Karma Police

By: Eli Kaberon

The theme of National Semifinal Saturday wasn’t the dominance of Chicago-bred point guards Derrick Rose (25 points, nine rebounds, four assists for Memphis) and Sherron Collins (11 points, four assists and load’s of tough defense for Kansas). It wasn’t UCLA going to their third consecutive Final Four and heading back to Los Angeles without a championship all three times. And it definitely wasn’t the three-point shooting of North Carolina, who shot 37% from distance during the teams’ first 38 games and 21% against Kansas. Instead, the theme of the Final Four thus far has been karma.

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Defined as, “ethical consequences to determine the nature of the person’s next existence” by Webster’s Dictionary, karma is an Indian theory that explains the cause and effect of different events in life. And there was no event where karma played more of an active role than the Memphis-UCLA and North Carolina-Kansas games on Saturday evening.

All season long, UCLA had been getting the lucky breaks. Versus Stanford on March 6, the Bruins were the benefactors of a bad call by the officials on a blocked shot, as Stanford’s Lawrence Hill was called for contact on a shot in which he clearly got all ball. That was with less than three seconds left, and allowed UCLA to tie the game and push it into overtime, which they won. Two days later against Cal, UCLA had the officials on their side again. With two and a half seconds left and the Golden Bears up one, UCLA’s Josh Shipp sank a jumper in which he was falling out of bounds, shooting the ball from over the back of the backboard. It was an amazing shot that surely would give most players a letter in H.O.R.S.E., but, according to NCAA rules, “The ball shall be out of bounds when it passes over the backboard.” The guys in the striped shirts didn’t blow the whistle, and the Bruins had another victory. And last but not least, there was the questionable no-call at the end of UCLA’s game versus Texas A&M in round two of the NCAA Tournament. With UCLA up one, two Bruins on the potential game winning shot hit the Aggies’ Donald Sloan in the arm, yet no call was made, letting UCLA advance.

Then came the Memphis game, when karma finally struck. Instead of getting the breaks, UCLA began breaking down. In the first half, Bruins forward James Keefe had a rebound all to himself, with no UM player within 15 feet of either him or the basketball. The ball hit off of Keefe’s hand and fell out-of-bounds, giving the Tigers the possession. Later on, guard Russell Westbrook made a nice steal and looked to have an easy breakaway dunk when he accidentally stepped on the sideline, again turning the ball over. And no player faced the karma more than junior point guard Darren Collison. One of the teams’ go-to-guys, Collison averaged over 15 points a game this season; against Memphis, he finished with a season-low two. He also picked up five fouls, only the second time in his entire career that he fouled out of a game.

On the other hand Memphis, who all season had been told that they couldn’t win a big game because of their poor free throw shooting - 59% as a team during the regular season- had karma work out well for them. On Saturday night, the Tigers calmly made 20 of 23 from the line, sealing their win at the end of the game. That makes the team 76 of 94, 81%, in their last three tournament games, by far UM’s best three-game stretch of the season.

Karma played a big factor in the night’s second game as well. As was mentioned about 1,300 times throughout the week, the contest featured North Carolina coach Roy Williams taking on his former school, Kansas, for the first time since Williams went to Chapel Hill. And that played a part in the karma. But the biggest element was that the Jayhawks absolutely destroyed the Tar Heels using the offense that Williams popularized and practically invented. Nobody likes to be beaten, especially by a squad they used to be involved with. But it makes it 100 times worse when beaten with a taste of your own medicine.

During his time both at Kansas and North Carolina, Williams’ teams have been known for three things: fast-paced offense, in-your-face D and not playing well in big games. Yet it was the Jayhawks, now coached by Bill Self, who stole elements one and two from the Williams handbook. The Jayhawks had maybe the greatest opening to a Final Four game in the sports history, jumping out on the Heels 40-12 in the contests first 13 minutes, which included KU making 12 of their first 16 shots and holding UNC without a field goal for just over nine minutes. By the time the clock had run out - after a huge Tar Heel comeback and another big Kansas run - the Jayhawks had shot over 53% from the field, held Carolina to only 36%, and finished with more rebounds, assists, blocked shots and steals than their opponents. Coach Williams didn’t acknowledge the karma involved, but did say, “We sort of came out a little more casual than we would’ve liked and they hit us right between the eyes.”

And that leaves only two teams left in college basketball, Memphis and Kansas. Both are explosive on offense, see the 162 combined points they put up on Saturday evening, but the game will be decided on the defensive end. Memphis won against UCLA because they committed to shutting down Bruin center Kevin Love and point guard Collison, limiting those two to a combined 5 for 20 from the field and only 14 points. Kansas won versus UNC because they got in the Tar Heels’ face and wouldn’t let the highest scoring attack in the country run their offense. So what will give on Monday night?

The teams are practically even, with Memphis having a slight edge in the backcourt and with a deeper bench while Kansas has a little bit of a better frontcourt and coaching. I think the game will come down not to the star players - Memphis Chris Douglas-Roberts and Rose versus Kansas’ Brandon Rush and Darrell Arthur - but instead the unsung heroes who need to step up when a championship is on the line. Maybe it will be Tigers small forward Antonio Anderson, who most likely will have the responsibility of guarding Rush. Or Kansas’ Sasha Kaun, a big man who is asked to provide rebounding and defense off the bench. How about Memphis’ Willie Kemp, the starting point guard last year who moved to the bench due to Rose’s emergence, who may have to log major minutes if either Rose or C.D.R. get in foul trouble.

And then there’s Collins, the Jayhawks sixth man who hails from Crane High School on Chicago’s West Side. Back in 2006, Collins’ senior year, Crane was knocked out of the Public League Tournament by Simeon, led at the time by a junior by the name of Derrick Rose. I’m guessing that Collins wants nothing more than to get revenge on his fellow Windy City native and take home an even bigger tournament title. With all the karma going on in San Antonio this weekend, it would only be fitting.

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    Eli Kaberon is a 2005 graduate of Evanston Township High School and currently is attending Columbia College in the loop, majoring in print journalism. A life-long fan of the Cubs, Bears and Bulls, Eli also works as a seat vendor at Wrigley Field and has sold hot dogs to everyone ranging from Bears tight end Greg Olsen to Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich. Eli can be reached at ekaberon@yahoo.com.

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