Derrick Rose’s legendary 2008 NCAA Tournament run with Memphis bolsters a borderline Hall of Fame resume

A common thing some folks seem to forget about Derrick Rose’s one year at Memphis is that he was not the Tigers’ best player that season. Instead, it was Chris Douglas-Roberts, who doubled as the team’s leading scorer and a consensus First-Team All-American.

Rose settled for Third-Team honors.

Quiet and introverted back then, the 18-year-old Rose joined a Memphis program in advance of the 2007-08 season that was returning four starters and coming off back-to-back Elite Eight appearances. So, for the most part, especially early on, he kinda just tried to fit in and actually posted a single-digit scoring line in three of his first eight games, then did the same in three of his final four games before the start of the 2008 NCAA Tournament. Believe it or not, as crazy as it sounds in hindsight, there was a time when some Memphis fans called into local radio stations to ask if Andre Allen might be a better option at point guard.

But then D-Rose took off.

As the story was once told to me, the Memphis coaching staff eventually made it clear to Rose that the Conference USA schedule the Tigers rolled through was over — and that it was time to stop deferring to his older teammates. They more or less convinced him that his team would only go as far in the NCAA Tournament as he took them. They pleaded with him to push things to another level.

What followed was one of the greatest individual runs in NCAA Tournament history.

Rose was just an amazing force, game after game, while overwhelming big brands with elite point guards. He took down Michigan State (with Drew Neitzel) in the Sweet 16, then Texas (with D.J. Augustin) in the Elite Eight, then UCLA (with Darren Collison and Russell Westbrook) in the Final Four. In the days leading up to that showdown with the Bruins, I called then-UCLA coach Ben Howland, who happened to be tearing through Memphis tape in his office when he answered. I remember him being blown away by a play he’d just watched where Rose grabbed a rebound off the rim and beat everybody down the court for a layup.

“He’s great,” Howland said.

Against UCLA, Rose finished with 25 points and nine rebounds while attempting 12 free throws, just one fewer than the entire UCLA team, mostly because even UCLA’s future NBA guards could do nothing but foul to keep him out of the paint. Collison fouled out in 33 minutes. Westbrook finished with four fouls.

Memphis won the game, 78-63.

Afterward, then-Memphis coach John Calipari acknowledged that sometimes, while on the sideline, he would watch Rose make plays and mumble, “Oh my.” Remember, Calipari had previously stood on NBA sidelines, as coach of the Nets, and watched the likes of Michael Jordan, Allen Iverson and Kobe Bryant. He’d already seen a lot. Still, a teenage D-Rose could make Calipari shake his head in amazement.

That’s how electrifying Rose could be.

In six NCAA Tournament games, the one-and-done star averaged 20.8 points, 6.5 rebounds and 6.0 assists while shooting 51.8% from the field. If Kansas‘ Mario Chalmers had not made a 3-pointer at the end of regulation in the championship game, Rose would have led Memphis to its first national championship and been named the Most Outstanding Player of the 2008 Final Four.

“He was always an unbelievable teammate — maybe the best I’ve ever coached,” Calipari posted Thursday morning, shortly after Rose announced his retirement from the NBA after 16 seasons. “He was a coach’s dream, authentic and always trying to make it about other people.”

Derrick Rose’s 2008 NCAA Tournament run by the numbers 

If you watched that tournament run, it wasn’t difficult to imagine all of the things that came next for Rose. He was the No. 1 overall pick of the 2008 NBA Draft. He emerged as the face of his hometown Bulls, made three All-Star teams in his first four years in the league and was voted the youngest Most Valuable Player in NBA history in 2011 — a title he still holds today. The potential for greatness was always undeniable, and the greatness was there until injuries cruelly robbed him of his abilities at the young age of 23.

I was asked earlier if Rose will eventually make the Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame.

That’s hard to say.

On one hand, there were really only three Hall of Fame-worthy seasons in Rose’s professional career — specifically Years 2, 3 and 4. That’s not ideal. But, on the other hand, one thing working in Rose’s favor is that the Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame considers a player’s entire basketball career, and when you look at Rose through that prism, there’s a case to be made considering he’s a two-time state champion who went 120-12 in high school in Illinois, a national runner-up in college who went 38-2 at Memphis, a two-time FIBA World Cup gold medalist with USA Basketball, a three-time All-Star with the Bulls and — just to reiterate — the youngest Most Valuable Player in NBA history.

That at least gives Rose a shot — in part because literally every former NBA MVP who is eligible for the Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame is in the Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame.

So will Rose make it?

Again, that’s hard to say.

But, regardless, he’ll always have those three weeks in 2008 when he overwhelmed everybody who stepped in front of him while producing one of the greatest individual runs March Madness has ever seen. The run didn’t end the way he would have liked just like his professional career didn’t unfold the way he wanted. Life goes like that sometimes. Things aren’t always fair. Even so, Derrick Rose can find some solace, I hope, in the idea that he’ll long be remembered as someone who made an impact on the sport in his brief time on campus. He was a lightning bolt in baggy shorts, a wonderful teammate who understood how to defer but also when to take over, and part of his legacy as a generational talent is that he is largely responsible for what still is, and might forever be, the greatest season in Memphis basketball history.