He could not think about a team that had two All-Americans — including the peerless Paul Pierce — that lost to Rhode Island in the second round. He could not think that Kansas — which belongs at the final table with the greatest basketball schools, with Kentucky, UCLA, North Carolina and Indiana — had won only one national championship in the last 56 years.
No, of course not. That’s the beauty of youth. You don’t think. You play. You live. Chalmers caught the pass, and he went up, and the ball felt great coming out of his hands. “I thought it was going in,” he would say.
As we all watched the ball in the air, we knew it was history. We could tell.
As the ball swished through, everything in the game changed. Memphis’ Joey Dorsey said he dropped to his knees (“I knew we were ready to cut down the nets,” he would say). Memphis’ Chris Douglas-Roberts watched the rotation of the ball, and his head sagged. Bill Self, who had this crazy feeling, felt his heart beat in his chest.
The shot tied the game. But it really won the game. Memphis had no chance in overtime, not after that shot. When the game ended, when the confetti dropped, when the Jayhawks hugged, Memphis players walked slowly off the court. They knew that this loss would stay with them forever. The losing team always feels history first.
And the Jayhawks jumped around and cried and hugged.
“Are you aware of the historical significance of the shot you made tonight?” someone asked Chalmers.
“I mean,” Mario would say with a smile, “it was a big shot for me.”
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