The San Antonio Alamodome rocked with Jayhawk fans as the Memphis Tigers went cold in the last minutes of overtime play, missing several key free throws and losing the NCAA championship to the Kansas Jayhawks.
Memphis all but had the game wrapped up with two minutes to go in regulation with a 60-51 lead. But the Jayhawks rallied back and tied the game with 2.1 seconds left after a miracle play by Sherron Collins and Mario Chalmers. With a few seconds to go, a falling Collins got the ball to Chalmers at the top of key who hit nothing but net and tied the game at 63.

The Jayhawks’ strategy in overtime was to foul the nation’s worst free throw-shooting team and crank out three-point shots.

Memphis was absolutely exhausted in the final minutes of the game. They could either cover under the net, or challenge the shooter beyond the three-point line. They chose the former, and the unchallenged three-point shots did them in.

Memphis already ran many of their opponents into the ground when they came into this final game with a 38-1 record.

Kansas became the Big 12’s first men’s basketball national champion in the conference’s 12-year history.

Two of the top four teams in the Big 10 meet on Sunday when Michigan State hosts Indiana.  Both teams are still in the hunt for the Big 10 title although Indiana is the team that may have the best chance.  The Spartans are tough at home, having won 20 straight home games dating back to last year. This season, the Spartans are a perfect 17-0 at home, averaging 76.3 points and 49.7 percent shooting. During Tom Izzo’s career as head coach, the Spartans are 179-22 (.891) at home, including 156-13 (.923) over the last 11 years.

The Hoosiers defeated Michigan State handily earlier this season, winning by 19 points at Assembly Hall.  Indiana forward D.J. White knows that win means nothing on Sunday. “You have to throw that one away. We did the same thing last year. We beat them pretty bad at home and then went up there and gave it away. We need to be more focused going into this game and just forget about beating them pretty good here. Forget about it and just play.” It will not be an easy game for the Hoosiers and it will be their first road test under new head coach Dan Dakich. “They have really good players and a really good coach, and it starts with that. I think, first and foremost, what coach Izzo has done there is one of the truly great stories over the last 15 years or so in college basketball.” Dakich said, “Those two things, the players he has recruited and the way he has gone about coaching makes it difficult (to play up there). It’s difficult to play Michigan State up there and it’s difficult to play Michigan State here. Michigan State is one of the elite programs in America, so that makes it hard. And they have a great facility with great fans. So you combine all those and that makes them pretty good.”

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The Hoosiers are led by Eric Gordon and D.J. White who both average over 20 points per game.  The Spartans are led Raymar Morgan who averages just over 15 points per game.  The Hoosiers are 8-2 on the road this season while the Spartans are 17-0 at home.

Sunday’s game is a huge one for the Hoosiers if they want to win the Big 10 Championship.  The may have to win their final three games to take the regular season title. “That’s our focus. Our focus is you control what you can control,” Dakich said, “There are not a lot of teams that are competing and can control their own destiny for a championship, there’s just not. And we are one of those teams that can, so as we go through this in our preparation, that’s what our focus is. How this all plays out remains to be seen, but that is our focus.”

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