Chalmers is super Mario in the clutch

SAN ANTONIO -- The shot was off-balance, but Mario Chalmers’ aim was true.

Rock, shock, Jayhawk.

It wasn’t over, but it might as well have been.

Chalmers’ desperate three-point basket with 2.1 seconds left in regulation forced Memphis to overtime Monday, and a Kansas team that outlasted some of the best this NCAA tournament had to offer won the national title, 75-68.

“It’ll probably be the biggest shot ever made in Kansas history,” Coach Bill Self said.

There was nothing like that when Kansas won its last national championship 20 years ago behind Danny Manning, now a Jayhawks assistant coach.

Nor was there in the 1952 title game with Clyde Lovellette.

“It was a remarkable play,” Self said. “Just remarkable.”

It shouldn’t have been a surprise to anyone who has followed Kansas that Chalmers took the shot. The 6-foot-1 junior guard from Alaska is a stone-cold shooter. He is the Jayhawks’ go-to guy in the clutch, even though Brandon Rush, not Chalmers, is their leading scorer.

Chalmers decked USC in December with a three-pointer in the last 30 seconds.

Last year in the Big 12 title game against Texas, he made a three-pointer with 15 seconds left to force overtime, and Kansas went on to win, just as it did against Memphis.

“This was very reminiscent of that one,” Self said.

Against Memphis, down by three, Sherron Collins dribbled to the right side of the court and slipped the ball to Chalmers before falling down, and Chalmers launched it.

“I think the play was just go flat and have a penetration pitch. I saw that Sherron kind of fumbled the ball, and I relocated behind him,” Chalmers said.

“When it left my hand, it felt good. I’m just glad it went in.”

Rodrick Stewart, the former USC player who didn’t play after breaking his kneecap practicing for the Final Four on Friday, had a good feeling too.

“Mario is the guy we give the ball to when the game is on the line and we need a big shot,” he said. “He just has done it time and time again and hasn’t failed yet. I just knew when it left his fingers it was going in. I just crossed my fingers and prayed it went in, and it did.”

They don’t all. Chalmers missed one this season in a three-point loss at Texas, an off-balance, well-guarded three-point attempt.

But that would never stop him from trying another.

Self compares it to the mentality of an NFL cornerback. “He has no memory,” Self said. Miss one, and Chalmers is just as game for the next one.

“The next thing that happens is the only thing he is thinking about,” Self said. “It’s remarkable a guy could have that much poise.”

Chalmers isn’t a flashy player. That would be Rush. But Chalmers is a big-game player.

He had 30 points in the Big 12 title game this season against Texas, making eight three-pointers.

Look for the games against ranked teams, and usually Chalmers is well above his 12.6-point average.

He made big plays in overtime too.

He threw the ball to Darrell Arthur for an alley-oop dunk, and he started a bang-bang play that went from him to Arthur to Darnell Jackson for a layup and a six-point lead.

Chalmers finished with 18 points and three assists, but there is only one basket that will be replayed for as long as people watch Kansas basketball.

It won’t be as famous as Michael Jordan’s shot to beat Georgetown in 1982 because Chalmers won’t be as famous as Jordan. But it will probably outlast Keith Smart’s 1987 shot for Indiana because it was even more dramatic, with Kansas as good as done down nine with 2:12 left.

This wasn’t the first time Chalmers witnessed a national title game in the Alamodome, just the first time he played in one. He was in the stands in 2004, when Connecticut defeated Georgia Tech.

“I mean, that was a great experience for me,” he said. “I was able to watch one of my good friends, Jarrett Jack, who was playing for Georgia Tech at the time. I talked to him after the game. He said, ‘One day you’ll be there. When you get there, make the most of your opportunity.

“That was something, when we got here, we believed in ourself. Coach believed in us, and we believed in coach, and we all fought together.”

Yes, but once again, it was Chalmers who threw the knockout punch.

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robyn.norwood@latimes.com