Memphis couldn't get back to basics

SAN ANTONIO -- That's the thing about one shining moment.

Somewhere else, there is darkness.

Somewhere else, there is chill.

After one shining moment carried Kansas to a breathless national championship that will live forever, somewhere else kids were crying.

Somewhere else, kids were biting the bottoms of their jerseys, hiding their heads in their towels, throwing punches through the confetti.

One shining moment gave Kansas a 75-68 overtime victory in the national title game Monday night.

One shattering collapse left Memphis somewhere else.

"One minute, we were national champions," said the Tigers' Antonio Anderson softly, standing in a laundry-littered locker room, alone after a failure in front of millions. "But then one minute later, they're hitting a history shot and we've lost it all and I'm like, 'Wow. Damn.' "

Wow. Damn. Indeed.

The rocking, chalking folks of Kansas will remember this as the night their team overcame a nine-point deficit in the final 2:21 of regulation, tying it on Mario Chalmers' three-pointer with 2.1 seconds remaining, blowing away the Tigers in the extra period.

History, however, will remember it as the night Memphis blew it.

The Jayhawks will say they stole it with great fundamentals. History will say the Tigers gave it to them with lousy fundamentals.

The Jayhawks will sing the praises of their Coach Bill Self. History will highlight the flaws of Tigers Coach John Calipari.

Said Calipari, his shirt rumpled and his face pale: "I'm disappointed in myself. I look at that and say, 'We should have won that game.' "

Said Self: "I know they missed a couple of free throws and we caught a couple of breaks later."

It was really one big break, occurring at the heart of a Memphis culture that promotes highlights over headiness, and swagger over simplicity.

For all their great athleticism, the Tigers lost because they could not perform the basics.

"They're not machines, these kids," protested Calipari. "They're just not."

But in the end, Kansas played like a machine, while Memphis morphed into a jumble of oddly blinking lights and strange clanging noises.

They lost, first, because they could not make free throws. They missed four of five in the final 1:15 of regulation, any of which could have won the game. They missed seven during the game, while Kansas missed one.