NCAA April Madness: Why I Love Sports

Mario Chalmers of Kansas hits this three-pointer with 2.1 ticks on the clock to send the NCAA Men's Championship into overtime. Insert joke about Toto here.
(Click here for a bigger pic of this screaming shot. Click here for video highlights of the end of this insane game.

What. A. Game.

Seriously. If you ever had doubts about the purity of the sport, you need look no further than March Madness. Look at this graph, showing the game's score, minute-by-minute.


That's ridiculous. Rah. Dict. U-lous. I happened to watch Sunday's Suns/Mavericks game - a game which had real playoff implications for both teams, and the level of intensity in play was the difference between throwing a bullet and shooting it.


Couple of interesting story lines here for me:

• What Goes Around Comes Around - And not just for Justin Timberlake:
  Five years ago, Kansas lost the national title to Syracuse (led by super-frosh Carmelo Anthony) because of dismal foul-shooting. Now, half a decade later, they win a championship for precisely the same reason. What is that? Basketball karma?



• Bad Habits Will Catch Up To You:
  For weeks leading up to this tournament, sports writers and basketball purists pointed out that no team has ever won the NCAA Tourney shooting as poorly from the free-throw line as Memphis does. Stats don't lie: Memphis was shooting 59.2% - which is simply abysmal. After watching the Tigers' second-round game against Mississippi State on Easter Sunday (in which Memphis shot an astounding 46%, letting a vastly inferior MSU team get WAY too close for comfort) I thought to myself, "If they get in a close game, they are going to lose." Calipari disagreed, telling reporters:

  The free throws we need to make, we’ll make,” Calipari said. “I’ve got absolutely no issues. There are three, four other issues I worry about. It’s not free-throw shooting.”

  
  Famous last words, eh? Fundamentals, people. Fundamentals.


• The Game Isn't Over Until It's Over:
  Down nine with a little more than 2 minutes left, I thought Kansas was done. But then Memphis got sloppy. First Tiger Big Man Joey Dorsey commits his fifth foul 30-feet away from the basket, pushing the Tigers over the foul-limit and sending Sherron Collins to the line - he hit them both and no time elapsed off the clock. Then Memphis has a bad inbounds pass, which was stolen and Kansas passed the ball out to Sherron Collins who calmly drilled a trey. At that point, I told Nicole, "This is a game again." I was right. Five points in nine seconds. Of course, Kansas almost gave the game over by not rebounding off a missed free throw with 18 seconds lefts in the game, and Chalmer's shot was clearly guided by the hand of God Himself - but still, you play hard until the end and you never know what might happen.