Maddux Sports Blog

Thoughts from the biggest of games:

7:36 p.m. - Not much has been proven in the first six minutes of the game. The teams are just feeling each other out and trying to figure out what will work. Neither team seems uncomfortable or ineffective, so it should be a good game. I am a little surprised that it has been a reasonably low scoring start, but it feels like that could change. I don’t think that we can rule out or elevate either team ion any way based on what we have seen so far.

7:40 p.m. - As a Memphis fan I am a little concerned by how effectively Kansas is forcing Memphis’ big men to take fouls.

7:48 p.m. - Neither Rose nor Douglas-Roberts are plaing their games, and both look uncomfortable. That should change. It had better for the sake of Memphis.

7:51 p.m. - The game has really sped up all of a sudden. The word I would use to describe it is frantic.

8:05 p.m. - Chalmers is doing a great job of containing Rose.

8:12 p.m. - Kansas figured it out at the end and owned the last four minutes. It will be key for Memphis to come out strong in the second half. Rose and Douglas-Roberts look to be lacking confidence. Needless to say, that needs to change. Calipari is a master of halftime adjustments, so this game is far from over.

8:33 p.m. - That was a quietly good half for Douglas-Roberts. He wasn’t as visible as he usually is, yet he is the leading scorer in the game.

8:35 p.m. - Rose looks like a different player in the first minute of the second half.

8:46 p.m. - Memphis seems to have forgotten how to shoot.

8:56 p.m. - Rose has a different look in his eyes the last minute or so. For the first time all game he is aggressive and looks confident. That is bad news for the Jayhawks. It’s not great for the sportsbooks, either - there is heavy action on Memphis.

9:10 p.m. - This is why Memphis is so dangerous - they haven’t really changed much, but they quietly put their foot on Kansas’ throat. It still could change, but for now the Tigers are in control.

9:17 p.m. - With 2:12 left in the game the foul parade begins. That means that the game should end about three hours from now.

9:24 p.m. - Kansas is using fouls to claw back as well as a team can. They are down by two with 44 seconds left. Memphis needs to calm down and keep their head.

9:25 p.m. - Let me say this before we have a final result - this has been a great game that is very worthy of a championship, and the winners will be deserving.

9:30 p.m. - After all that, the foul shooting came back to haunt Memphis. They are going to overtime instead of cutting down the nets because Douglas-Roberts and Rose couldn’t shoot fouls at the end. Mario Chalmers will never have to buy a drink in the state of Kansas again.

9:35 p.m. - Statement of the obvious - not having Dorsey in overtime is bad news for Memphis.

9:37 p.m. - What a stunning turn of fate. Memphis has fallen apart when they had it in the palms of their hands. All the credit in the world to Kansas at this point.

9:42 p.m. - Maybe finally hitting a shot will make a difference, but Memphis looks like they have forgotten how to play basketball. They have given up everything that got them to where they are.

9:48 p.m. - Well, congratulations Kansas. They turned their game around and asserted themselves when it mattered. That one is going to burn in the throats of Calipari and the Memphis players for a long, long time.

9:50 p.m. - College basketball is over for the year. Now what do we do?

That’s the million dollar question, isn’t it? Few people ever thought that Memphis and Kansas would be playing in the final game, so we didn’t spend a lot of time thinking about what would happen if they did. THe public seems to have a pretty good feeling about Memphis. More than two-thirds of bets placed have been on Memphis, and the line has moved significantly from where it opened with Kansas as 1.5 point favorites to the current level of Memphis -2.  So, how is this game going to turn out?

If you go by form of the last couple of weeks then one team is going to blow out the other, and it will only be interesting for the first half hour or so. That seems unlikely in this game, but then it has seemed unlikely in a lot of games that have followed that form, too.

Some experts are saying that it is going to be a defensive battle. There is reason to believe that that could be true. Both teams have played outstanding defense recently, and both did a very good job of shutting down players who had been punishing other teams all tournament. Both teams have the ability to shut down the other team, and both have shown at times this year that they can be frustrated by the right defense. So, a defensive battle could happen.

Unfortunately, so could an offensive battle. Both teams are coming off games that they mostly scored at will, they both have dynamic, explosive offensive weapons, and both can be deadly if they get hot. Kansas has several dangerous offensive weapons, and Memphis has a deadly set of guards of their own. Both teams are stunningly athletic and tough to control. This one could light the board up.

So, what’s going to happen? Well, based on my thought process so far, either Kansas or Memphis is going to win a game that will either be a low scoring defensive battle, a high scoring thrill-fest, or some combination of the two. Helpful, isn’t it? All I can say for sure is that my gut says Memphis, it has been saying that since before the tournament started, that’s worked pretty well for me so far, so I am going to go with it again. I’ll check in throughout the game to see how it is working and share what I am seeing.