UMass coach gets redemption

By Dugan Arnett     Dec 14, 2008

? Without a doubt, the pregame highlight video broadcast by the Kansas University men’s basketball team before home games is meant, at least in part, to let opponents know what kind of hornet’s nest they’re walking into.

The video — a nod to the tradition-rich history of Jayhawks basketball — begins with a mirage of highlights from Kansas players past and present, and closes, naturally, with former KU guard Mario Chalmers’ three-pointer at the end of regulation in this year’s national championship game against Memphis, a shot that forced overtime and eventually allowed Kansas to run away with its first title in 20 years.

It’s hard to imagine the video putting any opposing coach at ease in the moments before tip-off, but for Massachusetts coach Derek Kellogg, who was on the sideline for “Mario’s Miracle” as an assistant at Memphis last season, Saturday’s video proved especially difficult to stomach.

“You could see it on his face when they were doing the starting lineup for the game, and they showed Mario Chalmers hitting that shot,” UMass guard Ricky Harris said. “He put his head down, and I walked over and gave him a slap on the thigh and told him it was going to be all right.”

And in the end, it was.

The Minutemen (3-6) held Kansas to just 34-percent shooting from the field Saturday to hand the Jayhawks their second loss of the season, 61-60, ending a 30-game home winning streak by the defending national champs and, in the process, helped ease Kellogg’s pain after last year’s outcome.

“(Before the game), he said he needed some redemption against this team,” said Minutemen center Tony Gaffney, who finished with 13 rebounds and six blocks. “And some of the guys didn’t really realize what he was talking about. The second he said it, I knew exactly what he was talking about, and I’m just glad we were able to get this done for him.”

While the stage was significantly less prestigious, it was hard to miss some of the similarities between Saturday’s game at the Sprint Center and the last national championship game.

Late Saturday, UMass senior guard Chris Lowe struggled severely from the free-throw line — a la former Memphis guard Derrick Rose in last season’s title game — to allow KU to keep things close.

And in the game’s final moments Saturday, trailing by one with a chance to win, Kansas lined up in the same set it used to free Chalmers for his shot.

“It’s a dribble hand-off into a ball screen,” Kellogg said. “It was Collins this time, but I’ve also seen Chalmers do it once or twice, also.”

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