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AS THE GAME TURNED
When Damion James made a long jumper just inside the arc with 18:20 to go, cutting Memphis' lead to 39-34, there was legitimate reason to be concerned for the first time all afternoon. The Tigers' lead, which reached 17 at one point, had been cut by a 12-0 run spanning both halves, inviting the crowd of 32,798 to get involved. But that moment is precisely where the Tigers' experience in Elite Eight games showed. On the next possession, sophomore big man Shawn Taggart answered with a short jumper over Connor Atchley, instantly turning the noise down a few notches. Then, after D.J. Augustin missed a runner for Texas, the Tigers immediately looked to run. Junior guard Antonio Anderson threw a bounce pass through the middle for a cutting Derrick Rose, who put his head on the rim for a dunk that completely stopped Texas' momentum. When Anderson then banked in a 3-pointer with 14:57 to go, putting the Tigers back in front by 12, they had weathered Texas' best punch of the day.
AS THE ROTATION TURNED
Last season, when the Tigers' primary big men got into foul trouble against Ohio State, they had almost no answer against 7-foot star Greg Oden. The Tigers had to counter by playing either Robert Dozier or Joey Dorsey at center and playing 6-5 guard Jeremy Hunt at the power forward position, for which he was ill-suited in a game of that magnitude. The answer, this time, as it turned out, was Taggart, who carried the Tigers' frontcourt through a first half in which Dozier played just 10 minutes after picking up two fouls. Taggart's eight quality minutes allowed Memphis to take a 39-28 halftime lead. Meanwhile, Texas' rotation was completely thrown off by foul trouble. James and center Atchley each picked up two fouls early and played just 10 and seven first-half minutes, respectively.
RIM GEMS
Dorsey felt it was important to make a statement early in this game, especially given the potential impact of the heavily slanted Texas crowd. So when he got an opportunity early for an easy two points, he didn't want to just dunk it. He wanted to tear the rim off. After a bad pass by junior Chris Douglas-Roberts with 6:08 to go in the first half, Augustin appeared to have an easy breakaway layup that would have cut Texas' deficit to nine points. Instead, Rose -- as he's done so many times this season -- sprinted back on defense to block the shot. Dorsey, meanwhile, still hadn't gotten to the other end of the court after Douglas-Roberts' turnover, but his cherry picking paid off. Rose corralled the rebound, threw the long outlet from behind his head to Dorsey, who had no one near him for a ferocious two-handed jam with which he admitted trying to shatter the backboard. Though Calipari wasn't totally happy "I looked over at coach, and he said, 'We don't want a (technical foul),'" Dorsey said -- it was a huge four-point swing in the game.
HIDE YOUR EYES
There wasn't much to complain about, given the magnitude of the victory, but it was interesting that Texas outscored the Tigers, 20-4, in second-chance points. The Tigers had just seven offensive rebounds, while Texas had 13. Nine of Texas' second-chance points came in the closing minutes of the game during a desperate comeback attempt. The Longhorns got three offensive rebounds off missed 3-pointers, stepped back out to the 3-point line and buried the next attempts.
SCORER'S TABLE
Texas came into the game hoping its small guards would be able to shoot over the taller, longer Tigers. It didn't work out at all for the Longhorns, whose three starting guards went a combined 13-for-42 from the field (30.9 percent). Augustin, the all-American point guard, went just 4-for-18, as the Tigers pressured him into taking contested layups, fadeaway jumpers and off-balance 3-pointers. A.J. Abrams, the 3-point specialist for Texas, made 5-of-10 from the arc. That, however, was a little misleading. Abrams went 4-for-5 in the final 2:57 after the Tigers already had a 20-point lead. Before then, he could barely get off a quality shot, making just one of his first five attempts.
LOCKER-ROOM CHATTER
"We've played this way all year. People just haven't seen us. They want to say, it's the league. Our league is way better than it was three years ago. So the league is not the issue. The issue is, we are really good. We are really good. And for someone that doesn't study the game, to watch us play, it's hard to figure it out. Looks like there's no rhyme or reason to what we do, and that's OK. All I'm trying to do is put these young men in the best position to have success and to do the things they do well and get them to compete and feel unleashed." Calipari
ODDS and ENDS
-- Saturday's Final Four won't just be the first gathering ever of four No. 1 seeds. It will match up the top four teams, in order, going all the way back to the preseason Associated Press poll. Before the first game was played, North Carolina was ranked No. 1, UCLA was No. 2, Memphis was No. 3 and Kansas was No. 4.
So it's fitting and unusual that the Tar Heels will play Kansas in the national semifinals, while the Tigers will play UCLA.
"This is one of those years where it appears from day one, people said there are four teams that are a little bit better than everybody else," Calipari said. "That's what they said. We happen to be one of those teams. Next year, it may not be that way. You may have 12 teams, and someone may crack through. But that's why this tournament is so popular. No one knows."
-- The Tigers' defensive game plans for Texas and Michigan State were nothing short of superb. Much of the credit for that goes to Memphis assistant coaches John Robic and Derek Kellogg, who scouted the teams and broke down film.
The Tigers held Texas to 36.2 percent shooting, its fourth-lowest total of the year, and shut down Michigan State's top scorers in Drew Neitzel and Raymar Morgan, who combined for 13 points.
And Memphis did it with a solid halfcourt defense, rarely pressing in the full court and picking its spots to gamble.
"I think both teams that we played here struggled against our pressure," Robic said. "It was a combination of our pressure and our size. Just in the tapes we watched, both Michigan State and Texas played at their tempo. We needed to force the tempo. We didn't want to give up as much full court, so we didn't press as much because they've got great guards ... but back that off into the halfcourt and just like we have all year we pressure the ball to try to take people out of their sets."
-- Kellogg, who shares most of the recruiting legwork with assistant coach Chuck Martin, said after the game that adding a Final Four to the program's resume certainly won't hurt on the recruiting trail.
Though Kellogg can't talk specifically about recruiting, it's well-known the Tigers are pursuing two top-20 players in the 2008 class in guard Tyreke Evans and forward Devin Ebanks.
Memphis is also recruiting many of the top players the following year, including Briarcrest guard Leslie McDonald and guard/wing Xavier Henry from Oklahoma City.
"It's got to help," Kellogg said. "What Florida was able to do back-to-back and UCLA going to Final Fours, it should definitely help in recruiting. Kids want to play for a winner, and they want to go to a place where kids are graduating and moving on to the NBA. Right now it looks like we're doing all those things."
-- Former Tiger great Penny Hardaway, who has traveled with Memphis during its past two NCAA Tournament runs, was part of the locker room celebration Sunday night. Though Hardaway has no official role with the program, he can often be found working out at the Finch Center and interacting with players. He gave Dorsey free-throw tips leading up to the postseason.
"It means a lot because I see behind closed doors what they do; they work so hard starting in the offseason and leading into the regular season, and Cal has done a great job and the players have done a great job," Hardaway said. "It's huge because it puts you on a bigger level. You get more respect when you get to the Final Four and have a chance to win it all."
Mike McKenzie, former Tiger football player and current defensive back for the New Orleans Saints, was also in the locker room celebrating.
-- U of M president Shirley Raines was ecstatic upon leaving the locker room Sunday afternoon.
"It's wonderful, and it's going to give us a great opportunity to show off our wonderful university," Raines said.
-- U of M media relations assistant Lamar Chance said Sunday the Tigers will travel to San Antonio on Wednesday night after practicing at the Finch Center. Memphis will practice in San Antonio on Thursday and Friday.
-- Memphis fans certainly had to be relieved not to see Tim Higgins as one of the three officials calling the game. Higgins was a referee in each of Memphis' Elite Eight losses the past two seasons. The officials who called the game were Mike Kitts, Patrick Driscoll and Bob Donato.
-- Prior to the last three games of the NCAA Tournament, Dorsey hadn't had consecutive double-double performances since early February, when he had three straight double-doubles.
But Dorsey is starting to turn it up a notch. In two of his last three games, he's had a double-double, including 11 points and 12 rebounds Sunday.
Calipari was bursting at the seams with pride over Dorsey's maturation.
"He's come so far," Calipari said. "For Joey and a lot of these kids, it's hard for them to accept that good things are supposed to happen for you. Expect good things to happen. It's hard for them to see that sometimes."
-- UCLA is up next for the Tigers and the Bruins, especially in the backcourt and with standout freshman center Kevin Love, have a different team than the one that beat Memphis, 50-45, in the 2006 Oakland Regional final.
"We didn't come to perform in that game," said Dozier, who had six points and a team-high eight rebounds off the bench in the loss to the Bruins. "They outscrapped us.
"This time, they'll probably slow down the game and make it physical. But the main difference is that everyone of us has gotten better in the last two years."
-- The All-South Regional team, voted on by selected media members, included the Memphis trio of Rose, Douglas-Roberts and Dorsey, Texas' Augustin and Stanford center Brook Lopez.
Rose was stunned that he was named the regional's Most Outstanding Player.
"I was the MVP?" Rose said. "That's wonderful, but I give it up to my teammates. They deserve it more than me."
LOOKING AHEAD
Tigers vs. UCLA in national semifinals, 5:07 p.m. Saturday at San Antonio
-- Dan Wolken and Ron Higgins |
