Jayhawks Win NCAA Title in Overtime After Historic Comeback

The Final Four and the NCAA Tournament in general had a majority of games that were decided well before the final buzzer. With the national championship on the line, that trend seemed likely to continue as the Memphis Tigers opened a big lead over the Kansas Jayhawks in the final minutes. But a half hour later, it was the Jayhawks who had an overtime victory. In fact, the Jayhawks win seemed assured before overtime even began, thanks to the Tigers failure to seal a national championship in regulation and heroics from Mario Chalmers . With that, the Jayhawks 75-68 overtime win became a lot easier.

Before the Jayhawks and Chalmers made history in the last second , the national championship game was one where the Jayhawks and Tigers traded leads throughout. The Tigers got an early six point lead to start the game, with the Jayhawks recovering to take a seven point lead of their own midway through the half. But the Tigers went on another run to take the lead before the Jayhawks scored the last five point of the first half, taking a 33-28 lead. The majority of the Jayhawks points were in the paint, with their outside game less effective. But the Tigers superstar freshman Derrick Rose was largely contained in the half, as the Jayhawks held him to three points on four shots and he seemed more tentative than in past games. Tigers star junior Chris Douglas-Roberts kept Memphis afloat with 13 first half points, but without Rose's support, the Jayhawks were ahead at the half.

In the second half, the Tigers and Rose seemed more like themselves. The Jayhawks and Tigers traded leads before a Rose three-pointer put the Tigers ahead with less than eight minutes left. From then on in, the Jayhawks seemed to be blown away as Rose scored 14 of the Tigers 16 points during a stretch where they took a 60-51 lead. Rose's most iconic shot seemed destined to be an off balance shot off the glass that went in, which was initially a three point shot that was later ruled a two. That proved to be the difference later on.