Posted: 4/9/08 Section: Sports

Media Credit: The Associated Press, Alan Spearman Members of the Memphis basketball team are welcomed at the Memphis, Tenn., airport on Tuesday.

The Memphis Tigers earned a piece of history this season. Unfortunately, it's not the kind they wanted, the version that comes with a trophy.

Instead, Memphis has a new claim as the "Home of the Blues" after blowing a national championship in Monday night's 75-68 overtime loss to Kansas. The Tigers, who led by nine points with 2:12 left, now find little solace in a record 38 wins, and 104 victories the past three seasons.

These talented Tigers now find themselves lumped with the likes of Michigan's Fab Five and Houston's Phi Slamma Jamma as great teams that simply couldn't win it all.

"You have the kind of lead we had, you're supposed to win the game," coach John Calipari said.

All-American Chris Douglas-Roberts added, "We weren't successful."

Maybe it's because these Tigers hadn't really been tested much this season in the final minutes. The team that ran off 26 straight wins and blew through Michigan State, Texas and UCLA in the NCAA tournament hadn't been forced to hit free throws at the end to protect a fragile lead.

Free throws, the Tigers' biggest weakness during the season and the area Calipari promised wouldn't hurt his mentally tough players, cost them even as they were preparing to celebrate.

"I just knew we was ready to cut the nets down," senior Joey Dorsey said of the final seconds.

Free throws had come easily in the tournament until the final 75 seconds, even for a team that hit only 59.7 percent during the season, among the country's worst.

"We really wanted this for the city because the city is so behind us," Douglas-Roberts said. "They all came together during this run. We really wanted this for the city, we wanted the city to remember us."

They will be, even if not as champions. Several hundred screaming fans in Tiger blue greeted the team at the airport on Tuesday.

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