Great Moments in Sports Commentary

NCAA Men's Championship.

Overtime approaches. Someone (Billy Packer?) says that Kansas has experience with overtime in a championship game. [??wtf??] Then elaborates by saying the experience was in 1957. Oh, yeah, now I remember why I forgot about that. We didn't get a TV until later that year, CBS did not broadcast the game, and that happened five years before the Kansas coach was born!

If it is really true that ncaa.com will have the entire CBS broadcast available for the watching with the commentary intact, you might still get to revel in that one along with the clang and clunk of bricks hitting the rim from the foul line.

The real keeper showed up in the post-game discussion between ESPN's little stable of expert coaches. There was a back-and-forth battle between Bobby Knight (who thought Calipari definitely needed to use a timeout with 10.8 to go and a three point lead) and some guy from Notre Dame (who insisted there was no need to call time out because this is a situation you would cover in practice every day). Leaving aside the exhaustion factor (Memphis might have been able to catch up with Kansas and commit a foul with another minute of rest) and the brain fade factor (you forget things when there is no oxygen getting to your head), there is the prep school factor. Being a preppie at an Ivy League college is a good thing, but being a preppie (and there are at least two at Memphis) in college BB means you didn't leave high school with an education. Digger might have had rocket scientists at ND, but I think Knight was a bit more realistic about reminding the team of "down and distance".

Will add more later, elaborating on the comment below, which was posted on Chad's blog:

I was equally mystified by the box and one, but I think I understood better late in the game and in overtime. They were whipped. They also cut down on screens and motion on offense for a time. Memphis was also worn out, slowing the game to a walking pace at times when they were on offense. At the end, and in OT, Kansas was back to running pick after pick after pick until Memphis left them open for a shot.