Tigers only are worthy of losing

SAN ANTONIO.

The Kansas basketball team saved the NCAA from Memphis at the Alamodome last night.

The Jayhawks, seemingly finished late in regulation, overtook the stunned Tigers 75-68 in overtime to claim the national championship.

The Jayhawks went on a 6-0 run to open the overtime. Brandon Rush scored on a layup. Then Darrell Arthur dunked the ball off a lob pass and Darnell Jackson converted a layup.

The Tigers acted frazzled at this point, seemingly knowing that poor free throw shooting had allowed their chance to slip away. That was the Tigers’ one deficiency that critics said would haunt them in the NCAA tournament. It finally did, although not until they were on college basketball’s grandest stage.

The Jayhawks showed they had the athletes to stay with the Tigers. They also had a size advantage that proved useful underneath the backboards.

The Jayhawks crowded Derrick Rose with bodies whenever he tried to drive the three-second lane. This blunted his capacity to be dominant for the longest time.

Both teams performed uneasily, as if left shaky by the bright lights of the national stage.

Both teams turned the ball over without provocation at times. Both teams stumbled around at times, as if playing on skates.

Rose wrested control of the game midway through the second half before the Tigers’ inability to hit free throws allowed the Jayhawks to hang around.

The Tigers appeared to have the game in hand until they missed four of their last five free throw attempts in regulation. This enabled the Jayhawks to overcome a nine-point deficit in the final 2:12 of regulation.

Mario Chalmers hit a 3-pointer with 2.1 seconds left to force the overtime.

The Jayhawks, almost by default, were perceived as the good guys in white hats.

That probably was too charitable to the Jayhawks, given the sordid nature of the recruiting trail that compromises all too many academic institutions and middle-aged men in gym clothes.

This was Memphis as Boys Town.

This one was for Father Flanagan, as Calipari would have it.

Calipari goes into the toughest urban neighborhoods in America to save those wayward youths with overactive pituitary glands.

His is an old act, perfected by Jerry Tarkanian, the serial towel chewer who had some Uncle Fester in him.

His life-saving pursuit is not without risks.

The Tigers made a habit out of showing up on the highlights shows and in police reports.

“You have some [in the media] who will put a blotter together because they know what the appearance of that makes the program look like,” Calipari said. “But the reality of it is to come and spend time with them, come to practice and spend a week, go and hang out and see them, be around them.”

You are urged to use caution if you take him up on that offer.

Joey Dorsey has been cited in a number of police reports during his career, twice for punching someone in the face.

Shawn Taggart and Jeff Robinson were charged with inciting a riot at a Memphis nightclub in September.

Robert Dozier assaulted his girlfriend in February.

Pierre Niles slapped a UAB fan in a postgame melee in February.

At least Rod Strickland, the team’s director of student-athlete development/manager, is around to counsel the players on how to act while being arrested.

Calipari said his players are like his kids. They can be maddening at times.

That goes with the spin.

Dorsey is no kid unless 24 is the new 14.

The odor emanating from the Tigers was so strong that it prompted at least one enterprising soul along the River Walk to fashion a T-shirt that honored the Final Four participants in amended form: North Carolina, UCLA, Kansas and Vacated.

Calipari already has a vacated in his portfolio from his days at Massachusetts.

At least Kansas did its part.