Mark Starr
|
Apr 8, 2008 09:32 AM
When you don't, as I didn't, have a horse in the race, the game
itself--good or bad--becomes the only concern. And last night's NCAA
basketball final was everything a fan could have hoped for. Kudos to
both Kansas and Memphis for a spirited, stylish sprint of a game, good
enough to virtually erase the memory of what had been a disappointing,
often sluggish tournament.
But I give every bit as much credit to the referees, who managed one of
the toughest tricks in officiating: to sit on their whistles and let
the kids play without ever letting the physical play get out of hand.
There were only 35 fouls whistled, a number of those deliberate fouls
by Kansas in the end game, and 34 free throws taken in a game with an
extra period. Thus the refs, as much as the players, contributed to the
breakneck pace of the play.
I had been thinking about end-game situations since the previous
evening's women's semi-finals, when, with 7.1 seconds remaining,
Tennessee raced the length of the court to score the game-winner and
squeak by LSU 47-46. (Tennessee will play Stanford for the title
tonight). There was no surprise in their last-second approach.
Tennessee got the ball in the hands of its superstar Candace Parker who
raced the length of the court with only the meagrest harassment. Only
when Parker reached the baseline did every LSU player jump out at her,
leaving a Tennessee player all alone under the basket. Parker found her
with a perfect pass and, even after she blew the layup, another
Volunteer was there to rebound and put the ball up and in with less
than a second left in the game.
It was hardly an unfamiliar ending in tournament basketball--with
prominent memories of Danny Ainge and Tyus Edney racing end-to-end in
the final seconds and scoring winning buckets for Brigham Young and
UCLA respectively. I always wonder in such games how, particularly when
a team has struggled to score all night long as Tennessee had, can they
possibly get two unmolested layups in the final seconds. And this was
after LSU coach Van Chancellor had a timeout to set up his defense. It
seemed obvious to me that Parker should have been double-teamed in the
backcourt and forced to give up the ball, requiring her less skilled
teammates to execute perfectly in the final seconds. The result might
have been the same, but it would have certainly come harder.
So I was already obsessing about end-games when we had another classic
situation in the men's final. (A pause here to note my one and only
prescient comment before the tournament: that Memphis didn't shoot free
throws well enough to win this tournament.) A team, in this case
Kansas, needs a three-pointer to tie in the final seconds and send the
game into overtime. I've come to believe that, at least in the college
ranks (and maybe even in the pros), the trailing team should never get
to take that shot unmolested. The defenders should be out on the
three-point line ready to foul--even if that means allowing a player to
get to the line for three free throws and a chance to tie the game. I
am convinced that most college players have a far better chance of
hitting the three-pointer in rhythm than they do of making three
consecutive free throws with the game on the line.
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