I have heard a lot about the Great Memphis Collapse and how they should have won the game, which diminishes what Kansas really did. The great stat is that Memphis missed 4 of their last 5 free throws and lost the game. I have heard that the Memphis players failed to foul in the final seconds of regulation, or that they did foul and it wasn’t called.
This is college basketball and momentum shifts and runs are common. You can’t focus on the final Jayhawk run (Memphis collapse) without factoring in the pervious Memphis run (Kansas collapse) where Kansas failed to score for 4 minutes and 20 seconds. A great win is when players step up and make great shots. A great collapse is when players commit unforced errors. My premise is that Memphis played fairly well (Dozier’s amazing play with several key offensive rebounds and a key block) and the Kansas victory was due to their making great plays.
Here is my totally biased, but accurate, perspective of those last 2 minutes and 12 seconds.
5:10 Rose makes a free throw to complete a 3 point play.
4:04 Rose makes 3 point – no – 2 point shot.
2:12 We foul and Dozier makes both ends of a 1-and-1. Great foul shooting.
2:12 We are 9 points down and get the ball. Arthur scores with 1:58 left. (The play-by-play stats say 2:08 but they are wrong, it was 1:54.) Nice but not a Memphis failure. They forced us to take a bad shot but Arthur made a great shot.
1:54 Collins steps in front and steals the ball. This was an amazing play and not due to lazy handling of the ball by Memphis. When the ball was throw Collins was 3 feet behind the Memphis player (who had position on Collins) and both players were running to the pass. Collins making up that 3 feet and establishing position in front of the Memphis player was an amazing play and not a bone-headed play by Memphis. His steal sent him flying out of bounds and the pass (while in the air and rotating his body 180 degrees) to Chalmers appeared to be a great heads up play and not an act of desperation.
1:48 Collins makes a 3 point shot. Down 4 with almost 2 minutes remaining. Not insurmountable or out of the ordinary.
1:39 CDR makes the first of two free throws.
1:39 CDR makes the second of two free throws. Memphis has now made it’s last 5 free throws.
1:23 Dorsey fouls out. Yes a bad foul but Chalmers was turning the corner on him and would have created a 2 on 1 situation under the basket. Nice mismatch set up by Kansas and poor decision by an outmatched Dorsey.
1:23 Chalmers hits the front end of a 1-and-1.
1:23 Chalmers makes the second free throw. Great execution under pressure.
1:15 Chalmers fouls and CDR misses the front end of a 1-and-1. Memphis now falls to making 5 of their last 6 free throw attempts. Not exactly a collapse.
1:04 Arthur makes a great shot that was highly contest as Memphis continues to play great defense. Memphis leads by 2.
0:30 CDR misses a “layup” with 2 seconds on the shot clock. Great clock management by Memphis combined with great defense by Arthur and Rush who forced a fade away shot. Although, I hate when teams run clock instead of their offense in close games. No collapse yet. Just a team playing very, very good and another team playing great.
0:22 An amazing block and rebound (questionable no-call) by Memphis’ Anderson on a driving Collins.
0:16.8 Arthur fouled a fast breaking CDR. Should CDR have kept the ball in play? Yea. What difference would it have made? Maybe a couple seconds. Regardless Memphis was going to the line and Kansas was going to get the ball with more than 10 seconds left.
Here is where it gets interesting. If Memphis makes both free throws they win the game. They have already made 5 of their last 6. Shooting your average isn’t classified as a monumental collapse.
0:16.8 CDR misses both. Poor execution.
0:16 Dozier makes a great play as Kansas fails to block him out on a routine foul shot. Poor execution.
The two cancel each other out. Kansas is still going to put Memphis on the line on this single possession. They will miss 3 of 4 free throws on this trip but will have made 6 of their last 10 (their average) and 12 of 19 for the game. 63.2% for the game (essentially their average for the year). Again, whether due to greatness or ineptness, Memphis took four free throws on a single possession. The claim that they missed 4 of their last 5 is accurate but should be put into perspective.
Did Dozier push Arthur under the basket? Yes, a little bit. Was it a foul? Maybe.
0:10.8 Rush fouls Rose.
CDR slams the ball into the floor. Is that a technical foul by rule? Definitely. Should it have been called? No. Just like the contact on Collins’ game tying attempt at 0:22 and Dozier’s push on Arthur.
0:10.8 Rose makes 1 of 2 free throws. Not out of the ordinary.
The net result of this possession was that Memphis scored one point. Had CDR made is second free throw the score would be the same and Kansas would have 16.8 instead of 10.8 seconds left.
Finally, the Caliperi foul orders. I’m going to give credit to Collins on this one again. He knew they were going to attempt to foul before the shot. He received the inbounds pass, took a second or two to focus and then made his move. He used his great acceleration to get past Rose and dump the pass to Chalmers. I see no evidence that Rose knocked him down. He was diving as he made the pass while Rose raised his hands. If Anderson would have held his ground he could have taken a charge from the out of control Collins but he clearly stepped out of the way. After a frame by frame analysis there was either no contact or incidental contact at best.
Rose had a chance to foul but not with less than 5 seconds remaining. Anderson could have fouled but Collins no longer had the ball.
…………and you know the rest of the story.
If I were a Memphis fan I would be devastated over the lost opportunity, however it was not a collapse. They played great until the end and it took “greater” to beat them. If you are going to cite a missed free throw with 10 seconds left as a reason for victory or defeat, you have to factor in a missed free throw in the first half.
