Chalmers is super Mario in the clutch

SAN ANTONIO -- The shot was off-balance, but Mario Chalmers' aim was true.

Rock, shock, Jayhawk.

It wasn't over, but it might as well have been.

Chalmers' desperate three-point basket with 2.1 seconds left in regulation forced Memphis to overtime Monday, and a Kansas team that outlasted some of the best this NCAA tournament had to offer won the national title, 75-68.

"It'll probably be the biggest shot ever made in Kansas history," Coach Bill Self said.

There was nothing like that when Kansas won its last national championship 20 years ago behind Danny Manning, now a Jayhawks assistant coach.

Nor was there in the 1952 title game with Clyde Lovellette.

"It was a remarkable play," Self said. "Just remarkable."

It shouldn't have been a surprise to anyone who has followed Kansas that Chalmers took the shot. The 6-foot-1 junior guard from Alaska is a stone-cold shooter. He is the Jayhawks' go-to guy in the clutch, even though Brandon Rush, not Chalmers, is their leading scorer.

Chalmers decked USC in December with a three-pointer in the last 30 seconds.

Last year in the Big 12 title game against Texas, he made a three-pointer with 15 seconds left to force overtime, and Kansas went on to win, just as it did against Memphis.

"This was very reminiscent of that one," Self said.

Against Memphis, down by three, Sherron Collins dribbled to the right side of the court and slipped the ball to Chalmers before falling down, and Chalmers launched it.

"I think the play was just go flat and have a penetration pitch. I saw that Sherron kind of fumbled the ball, and I relocated behind him," Chalmers said.

"When it left my hand, it felt good. I'm just glad it went in."

Rodrick Stewart, the former USC player who didn't play after breaking his kneecap practicing for the Final Four on Friday, had a good feeling too.

"Mario is the guy we give the ball to when the game is on the line and we need a big shot," he said. "He just has done it time and time again and hasn't failed yet. I just knew when it left his fingers it was going in. I just crossed my fingers and prayed it went in, and it did."

They don't all. Chalmers missed one this season in a three-point loss at Texas, an off-balance, well-guarded three-point attempt.

But that would never stop him from trying another.

Self compares it to the mentality of an NFL cornerback. "He has no memory," Self said. Miss one, and Chalmers is just as game for the next one.