Kansas-Memphis should be fast, furious ... and fun

Chris Douglas-Roberts' dunk over Kevin Love was a scripted play from Memphis' playbook. Streeter Lecka/Getty Images

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SAN ANTONIO -- Rest assured, hoops viewers. You will be entertained come Monday night

In fact, Chris Douglas-Roberts guarantees it.

"We feel the half-court game is boring," said Memphis' high-flying scorer. "And we know you guys do, too."

After watching Tigers stars Douglas-Roberts and Derrick Rose put on a Harlem Globetrotters-esque exhibition against UCLA, after watching Kansas race past the nation's highest-scoring team, North Carolina, like the Heels were stuck in quicksand, one thing became apparent about Monday night's Memphis-Kansas national title game.

There aren't going to be many opportunities to blink.

Some coaches like to script every possession. Others preach patience and ball reversal and working the shot clock.

John Calipari and Bill Self subscribe to a slightly different school of basketball: the one where you put five ridiculously athletic players on the floor and get out of their way.

All the better for those watching at home to enjoy.

"The way [the Tigers] run their offense is different than the way we run it, but the philosophy's still the same," Self said. "Get the ball to the paint."

In Saturday night's semifinal game, Self's Jayhawks got there so often that they outscored North Carolina 50-30 in the paint. Memphis scored 14 fast-break points (it seemed like a whole lot more than that) to just two for UCLA.

It's safe to assume the championship-game duel will be played at a pace usually reserved for just two places: The NBA and open-gym pickup games.

"I want to go get on a treadmill right now to prepare for the game," Memphis forward Joey Dorsey said Sunday.

There are times while watching Memphis' Rose dribble down the court in seven different directions or Douglas-Roberts skywalk through the lane that you're sure you're watching a circus-act-on-hardwood. There are times when watching Brandon Rush or Mario Chalmers throw a lob in transition that you'd think the only page in Kansas' playbook -- like the Flint Tropics' -- is the alley-oop.

There's a method to both teams' madness, however, and it's not for everybody. For one, they require a collection of athleticism not seen on your everyday roster. And a lot of those SportsCenter dunks are set up by something far less celebrated: defense.

There's a reason Kansas gets so many transition opportunities: They've got a pair of elite defensive guards, Chalmers and Russell Robinson, who between them had six steals against the Tar Heels, and long-armed defenders like Rush, Sasha Kaun and Darrell Arthur, who swat opponents' shots. Suffice to say, they don't stop and reset the offense once they take possession.

Meanwhile, for all of Rose's flashy offensive skills, he's proven quite the lock-down defender as well, forcing opposing stars D.J. Augustin (Texas) and Darren Collison (UCLA) to a combined 5-of-27 shooting and nine turnovers the past two games. Antonio Anderson usually locks down the other guard. Then there's Conference USA defensive player of the year Dorsey behind them to rebound missed shots and get Rose or Douglas-Roberts going again in the other direction.

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