GLENDALE, Ariz. | Everyone fools around with half-court shots. Everyone. Every basketball practice ends with guys shooting from half-court. Hang around at any playground, and you will see kids try half-court shots. You see half-court shots at Harlem Globetrotters games, and you see them in highlights, and you see strangers shoot them for big-money prizes.</p><p>You imagine that the first time they played basketball with peach baskets at the Springfield YMCA, the game ended and a few players hung around at the end and tried to make half-court shots.</p><p>You have probably made a half-court shot in your life.</p><p>So, you know exactly what was going through the mind of Missouri&#8217;s Marcus Denmon as he took the inbounds pass with 3 seconds left in the half. He wanted to get some momentum behind him and launch a shot at the basket. It&#8217;s the way a million halves have ended.</p><p>Of course, those halves almost always end with the ball falling 10 feet short or flying over the backboard or sailing way off course. But this was different. Everything about this night was different. Missouri played Memphis on Thursday night in a game that defies words. It was remarkable, ridiculous, exhausting. There&#8217;s so much March Madness hype, it&#8217;s everywhere you turn these days, but this was the real thing, real madness, two teams going at each other with absolute fury.</p><p>&#8220;They punched us in the mouth,&#8221; Memphis coach John Calipari would say.</p><p>&#8220;They are a great basketball team,&#8221; Missouri coach Mike Anderson would say.</p><p>Up and down. All night long. Missouri&#8217;s J.T. Tiller drove hard into the Memphis defense time after time after time; he looked like the toughest kid in the neighborhood playing &#8220;Red rover, red rover.&#8221; He scored 23 points, had three assists, three steals, zero turnovers.</p><p>Memphis&#8217; Tyreke Evans looked as if he were already playing in the NBA. He scored 33 points, grabbed five rebounds, dealt out four assists, added two steals &#8212; there was nothing that could stop him, nothing at all except Kryptonite.</p><p>Up and down. All night long. Funny thing, most people really thought Missouri&#8217;s style, its full-court chaos, was absolutely the wrong way to beat Memphis. After all, Memphis had the big-time athletes. Memphis loved to play fast. Memphis had not lost a game in three months. And early on, it did look as if Memphis might pull away; it made layup after layup, grabbed rebound after rebound, led by four midway through the first half.</p><p>Then Missouri coach Mike Anderson unleashed a different defense, a matchup zone, and everything changed. Memphis looked entirely lost. And Missouri&#8217;s players made shot after shot after shot. Matt Lawrence made a three-pointer. DeMarre Carroll hit an open jumper. The irrepressible Tiller drove hard to the basket for a layup. Lawrence hit another jumper. Tiller made another layup.</p><p>Memphis came into the game with the best defense in the country. But Memphis was fading.</p><p>&#8220;It seemed like every shot they threw up there went in,&#8221; Memphis&#8217; Antonio Anderson said.</p><p>When Denmon got the ball, 3 seconds left in the first half, Missouri led by 10. That was staggering enough. And then, it happened: History. Denmon got the ball, and he took a couple of dribbles, and he launched the shot from about 70 feet away. He shot it high and straight. Antonio Anderson, seeing what was coming, actually got his hand up and tried to block the shot. He didn&#8217;t touch it, though.</p><p>And as soon as Denmon let the ball go, you could see that it had a chance. That&#8217;s how you watch a half-court shot; you first determine whether it has a chance. Most of the time it doesn&#8217;t, and you turn away. But if it does have a chance, then you keep watching closely. And this one had a chance.