Monday, April 7, 2008
SAN ANTONIO — Monday night is finally here.
The players dreamt about it from the time they started shooting in driveways and parks as children. The coaches went through menial assistant jobs where they had to sleep on cots and reserve bowling lanes all so they could get this opportunity.
Kansas, Memphis for the national championship.
“This,” Russell Robinson said, “is what you live for.”
Kansas will find out if it can continue to bring back memories of 1988 by winning its first national championship since then and third of all time for the program. To make history, the Jayhawks will have to run past another fast team and not tighten up in the biggest game of their lives.
It’s not going to be easy. Memphis has plenty of stars and not just the ones shaved in the back of Doneal Mack’s head. There’s Chris Douglas-Roberts, Derrick Rose, Joey Dorsey and a bunch of other long, athletic bodies.
With that collection of athletes, the Tigers are expected to run. Memphis’ Rose and Douglas-Roberts, both All-Americans, have been garnering most of the attention while the Jayhawks receive less acclaim for their transition offense.
Sound like a familiar story line?
The Tar Heels were supposed to have the advantage Saturday night in a fast-paced game. Kansas ran them out of the building in the opening minutes.
“The question last night was would we be able to run against North Carolina,” Sherron Collins said. “It should have been the other way around.”
Maybe Collins is right. No team has defeated Kansas in a fast-paced game this season. Kansas’ three losses have come for other reasons. Kansas State fed off its savage crowd and hardly missed an open look. Oklahoma State slowed the game down. Texas got the best of the Jayhawks in Austin when they limited Kansas’ possession and hit the glass in the second half.
When teams have run, they’ve failed. Baylor scored 90 points but couldn’t outdo the Jayhawks in an up-tempo game. Texas kept up for a half in the Big 12 Championship game before succumbing to fatigue late.
Memphis, though, rolled Texas in the Elite Eight. The Tigers are fast, and Douglas-Roberts, Rose and Dorsey’s attitude makes them one of the brashest groups on the court.
Kansas still remains unfazed.
“We’ve got swagger,” Collins said. “We ain’t cocky with it. We’ll be ready. We’re running, and we’ll be out there ready to play.”
That quiet confidence has kept the Jayhawks loose for most of their postseason run. Several players said they got off to their fast start against North Carolina because they were relaxed.
Darnell Jackson doesn’t expect that attitude to change tonight even though they’re going to face their toughest challenge of the season. To keep that mind-set, the team has been huddling up before the last few games and spreading the same message.
“We just say ‘let your nuts hang,’” Jackson said. “Just let them hang. Just have fun because this is it for most of the guys, and we’re just having fun with it.”
Never will the Jayhawks need to relax more than tonight. They’ve been waiting for this game since the beginning of the season, since they arrived at Kansas. They can’t get too scared or too tight or allow Memphis to run past them.
They’ll remember this game forever and want to make it a good memory.
“This is probably the game I’m going to show my kids for the rest of my life,” Robinson said.
— Edited by Katherine Loeck
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