Rock Chalk Champio... what, was that already taken?

A shot that will live in infamy. For Memphis, at least.

For a tournament that sorely lacked that One Shining Moment without Stephen Curry, the championship game made up for it in spades. Only the seventh overtime contest in the NCAA Championship history proved to us what we figured all along - the top teams this year were lightyears ahead of everyone else.

Any news service will summarize the game for you. And they'll say eerily similar things: Foul shooting, don't let them get a 3, and Calipari should have taken a time out. All these things are right. The game on Kansas' side is an epic achievement, and the pinnacle of happiness. On the other hand, for Memphis it's both a dark time, and series of what-ifs.

What if we'd made one more free throw?
What if we'd made one more shot?
What if we'd fouled instead of letting him get a 3?
What if he'd bricked that shot?

The truth is, as much as we don't want to take credit away from Kansas from playing a phenomenal game, it was Memphis that lost it. Missing four out of five free throws down the stretch with the pressure on is choking it away. Floundering away a 9 point lead with 2:12 to play is just as epically bad in a championship game. Joey Dorsey's fifth foul may have been a blow to the Memphis ship, but they still had more than their chance to win the game, sending their stars (CDR, Rose) to the line to put the game away. That loss will never end stinging. Take that from an Ohio State, and Cleveland sports fan.

A couple of quick notes.

Billy Packer was excellent not only in last night's game, but the game before, and really throughout the tournament. He was on point picking out exactly what teams should have done, and both praising when they did the right things, and criticized the lapses. I don't know if he had an extra large cup of coffee before the games, but he was magnificently focused throughout the tournament. I'm not his biggest fan, but his neutrality makes him a great analyst, because he'll tell you exactly what he thinks based solely on the things he sees, no emotional attachment. We may not always like it, but it doesn't mean he's wrong.

After complaining about the refs throughout this basketball season, let's give them credit when they deserve it. This Final Four was very well officiated. They did what we hope they do, and that's let players play. Sure they get a ticky-tack foul here and there, but for the most part they let physical play go on, and controlled the game with the spirit of the rule, and not to the letter. Memphis and Kansas fans can have their gripes when fouls could and could not be called (many drives), but at the end of the day, the refs were both consistent and just, and the fact that the players are the story makes this championship that much better.

Photo: Streeter Lecka/Getty Images