack of strength of schedule. This year it was Kansas's turn to be the underdog. I myself, had them as the first one seed to be defeated. Brandon Rush and Roderick Stewart both had knee injuries, with Stewart shattering his knee days ago. Rush, however, was a key component of the Jayhawk victory. Whatever the reason, it was Kansas's time. As much as I would like to say it was Memphis's, it just was not. It just kind of figures that the first time that we are expected to win, that we lose. I'll still say Go Tigers with pride, but for today Rock Chalk Jayhawk.