I suppose I should go ahead and acknowledge one of the greatest freaking basketball games I’ve ever seen. I had picked Kansas, if you don’t recall, to defeat Memphis, so when they were down by 9 with mere moments left on the clock, I especially thought they were dead in the water.
But no, the Achilles’ Heel of the Memphis Tigers, their free throw shooting, ended up costing them. Make no mistake, as much as we want to blame the Tigers for blowing this game at the line, the Jayhawks had to come back and hit those clutch shots, with none more clutch than Mario Chalmers with 2 seconds left.
All in all, I think the Kansas size wore down the Tigers physically, allowing for more open looks and fatigued free throw shooting. It’s hard to have the necessary mental acuity at the line if you’re totally exhausted. Combine that with the football season, and you have a pretty good academic year athletically in Lawrence. (Yes, that was the only excuse for using a picture of Mangino)
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