Academic

and Dean Mundy, who blew away the field in the Conglomerate Blog NCAA Challenge.

Dean called Kansas to win, but I suspect even he was having doubts with 2:12 to go and his team down by nine points. Memphis coach John Calipari had pooh-poohed the importance of free throws all year, but they lost a national championship last night because of their inability to convert at the line. Funny thing is, the guys who missed the free throws are actually decent shooters. Both averaged over 70% from the line over the course of the season, and they were shooting well in the tournament. But I assume that the hoop looks a lot smaller at the end of the national championship game.

Except for Mario Chalmers. We didn't watch the entire game, but my family was gathered around the television for that last shot. Wow!

Finally, after years of darkness, I have been enlightened about the "Rock Chalk Jayhawk" chant. This is from the KU website:

KU's world famous Rock Chalk Chant evolved from a cheer that a chemistry professor, E.H.S. Bailey, created for the KU science club in 1886. Bailey's version was "Rah, Rah, Jayhawk, KU" repeated three times. The rahs were later replaced by "Rock Chalk," a transposition of chalk rock, the name for the limestone outcropping found on Mount Oread, site of the Lawrence campus.

The cheer became known worldwide. Teddy Roosevelt pronounced it the greatest college chant he'd ever heard. Legend has it that troops used the chant when fighting in the Philippines in 1899, in the Boxer Rebellion in China, and in World War II. At the Olympic games in 1920, the King of Belgium asked for a typical American college yell. The assembled athletes agreed on KU's Rock Chalk and rendered it for His Majesty.

If you want to hear it (again), go here.