The Blues Ring Out in Memphis

The Tigers had only just begun to believe they could make it
By Katherine Thompson,  Newser Staff
Posted Apr 8, 2008 12:36 PM CDT
The Blues Ring Out in Memphis
Memphis' Robert Dozier (2) sits in the locker room after his team's 75-68 overtime loss to Kansas in the championship game at the NCAA college basketball Final Four, Monday, April 7, 2008.   (Associated Press)

Memphis coach John Calipari had told his team's fans to "Expect good things to happen," and they did. Chris Douglas-Roberts and Derrick Rose knew their Tigers had the chance to snatch the NCAA crown away from Kansas, and for a while it looked like they would. Instead, the Commercial Appeal finds itself writing an elegy to a team that could have.

The team had all the elements of a heady victory: flashy shots by Rose, swishing free throws, a nine-point lead. Then came the last 75 seconds, which saw Rose and Douglas-Roberts brick four shots from the line. And then came Mario Chalmers's game-tying three-pointer, when he should already have been fouled by the Tigers. "We should have won," said Calipari. (More 2008 NCAA Tournament stories.)

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