Last night we got to see one of the best endings to an NCAA Final Four ever. Only seven times in the tournament's history had a championship needed an extra frame to define the winner. It honestly couldn't have been written any better...Like John Calipari said, "With :10 left, we were national champs...a few minutes later we weren't." And Calipari took responsibility after the game for being the reason his squad didn't cut down the nets and wasn't the featured act on One Shining Moment. That said, Calipari is by no means a respectable guy.
His old team, UMass' was forced to give back over $150,000 made by making it to college basketball's final weekend and their Final Four was wiped clean from the books because they were found to have broken academic rules as well as rules that disallow student athletes to take money while playing NCAA sports. Now the question is: How long will it be before Memphis' accomplishments for '07-'08 get the royal Fab 5 treatment as well? We probably know that the academic insurrections will not be a problem since Memphis doesn't have the academic standards of a Kansas, Michigan or even UMass. But, it will only be a matter of time before we hear about $1000 handshakes for CD-R (is Roberts his married name?), Rose and others.
Sure, by that time any violations are officially recognized, Calipari will be onto another program that is willing to make its deal with the devil. But, our memory of last night's game and Memphis' astounding tourney run simply can't be erased with Miles Brand's findings. Much like UNC didn't play a one-team championship back in 1993- Those games against the brash UM team happened. Chris Weber would like us all not to remember the time out and the travel (that wasn't called) in the same way Rose and CDR would like us to forget the way they wilted under pressure on the biggest collegiate basketball stage, but we won't. Nor will we forget Dorsey's thuggish chest bumps, shoves and berating of his opponents, or his team mates' undercutting fouls at the beginning of the game and clothesline intentional fouls at the end. The Memphis Tigers played like a bunch of thugs because they were coached by one.