Chalk Up Number 3

This Jayhawk fan is smilin'. Last night the University of Kansas men's basketball team erased a nine-point deficit with two minutes remaining in regulation, forcing overtime and eventually pulling away from Memphis to claim its third NCAA title ever.

I joined the Jayhawk fan flock as a grad student in 1971-72. Even then Kansas was a storied franchise, with such celebrated alums as Clyde Lovellette, Wilt Chamberlain, and Jo-Jo White and a coaching succession going back to the game's creator, James Naismith. They were coming off a Final Four appearance in 1971, and the highlight of my season in Lawrence was a 50-point blitz by All-American Bud Stallworth against arch-rival Mizzou in the season finale. There was no three-point arc then. Bud was throwing up heat checks from all over the court, and making them. I have been bleeding K.U. blue ever since.

Title Number Two came twenty years ago when Danny Manning carried a dark-horse Kansas team to an upset over favored Oklahoma in the championship game. The first half of that game was played with as much energy as you will ever see in a basketball game, with each team scoring fifty. This year's team brought similar intensity to the Final Four, nearly running a very good North Carolina team out of the gym in the first fifteen minutes of their semifinal. They did it with hyper-alert help defense and breakneck transition. That same ferocity eventually wore down Memphis in the final. The Tigers had no legs at the end and could not hit their shots.

"That's a T-E-A-M, if I've ever seen one," writes the Boston Globe's venerable hoops guru Bob Ryan. Indeed, teamwork has been a trademark at Kansas since forever. This year's edition can be viewed as the Clydesdales of the tournament, pulled together by pedigree, practice, and purpose, perfectly harnessed. Such is the esprit de corps at Kansas that very few players leave early--Paul Pierce, Drew Gooden, and Julian Wright (who would have been a junior on this year's team) are the only ones that come to mind. The Jayhawks seldom want for senior leadership.

So what happens now? First of all, expect a lot of newborns named Mario in the Sunflower State soon after New Year's Day 2009. As for the basketball program, rumors are flying that Coach Bill Self will move on to his alma mater, Oklahoma State, and that Brandon Rush and Darrell Arthur will follow Wright into the pros. We'll see. Sad it would be if rock-solid Allen Fieldhouse were to be retrofitted with a revolving door.