New York Times - College Basketball: Top of the Heap

College Basketball: Top of the Heap

By PETE THAMEL

The rankings will tell you that North Carolina is the No. 1 men’s basketball team in the country. (The R.P.I., for the record, will tell you that it is Vanderbilt.) But after No. 2 Memphis dismantled No. 4 Georgetown on Saturday, it is fairly obvious that the Tigers (10-0) will be the favorite to win the national title.

The Tigers won, 85-71, dictated the tempo in their favor and forced Georgetown to rush its meticulous offense. Chris Douglas-Roberts led the way with 24 points.

Now the question is whether Memphis will lose for the rest of the regular season. The Tigers play Arizona, Gonzaga and Tennessee — all at home — along with the typical feast of Conference USA cud. They will be a heavy favorite in all those games, but can they remain motivated and focused against all of the inferior competition?

Let us know what you think. Is Memphis the favorite from here on out? Will playing in Conference USA hurt the Tigers as the season wears on?

ESPN's Andy Katz - Calipari's extra work helps Memphis' Douglas-Roberts shine

Calipari's extra work helps Memphis' Douglas-Roberts shine

By Andy Katz
ESPN.com
Updated: December 22, 2007, 8:57 PM ET

MEMPHIS, Tenn. -- Look, there was no way Memphis coach John Calipari was going to go into the most-hyped nonconference game in his eight-year tenure with his leading scorer, junior Chris Douglas-Roberts, in some sort of funk.

No way. This game was too important to Calipari and -- as he would say later in the day -- to the potential No. 1 seed possibilities for the Tigers come March.

So, he did what he hadn't done yet in college: He took over the individual workout for Douglas-Roberts this week, not just once, but twice.

"For the first 30 minutes, he whined like he was exhausted," Calipari said. "There were sounds coming out of him that I didn't know if he were a female or a male."

Calipari was in Douglas-Roberts' grille. Rod Strickland, who is the team's director of student-athlete development/manager, held a pad pushing back every time he drove.

"I was doing anything to jar the kid out of what he was in," Calipari said. "I was trying to get his motor going. That's all it was."

Calipari said he had done the same tactic with Keith Van Horn, Lucious Harris and Kerry Kittles when he coached the New Jersey Nets in the late 1990s. Let's just say he might not want to wait as long to do it again with another player.

Douglas-Roberts scored a team-high 24 points as he and the rest of the No. 2 Tigers ran away from No. 4 Georgetown 85-71 Saturday afternoon at the FedEx Forum in a matchup between undefeated teams.

Douglas-Roberts said he admittedly was flustered by USC's triangle-and-two gimmick defense the Trojans threw at him in New York earlier in the month. He scored only 10 points on 4-of-13 shooting in the ugly overtime affair. Middle Tennessee State tried the same D in Nashville. But a combination of that and an overall lack of aggression clouded his mind and led to a 2-of-5 shooting night for five points, followed by a less than inspiring 1-for-3, four-point game at Cincinnati.

Why did Calipari resort to taking matters into his own hands?

"I watched," Calipari said. "He couldn't get by anybody. In this offense, if you can't beat your man, they're not going to call a foul. He's not the kind of physical player that can play with people hanging on him.

"He wasn't cutting hard enough, busting hard enough."

"They were hard workouts before practice," said Douglas-Roberts, who made seven of 13 shots and drew fouls to shoot 9-of-12 from the free-throw line. "It got me in the right frame of mind. It was all about pace. My pace the previous two games wasn't where it was supposed to be."

His teammates noticed it, too, and Robert Dozier and Derrick Rose said they shared his frustration the past three games. But CDR's play Saturday was "what he is for us, a great scorer," Dozier said.

But we would be remiss if this were all about CDR's awakening. The Tigers put away the Hoyas in the second half by deciding to increase their intensity on the defensive end. In the first half, they did get burned by the classic backdoor cuts of the Hoyas. But the power of ball pressure and being physical every time Georgetown had possession led to a runaway. Joey Dorsey, who was in foul trouble in the first half, grabbed 11 of his 13 rebounds in the second half, blocked two of his three shots in the second half and provided enough of a presence to fluster the Hoyas' post.

Dorsey's power, the versatility of Dozier and the strength, even for just four minutes, of wide-body Pierre Niles, was enough to send preseason All-American Roy Hibbert to his lowest-point total of the season (six).

"All of our games [so far], there were one or two good players, but on their team, everybody is a scorer and everybody is a threat," said Hibbert, whose Hoyas' previously toughest game was against a depleted Alabama in Birmingham. "We need to get better on offense and defense."

Georgetown coach John Thompson III was even more direct, saying, "We will improve. We will improve."

The question is how often will Memphis' defense be so deflating for an opponent?

Will the Tigers bring the same intensity they did in the second half in every game? Will it be there for 40 minutes against Arizona, Gonzaga, Tennessee the next two months, against Houston and UAB on the road in Conference USA or in a second-round matchup in the NCAA Tournament?

"It's going to be real hard, honestly," Douglas-Roberts said. "We're not going to play like this every game. But we know every big game, this is what we have to bring, just like this."

Douglas-Roberts played the underdog role card, too. He said the Tigers will play "with a chip on our shoulder and are proving it to ourselves, not to the media," that they're worthy of their high ranking.

Not sure where CDR is getting that no one thought the Tigers would win this game. This was at home. As are the upcoming games against Arizona (Dec. 29), Gonzaga (Jan. 26) and Tennessee (Feb. 23), which is quite remarkable in this era of teams not always getting a plethora of marquee nonconference home games.

"This is a big one, a huge game if you win," Calipari said. "If you don't, it's Dec. 22. But they're never taking it away. They can say that's in December, the [NCAA Tournament selection] committee can say whatever it wants -- in December, not in January and February, at home -- don't act like they can't move the numbers around. All we can do is go play ball and put a résumé together, and they decide where we should go and what seed we should be.

"Now, my question is: Are we No. 1 next week?"

The way the polls work, probably not because -- for whatever reason -- media and coaches don't like to jump a team too high, especially if the No. 1 team (North Carolina) hasn't lost. But it really doesn't matter in college basketball. All that is relevant is being a No. 1 seed and, for Memphis, playing the first two rounds in nearby Little Rock, Ark., and, if the Tigers advance, being the top seed in a regional semifinal and final in Houston en route to San Antonio.

Beating Georgetown helps put Memphis on that path.

"We knew a game like this helps our seeding in March," Douglas-Roberts said. "That's why we didn't want to get beat."

Andy Katz is a senior writer at ESPN.com.

Gary Parrish CBS Sports - Memphis lives simple life in handling Georgetown

Memphis lives simple life in handling Georgetown

Dec. 22, 2007
By Gary Parrish
CBSSports.com Senior Writer

MEMPHIS, Tenn. -- John Calipari sat midcourt at the Larry O. Finch Center on campus Friday addressing his team. It was roughly 22 hours before tip-off of the weekend's showdown with Georgetown, and for a moment, the Memphis coach opted to eliminate the discussion of strategy and break things down in simple terms.

"They can talk about what we do on offense and what they do on defense and whatever, but in the end, it's not going to be what decides the game," Calipari said. "You know what's going to decide this game? Players making plays. It's players making plays, man. And I like my players."


One simple aspect to victory: Joey Dorsey dominates Roy Hibbert. (US Presswire) On Saturday, Memphis beat Georgetown 85-71.

Your thoughts, Coach Cal?

"I thought we made plays," Calipari said. "How about Joey (Dorsey) catching it at the foul line and making a spin-back basket? How about Chris Douglas-Roberts making plays? How about Robert Dozier in the middle of the zone making plays? It was players making plays."

Too often fans and analysts make basketball seem more difficult than it should ever seem. They talk about this inbounds play and that halfcourt trap and then comes tip-off and the games unfold, and those games are almost always decided by pretty much the same things -- by which teams have the better players making the most plays.

If players get stops, you win.

If players make shots, you win.

Coaches merely place the players in position to do as much. And the second-ranked Tigers' victory over the fifth-ranked Hoyas was the latest example of this theory testing true thanks to Douglas-Roberts (24 points and eight rebounds), Dorsey (11 points and 13 rebounds) and Dozier (19 points and six rebounds) making more plays than DaJuan Summers (4-of-11 from the field), Roy Hibbert (six points, six rebounds and three turnovers) and Jessie Sapp (five points and three turnovers).

Put another way, the Memphis players made plays and the Georgetown players didn't.

Which is why Memphis won this season's first match-up of Top 5 teams.

Though the advantage of a sellout crowd of 18,864 didn't hurt.

"It was amazing," said Memphis junior Antonio Anderson, who got seven points, five assists, four rebounds and two steals. "It was very important to us."

As was the re-emergence of Douglas-Roberts, the Tigers' top scorer who had been non-existent of late. The junior wing was averaging 21.8 points through six contests. But the past three games were uncharacteristically sluggish for the most unorthodox big-time scorer in college basketball, and after Douglas-Roberts got 10 points against Southern California, five points against Middle Tennessee State and four points against Cincinnati (on just three field goal attempts, it's worth noting) it was time for Calipari to pull him aside and work.

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So they worked.

And worked and worked and worked.

"It was a pro-based workout, the hardest drills I've done in my life," Douglas-Roberts said. "And I needed it because those previous games I was out of it a little bit."

Against the Hoyas, he broke out of it a little bit.

"He's such a good player," said Georgetown coach John Thompson III after watching Douglas-Roberts make 7-of-13 field goal attempts in 36 minutes. "He can score a lot of different ways. He got into a rhythm. And guys like that, when they get into a rhythm, there's not much you can do."

Meantime, Georgetown's star player was not in a rhythm. Hibbert was in something more closely resembling a coma, getting only two points in the first 33 minutes before scoring four in the final seven, when the outcome was essentially already determined. It was an all-around uninspired/stock-damaging effort for the 7-foot-2 senior who withdrew from June's NBA Draft, and it left Dorsey feeling badly to some degree.

"I asked him why he wasn't telling his guys to throw it to him in the post," said Dorsey, who played with Hibbert for USA Basketball at the Pan-American Games this past summer. "I was telling him to be more vocal and get his teammates to throw the ball to him, because he's going to take them as far as they go."

So you were trying to help Hibbert?

"Yeah!" Dorsey answered. "That's my friend!"

And with that, Dorsey laughed -- laughed just like you'd expect a guy to laugh on a 10-0 team that might steal a couple of first-place votes from North Carolina in Monday's Associated Press poll. Even if, the Tigers will still almost certainly land at No. 2 for the fourth consecutive week, which they insist is fine with them as long as the nation at least recognizes what happened Saturday, that they led by 17 points late and mostly dominated a potential Final Four team that was getting a first-place vote of its own before entering FedExForum.

"We beat a great team and that says a lot about us," Douglas-Roberts said. "It's not hype with us. We're really a good team."

Washington Times - Hoyas sink after break

Hoyas sink after break
By Barker Davis
December 23, 2007

Center Roy Hibbert had the same number of turnovers (three) as field goals in visiting Georgetown's loss to Memphis.
MEMPHIS, Tenn. — The Hoyas should hope they did better on their recently completed off-court exams.

The much-anticipated top-five Matchup on the Mississippi devolved into little more than a riverside rout of No. 5 Georgetown. Boosted by a superb second-half defensive effort, No. 2 Memphis proved worthy of its billing with an 85-71 win yesterday at FedEx Forum.

The Hoyas (8-1) have to sit on their first loss of the season for a week before returning to the court Saturday at Verizon Center against American.

If John Thompson III's postgame mood is any indication, it will be a less merry Christmas on the Hilltop than expected.

"Stating the obvious, we have a long way to go," Thompson said after the Hoyas loss for just the second time in their last 18 games and the first time since last season's Final Four loss to Ohio State. "At the end of the day, I felt like our offense let us down."

That letdown was personified by 7-foot-2 Roy Hibbert.

Entering the game, everybody knew the Hoyas would have trouble defending the Tigers' backcourt duo of Chris Douglas-Roberts and Derrick Rose. So it wasn't much of a surprise when they combined to total 42 points, 11 rebounds and eight assists.

But if Memphis (10-0) was expected to rule the perimeter, Georgetown's offensive trump was thought to be preseason All-America center Hibbert (six points, six rebounds), the anchor of the team's superior inside game.

Apparently, neither Hibbert nor supposedly offensively limited Memphis pivot Joey Dorsey (11 points, 13 rebounds) got that memo.

Early in the game, when Georgetown had complete control of the pace and the lead, Hibbert made uncharacteristic errors against the Tigers' quick double teams. He had more traveling violations in the first 22 minutes (two) than field goals (one), a fact that was even more disconcerting given that the 6-9 Dorsey was on the bench in foul trouble for most of the first half.

And during the game's critical stretch, when Dorsey returned and Memphis began pulling away near the midway mark of the second half, Hibbert was tentative.

In fact, he seemed intimidated by Dorsey, at least three times catching passes in perfect scoring position with Dorsey on his back and no help coming ... only to pivot away from the basket and give up the ball.

When Douglas-Roberts cleaned up a couple of free throws with just more than seven minutes left to stretch the Memphis lead to 65-54, Hibbert had two points on five shots against the first team this season that defended the Hoyas almost exclusively with man-to-man defense. Even his postgame comments were passive:

"I need to make myself more assertive," Hibbert said. "At the beginning of the game, I didn't do that. I put that on myself. I need to make sure in the next couple of games that I dominate as best I can."

Thompson isn't asking for dominance, but yesterday it was hard to tell whether Hibbert was even in attendance. Given the magnitude of the game, it's staggering that Hibbert didn't make a single trip to the free throw line.

Of course, Dorsey's defense caused much of Hibbert's ineffectiveness. The reigning Conference USA Defensive MVP had pointed toward this game for months as a stage to show the NBA scouts in attendance his skills. Oft-criticized for his erratic play, Dorsey didn't disappoint yesterday.

"When we play against teams we know we're going to beat, it's hard to get up," Dorsey said. "But against a great team like Georgetown, everybody's going to bring it. I really wanted this matchup for myself ... to show people I can handle a great player in the spotlight."

Hibbert was hardly the lone culprit in the loss, however. As a whole, the team played with a lack of passion and intensity.

Leading 33-25 with 5:07 left in the first half and Memphis flagging, the Hoyas had the chance to stick an early sword in the Tigers with the capacity crowd of 18,864 blue-clad fans in attendance mostly silent. Instead, the team took a series of forced shots early in the clock, fueling Memphis' transition game that helped the Tigers surge to a 43-40 halftime lead.

And a pair of familiar weak spots from this season and last doomed the Hoyas in the second half, when Georgetown made only 12 of 23 free throws (52.2 percent) and gave up 19 offensive rebounds.

Hoyas report

Yesterday at FedEx Forum in Memphis, Tenn.

SEEN AND HEARD

Former Washington Wizards guard Rod Strickland is in his second season as a member of the Memphis staff and holds the title of director of student-athlete development. Members of the national media who had dealt with Strickland in the past tried to keep a straight face yesterday when exchanging greetings with the newfound role model.

QUOTABLE

"I didn't think we needed a wake-up call. But trust me, we will learn and improve from this game."

— Georgetown coach John Thompson III

BY THE NUMBERS

16.7 Free throw percentage for Georgetown sophomore forward Vernon Macklin, who missed all four of his attempts yesterday.

— Barker Davis

Philadelphia Inquirer - Memphis sinks Hoyas by 14

Memphis sinks Hoyas by 14

Calipari dashed Final Four talk after the No. 2 Tigers' big win over No. 5 Georgetown, but the coach did call it "a huge game."

By Marc Narducci
Inquirer Staff Writer

MEMPHIS - John Calipari tried to downplay the result, but his effort lasted all of one sentence. His Memphis basketball team, ranked No. 2 in the Associated Press poll, had just defeated No. 5 Georgetown, 85-71, yesterday at the FedEx Forum, and Calipari tried to defuse talk that the Tigers should advance directly to the Final Four.
"We scheduled a game on Dec. 22 because we're trying to learn about our team," Calipari said, playing the cautious card.

Then, in the next sentence, the former 76ers assistant coach couldn't contain himself.

"But if you win, it's a huge game."

At the least, it was a very big event. The sellout crowd of 18,864 had a decibel level almost as impressive as the Tigers' play.

And though it's still early in the season, this game showed two things: that Memphis is awfully talented and that Georgetown won't return to the Final Four if it doesn't master the art of foul shooting.

"Stating the obvious, we have a long way to go," Georgetown coach John Thompson III said. "I think on both ends of the floor, to be honest."

Memphis (10-0) received a game-high 24 points from 6-foot-7 junior Chris Douglas-Roberts, 19 points from 6-9 junior Robert Dozier, and 11 points and 13 rebounds from 6-9 senior Joey Dorsey.

Freshman point guard Derrick Rose, whose name invokes the words NBA Lottery, added 18 points and six assists.

Georgetown (8-1) received a team-high 14 points from reserve Austin Freeman. Hoyas 7-2 senior Roy Hibbert, who withdrew his name from the NBA draft after his junior year, finished with six points and six rebounds in 27 uneventful minutes.

Georgetown shot 12 for 23 from the free-throw line (52.1 percent), yet the Hoyas entered the game shooting 58 percent as a team, so yesterday's showing was not an aberration.

With seven minutes gone in the second half, Memphis held a 47-46 lead before Douglas-Roberts scored seven straight points - a jumper, a three-pointer and a dunk - increasing the Tigers' lead to 54-46.

Georgetown never recovered.

"Those seven straight points catapulted us. My teammates look for me to do that, honestly," said Douglas-Roberts, who had scored just nine points total in his previous two games.

And even though it's early, Memphis made a statement, one summed up best by Douglas-Roberts: "We're a scary team when our one through five players are contributing."

Even in December that holds true.

Contact staff writer Marc Narducci at 856-779-3225 or mnarducci@phillynews.com. Read his blog at http://go.philly.com/deepsixer.

Dick Weiss, NY Daily News - Memphis states its case impressively

Memphis states its case impressively
Sunday, December 23rd 2007, 4:00 AM

MEMPHIS - It's easy to see why this city that gave us Elvis and the blues was so fired up all week for Memphis' first big home game of the season against Georgetown. This was the No.2 Tigers against the No.5 Hoyas, a nationally televised showdown between two college basketball heavyweights who could easily meet again in the Final Four.

Memphis coach John Calipari, whose team has dominated Conference USA for the past two years and advanced to a pair of NCAA Regional Finals, has always loved the idea of challenging his team with non-conference games. The Tigers have already played at the Garden three times, beating Oklahoma and UConn to win the Coaches vs. Cancer Classic, then edging USC in overtime in the Jimmy V Classic.

But this was a chance for Memphis to make its boldest statement to date. The Tigers took full advantage of the opportunity, tearing up the best team in the Big East, 85-71.

This was the Memphis team we heard about in the offseason, but haven't always seen. The Tigers put on the most dominating performance so far by a national title contender. Memphis brought the type of mental toughness and collective defensive energy that could make the Tigers a threat to win the national championship if they can play the same way in March.

"I wonder if we could be No.1 next week?" Calipari asked.

Top-ranked goliath North Carolina should still get the benefit from the voters who lean toward traditional powers. But the second-ranked Tigers can make a solid case for themselves, no matter what the skeptics say.

"This was real important," Memphis guard Chris Douglas-Roberts said after scoring 24 points to lead the way on Saturday. "Like I said, we were the underdogs. I don't know how. But we were the underdogs at home and we were higher ranked. We take all of that to heart. We use that as motivation. We're going to see now what the media says about us."

Douglas-Roberts, the Conference USA Preseason Player of the Year, had disappeared in the previous three games against USC, Middle Tennessee State and Cincinnati, but his outburst Saturday devastated the Hoyas, who came into the game giving up an average of just 52 points and leading the country in defensive field-goal percentage.

"I knew I had to come back this game," Douglas-Roberts said. "The previous few games, I was kinda lackadaisical, in a daze. I wasn't me. I don't have an answer for it. This game, I felt good."

Memphis played like it was in a mood to celebrate.

Robert Dozier scored 19 points for the Tigers and freshman point guard Derrick Rose, the 6-5 prodigy who is arguably the best player Calipari has ever recruited, contributed 18 points and six assists. Memphis, which outscored Georgetown, 42-31, in the second half, also got a stand-up performance from senior center Joey Dorsey, who finished with 11 points and 13 rebounds and came to life in the second half when the Tigers asserted their will over the Hoyas by converting second-shot opportunities and suffocating Georgetown (8-1) with defensive pressure. That forced the Hoyas to initiate their Princeton-style halfcourt sets from 25 feet out.

"They can hold the ball out all they want," Douglas-Roberts said. "We're going to defend all the time. That's what all that yelling Coach Cal does is all about. You better defend, or he's gonna take you out of the game."

The Tigers cruised to a 79-62 lead late in the game with a bruising style of play that favored Dorsey. The 6-9, 260-pound senior made a name for himself last March when he publicly dissed Ohio State's Greg Oden just before the Tigers' Regional Final against the Buckeyes in San Antonio, then got embarrassed. This time, he was matched up against Georgetown's All-American center Roy Hibbert and dominated him in the second half. Hibbert, the best center in the Big East, finished with a too-quiet six points - four of them in the final 3:20 - and six rebounds in 27 foul-plagued minutes.

"This was a proving game for me," Dorsey said. "I wanted to prove I could play with the best big men in the country."
Said Hibbert: "I need to take it on myself to be more assertive. I don't do that. I need to make sure in the next couple of games, I need to dominate."

dweiss@nydailynews.com

#2 Tigers Win Huge Game with #5 Georgetown, 85-71, All Five Tiger Starters Have Excellent Showing, FedEx Forum Packs in 18,864

Tigers #10 In Defensive Efficiency Per Ken Pomeroy

In a follow up to the analysis in the preceeding article, I have complied the list of Top 25 defensive efficient teams so far through the season.

I point this out because several basketball analysts and members of the media believe defense wins championships (I tend to agree, wholeheartedly).

I point you to a wonderful article written by SI.com's Luke Winn this time last year (December 21, 2006, to be exact).

See Luke Winn's "Early Warnings, Teams Who Need to Shore Up on D to Succeed in March".

Ken Pomeroy's Defensive Top 25

1. Wisconsin
2. Kansas
3. Texas A&M
4. USC
5. Duke
6. West Virginia
7. UCLA
8. Hampton
9. Clemson
10. Memphis
11. Washington State
12. Sam Houston State
13. Illinois
14. Florida State
15. Georgetown
16. Ohio State
17. Arkansas
18. Nebraska
19. Stanford
20. Marquette
21. Pittsburgh
22. Texas Tech
23. Brigham Young
24. Missouri
25. Xavier

Teams that are notably missing

Michigan State (32)
Indiana (35)
Arizona (38)
Tennessee (62)
North Carolina (70)
Texas (76)

Excellent Preview/Analysis of Memphis v. Georgetown

(On a oversight on my part, I failed to provide a source for the following analysis, that I felt was excellent. I believe it was found on the Hoyatalk forum and was written by CO_Hoya, editor)

Thursday, December 20, 2007
Preview - Memphis Tigers

Borrowing a page from VBTN, I thought I'd put together a preview for Saturday's big game between Georgetown and the Memphis Tigers in the Fedex Forum (12:00 noon EST, TV: ESPN). I have a UNC/Rutgers game report from Ray Floriani way overdue in my inbox, hope to have it posted tomorrow.

While Saturday's game will likely be the highest ranked OOC matchup for the basketball season, the hype outside of Memphis and Washington has been surprisingly subdued, likely due to the timing (a noon game the weekend before Christmas).

Preseason Rumpus

Memphis was the pre-season #3 ranked team by both the coaches and writers, and moved to their current #2 rank the first week of December after UCLA's loss to Texas. In CSTV.com's season preview (Memphis #2), Joel Wesler argues that Memphis has 6 players who could make a legitimate argument for starting at the 1-3 positions (he has Dozier and Dorsey as locks at 4-5). Basketball Prospectus notes that the Tigers returning players used 83.4% minutes on last year's Elite 8 team. John Gasaway focuses on Memphis undeniable strength:

The Tigers are sometimes regarded as an unstoppable team loaded with NBA-level talent, one that can score virtually at will. That characterization isn’t entirely off the mark, yet like Kansas, the real story with this loaded team is its defense. It’s excellent . . .

Memphis simply shuts down the perimeter completely. It defends from the outside in and does so beautifully. The Tigers make you turn the ball over and, on those relatively infrequent possessions when you don’t, they make you miss your shot, whether it’s from outside or in close.

Meet the Tigers

The aforementioned 6-man wrecking crew in the backcourt is lead by deservedly-hyped freshman Derrick Rose (6' 4") and returning junior Chris Douglas-Roberts [d/b/a CDR] (6' 6"), who each use more than 25% of Tiger possessions when on the court - 9th man sophomore Doneal Mack (6' 5") is the only other Memphis player who uses more than 20%. Mack was tabbed pre-season to take up the outside shooting slack left by the Jeremy Hunt (38% on 3FG last year), but CDR and sophomore Willie Kemp (6' 2") are doing the best job currently, both at 45% on 3FG. Nominal point guard Andre Allen (5' 10") and defensive specialist Antonio Anderson (6' 6") round out the back court.

Last year, Memphis had primarily a 2-man front court, with senior Joey Dorsey (6' 9") as the quintessential undersized college center scoring primarily off of offensive rebounds, and junior Robert Dozier (6' 9") as Mr. Versatile. This year, the Tigers have added Iowa State transfer Shawn Taggart (6' 10"), a very selective and efficient shooter and reliable rebounder.

When Memphis has the Ball

To be clear, Memphis is a competent, but not strong, offensive team so far this season (Adj. OEff = 106.8, [91/341]). While at first glance the Tigers' offensive may look "playground," they are actually running a structured system known as AASAA (= "Attack, Attack, Skip, Attack, Attack), as devised by Pepperdine's Vance Walberg and adopted by John Calapari (and renamed the "Dribble Drive Motion" offense). I make no claim to understand the "Princeton Offense on Steroids" scheme, but the basic concept is to have a wing/guard drive the ball towards the basket, and kick to an open 3-pt shooter if the defense collapses or continue to the hoop if possible.

The team is great on 2-pt shooting, thanks in no small part to Joey Dorsey's 21-23 (91%) on 2FGA, but not very good from the outside (33.5% 3FG [217/341]). Since the offense is predicated, in part, on making those outside shots, it is understandable that the offensive efficiency suffers. So far this season, Memphis takes about 40% of all shots from behind the arc.

As for the remaining 3 factors, the Tigers value the ball well (TO% = 20.5% [93/341]) and crash the offensive glass (OR% = 38.0% [51/341]), but are fairly miserable from the FT line (57.6%, 331/341).

I haven't mentioned pace yet. Memphis likes to run up and down the floor, to the tune of 74+ possessions/game [27/341]. While most assume that a track-meet type game would strongly favor the Tigers, this isn't necessarily the case. KenPom finds that their offensive efficiency is only weakly positively correlated with pace so far this season, and their defensive efficiency also correlates positively with pace, and in fact more strongly. That is to say, as game pace increases Memphis is slightly more efficient on offense, but give up efficiency on defense at a greater clip.

When Georgetown has the Ball

An interesting note appeared in a column posted recently on Basketball Prospectus, "no team that got a top three seed in the NCAA Tournament last season had a starter with an offensive rating under 100." After their win as Cincinnati, Memphis starter Antonio Anderson sports a woeful 81.9 ORating.

Why isn't John Calapari worried? Because Antonio Anderson is a primary reason for the stellar Memphis defense so far this season (Adj. DEff = 84.9 [14/341]) and last (86.9 [11/336]). In fact, Memphis is a fine example where the dearth of individual defensive stats can fool stat-heads into devaluing a number of the Tiger players.

For the Tigers, and for most teams, defensive efficiency is strongly tied to their opponents' eFG%, and Memphis does a great job defending both 3FG (31.4% [74/341]) and especially 2FG (41.0% [21/341]). How do they do it? Regarding defending the arc, in addition to being quick, their back court players are exceptionally tall across the board - just take a look at the heights I posted above. And the team is top 10 in blocking opponents 2FGs, up slightly from last year likely to the extra help that Taggart now provides to exceptional duo of Dorsey and Dozier.

Well, that's all for now - it's getting late and I've got to work tomorrow. Hopefully, I got at least one salient point correct, and would love to hear from any savvy Memphis fans on what I got wrong.

Posted by CO_Hoya at 5:34 PM

Wrapping up and heading home

Wrapping up and heading home
Posted by Dan Wolken

First off, here are the game stories from the Cincinnati perspective and the Memphis perspective of the Tigers’ 79-69 win.

It was a good experience for the Tigers to play a road game like this one with foul trouble, emotional swings, and the whole bit. I never felt Memphis was in danger of losing, but certainly there were opportunities for the Tigers to melt down.

Several good things stood out:
– Derrick Rose, obviously, is just lights out when he’s making 3-pointers. 5-of-8 will do just fine.
– Antonio Anderson is playing like himself again.
– Doneal Mack was pretty effective in his 14 minutes and didn’t try to jack up the 3-pointer every time he got the ball.
– Jeff Robinson did some good things in his 7 minutes and won a couple loose balls that could have gone either way.
– The Tigers’ ball movement against the zone was way better. They only committed 13 turnovers, and they took high-quality 3-pointers.

Several not-so-good things stood out too:
– Chris Douglas-Roberts, obviously, is in a funk. Just three shots? The Tigers can’t win the big games on their schedule with him playing that way.
– Cincinnati shouldn’t have out-rebounded the Tigers, but they did, 33-32.
– Memphis had a double-digit lead early but couldn’t put the game away. That’s the next step in this team’s growth.
– Some of that was because the Tigers missed 15 free throws. In the first 10 minutes of the game, they were up 11 points and had already missed 5 free throws.

Dick Vitale - Calipari's plan at Memphis proves to be a masterpiece

Calipari's plan at Memphis proves to be a masterpiece

By Dick Vitale, special for USA TODAY

Trust me, baby, when Memphis and John Calipari were not part of Commissioner Mike Tranghese's Big East expansion plan in 2003, many people in the basketball community were snickering and predicting this would lead to the demise of Tigers basketball.

Remember when Tranghese, one of the premier commissioners in the game, made a call to hoop powers Marquette, Louisville and Cincinnati and had them wave bye-bye to Conference USA? Left behind were the Tigers.

Obviously, Marquette, Louisville and Cincinnati left for the incredible television exposure and the increased competition that would be big time in every way.

However, my friends, people underestimated Calipari's drive to remain among the elite.

Let me tell you now why Mr. Calipari is getting the last laugh.

Oh, the exposure is fantastic for those who left, but think about the pounding they give each other that ultimately leads in many cases to mediocrity. It has even become an obstacle for putting together a first-class résumé for NCAA tournament evaluation.

Calipari has developed what I would call the "John Calipari Plan."

It is simply: Be the crème de la crème in your conference and then add seven major non-conference TV games.

That provided a spark and impetus to the Tigers' national reputation.

Check out the world of recruiting, and you can see that the Tigers staff has sparkled.

Think about Diaper Dandy deluxe Derrick Rose, a USA TODAY All-USA player in high school.

No, it hasn't hurt recruiting one bit.

Now let's look at the Calipari math and the system that shows why his plan is a masterpiece of success.

Let's give the good folks of Conference USA — which includes such programs as Alabama-Birmingham, Houston, Texas-El Paso and Southern Mississippi — the good fortune, if they are lucky, to put two "L's" on the Memphis ledger.

Along the way, if Calipari loses two of his remaining four quality games against the likes of Georgetown, Arizona, Gonzaga and Tennessee — and that is being generous, my friends — he is staring at a potential record of no worse than 30-4.

The last two years he has posted 66 wins. I ask you, who do you think is getting the last laugh?

And how much has all of this affected Memphis at NCAA tournament time?

Just go to the records, my friends.

The last two years the Tigers made it to the Elite Eight. With the addition of Rose to a lineup that has one of the premier wing players in the nation in Chris Douglas-Roberts, the Tigers have a legit shot to make the journey to San Antonio for the Final Four.

Now do you think Calipari is laughing at all those cynics?

I guess you get the picture, my friends.

USA Today - Memphis-G'town is main event of big hoops Saturday

Memphis-G'town is main event of big hoops Saturday

Derrick Rose and No. 2 Memphis will need to have their 'A' game on Saturday when fourth-ranked Georgetown visits in a pivotal non-conference showdown.

That's the kind of effort he figures No. 2 Memphis will need to beat No. 4 Georgetown at home Saturday, the biggest must-see on a day full of intriguing matchups.

Additionally, fifth-ranked Texas faces No. 10 Michigan State in Auburn Hills, Mich., No. 12 Tennessee visits No. 24 Xavier, and two-time NCAA champ Florida visits Ohio State in a rematch of last season's NCAA title game, though both are without the major players who got them there.

Most coaches would agree their teams are far from being finished products this time of year. "Our players have been pretty open to the fact we have a lot of work to do," Texas coach Rick Barnes said Thursday, yet he has one of the hottest teams.

Texas' most impressive victories have come away from home, at former No. 1 UCLA and in Newark vs. then-No. 7 Tennessee, thanks in large part to sophomore point guard D.J. Augustin, who is averaging 19.9 points on 51% shooting. Augustin is making an early case to win the Bob Cousy Award, bestowed on the nation's top point guard. Michigan State showcases its own high-profile guard in Drew Neitzel, averaging 14.5 points.

Calipari sees his game against Georgetown and imposing 7-2 center Roy Hibbert as a potential step toward a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament. "We're trying to get a high seed, and the only way anyone does that is by scheduling like this out of conference," he said.

Consequently, he was pushing leading scorer Chris Douglas-Roberts, who averages 16.7 points, and reserve Shawn Taggart to pick up the pace Thursday, a day after a physical game at Cincinnati.

"You've got to play at a better pace with a vein popping out of your neck," Calipari said he told them. There may be an added sense of urgency with No. 19 Arizona stopping by Dec. 29, the last ranked team Memphis will play before opening its Conference USA schedule.

Washington Post - GU, Memphis Face the Music

GU, Memphis Face the Music
Two Unbeaten Teams Clash and One Will Sing the Blues

By Camille Powell
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, December 21, 2007

MEMPHIS, Dec. 20 -- John Calipari has enough to worry about this week, what with fifth-ranked Georgetown coming to town to face his second-ranked Memphis Tigers, but his phone just won't stop ringing. This latest call, on Thursday afternoon, is from his friend and coaching colleague Doc Rivers.

Rivers, like so many others, is looking for a ticket to Saturday's sold-out game. He needs one for his wife, who will be there to watch their son, Jeremiah, a sophomore guard for Georgetown. Calipari promises to help.

Coach John Calipari's phone won't stop ringing with people looking for a ticket to Saturday's sold-out game.

It's been like this for days for Calipari. A capacity crowd of 18,400 is expected at FedEx Forum to watch the first game this season that involves two teams ranked among the nation's top five. He says that "we're just jamming seats in everywhere," to try to keep up with the demand, and that he's even heard rumors that tickets in the lower bowl were being sold for $3,000 apiece on StubHub.com.

"Can you imagine? That's like a Super Bowl ticket," Calipari said, shaking his head. "Come on."

But this is the first time that Memphis has hosted a game involving two top-five teams. Both the Tigers (9-0) and Hoyas (8-0) have veteran squads that advanced deep into last season's NCAA tournament and have high expectations for this season.

Memphis's media relations department has issued between 75 to 85 credentials (of which 15 will go to NBA scouts) for the game, nearly double the amount it would for a regular season conference game. The Memphis football team faces Florida Atlantic in the New Orleans Bowl on Friday night, and assistant media relations director Lamar Chance knows of some fans who are planning to attend the football game and then wake up at 4 a.m. on Saturday to drive the 400 miles back to Memphis in time for tip-off.

"We haven't really had a lot of national attention with our games. To have this game, everybody's been marking this game down in their calendars for a long time," Georgetown junior guard Jessie Sapp said. "For the showdown to finally come is exciting. I live for it. I love it."

But players on both teams are trying to take the attitude that this is just another game against just another opponent.

"We just take it as a regular game," Memphis junior guard Antonio Anderson said. "We're not looking at the name on the jersey or what they did last year."

Said Georgetown senior forward Patrick Ewing Jr.: "Y'all are making it into a bigger deal than it needs to be. It's just another game. It's a game just as big as the other games we've played so far."

But the outcome of this game could become relevant in March, particularly if the two teams are vying for a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament, according to Jerry Palm, who runs the Web site www.CollegeRPI.com.

"This game could be what decides that," Palm said. "It's more important for Memphis, because if Georgetown loses, they have more chances to play against good teams in the Big East. Memphis has limited opportunities to play against good teams, because their conference doesn't provide them with that."

Indeed, that's one reason Calipari has created such a challenging nonconference schedule; his blueprint is designed, he said, "with one thing in mind: trying to get the highest seed in the NCAA tournament." So the Tigers, who are 29-1 in Conference USA over the past two seasons combined, have already played No. 25 USC, and they will host No. 19 Arizona (Dec. 29), No. 18 Gonzaga (Jan. 26) and No. 12 Tennessee (Feb. 23) in the coming weeks.

"The reason you play games like this is you need to do two things: you're trying to get your team better, but you're also trying to learn about your team," Calipari said. "You can't do it against Popcorn State."

Calipari's other goal is to play against teams that play different styles, so the Tigers are prepared for everything at tournament time. Thus far, they've played one team that used exclusively man-to-man defense (Connecticut), another that played a 2-3 zone with size (Oklahoma), and another that used a triangle-and-two (USC). Against Georgetown, Calipari expects to see a 2-3 zone with some man-to-man mixed in, and he is curious to see how his team will respond on defense.

"You're playing against a Princeton [offense]. Are we good enough defensively to play it?" Calipari said. "Now you're playing against a ball-control team, not a team that's trying to hold the ball. We've played teams that don't play that way but tried to against us. Now this team clearly plays this way."

Georgetown Coach John Thompson III also sees the value in playing teams with different styles, and putting his players in situations that will help them later in the season. The Hoyas haven't played against man-to-man defenses all that much this season, but will see that against Memphis. The Tigers have perhaps the biggest backcourt that Georgetown will face this season, with Anderson (6 feet 6), junior Chris Douglas-Roberts (6-7) and freshman Derrick Rose (6-3). Thompson wants to see how his players handle the Tigers' pressure.

"There's a lot of talk, a lot of hype about this game, and it probably should be," Thompson said. "At the same time, what we try to focus on is, okay, that's out there, great. Let's do what we do, how we do it, whether there's a lot of attention or no attention. It's about how we do things and just getting that mental toughness. Regardless of who the opposition is, we have to approach things the same way. . . . If we're going to be good, we have to get to that level of understanding where it's all about us."

Rose, Memphis hold off upset-minded Cincinnati

Rose, Memphis hold off upset-minded Cincinnati
December 19, 2007

CINCINNATI -- Derrick Rose and No. 2 Memphis may have been caught looking ahead.

Rose scored 26 points and Antonio Anderson hit a huge 3-pointer late to help the Tigers hold off Cincinnati, 79-69, on Wednesday.

Memphis (9-0), which is off to the second-best start in school history, may have been thinking about its showdown with fifth-ranked Georgetown on tap for Saturday.

But Rose, who is one of the best freshman in the country, helped Memphis stay unbeaten by shooting 7-of-13 from the field, including 5-of-8 from the arc.

His performance made up for a poor showing by the Tigers' leading scorer, Chris Douglas-Roberts, who was held to just four points on 1-of-3 from the floor.

Cincinnati, which missed 11 of its first 13 field-goal attempts in the second half, managed to pull within 70-64 with 2:18 to play. However, Rose hit a big shot from the arc to stretch the lead to nine at 73-64 with 1:56 left.

The Bearcats' John Williamson then converted a three-point play, which caused Joey Dorsey to foul out and cut the lead back to six at 73-67 with 1:31 remaining. Anderson, however, hit a crucial 3-pointer from the left corner 28 seconds later to all but seal the win for the Tigers.

Rose made a free throw and Anderson hit a pair from the stripe to complete the scoring.

The Tigers lost their cool a little, as both Dorsey and coach John Calipari were charged with technical fouls in the final seven minutes, but it mattered little in the end thanks to Rose.

Memphis, which is enjoying its highest ranking since 1985-86, held a slim one-point lead at 33-32 after the opening 20 minutes. But Rose notched 10 points in the first 7:35 of the second half and hit a 3-pointer to help Memphis grab a 50-40 lead with 12:25 to play.

The Tigers then got a huge boost from their bench as Andre Allen scored six straight points and nine of his team's next 12.

After Dorsey hit a free throw, Allen followed with a 3-pointer to stretch the lead to 57-45. Allen then completed a three-point play to make it 60-45 with 8:25 to play. Rose hit a jumper and Allen followed with a shot from the arc to make it a 13-point bulge at 65-50 with 6:48 remaining.

The Bearcats responded with a 12-3 run capped by a 3-pointer from Deonta Vaughn that cut the deficit to six points at 68-62 with 3:50 left.

Vaughn scored 20 points for Cincinnati (4-6), which has lost four straight games.

The Tigers went just 21-of-36 (58 percent) from the free-throw line, enabling the Bearcats to hang around until the final minutes.

No. 2 Tigers 79, Cincinnati 69

Tigers outlast Bearcats in physical matchup
No. 2 Tigers 79, Cincinnati 69
By Dan Wolken
Thursday, December 20, 2007

CINCINNATI -- The first time Cincinnati threw freshman Derrick Rose to the floor, he came up holding his elbow and grimacing. The second time, he was rubbing the side of his left leg. And right before the game was over, Rose ran into a screen so hard it took him more than a minute to get up.

"I'm young, so I've got to get used to it and take the big hits like a man," Rose said.

The No. 2 University of Memphis had to absorb plenty of bruises Wednesday in its first true road game of the season, from foul trouble to technical fouls, a mess of missed free throws and Cincinnati scoring runs.

But at the end of a 79-69 victory, Rose was still standing. And so is the Tigers' perfect 9-0 record.

"Out of all this stuff, we keep finding a way to win," senior point guard Andre Allen said. "That's the bottom line. As long as we win, we're not worried about the free throws, how nobody plays, how many points anybody scores. As long as we get the 'W,' that's all the matters at the end of the day."

Indeed, when the Tigers play No. 5 Georgetown on Saturday at FedExForum, it will have been more than one year since their last regular season loss. And though it hasn't always been pretty or efficient, Memphis just wins and wins and wins, no matter the circumstances it faces.

There has perhaps been no better example of that this season than inside Fifth Third Arena, where a lesser team might have come unglued Wednesday.

From blowing an early 12-point lead that became just one at halftime to letting a 15-point lead in the second half dwindle to 68-62 in the closing minutes to senior Joey Dorsey and coach John Calipari getting called for technicals in a 53-second span, the Tigers had plenty of opportunities to implode.

Instead, Memphis made all the crucial plays when it mattered, riding a transcendent performance by Rose, who scored a career-high 26 points, made 5-of-8 from 3-point range and dished out six assists in 33 minutes.

"I love him," junior guard Antonio Anderson said of Rose. And who wouldn't, really, after watching him make one clutch shot after another down the stretch, including a huge 3-pointer with 1:52 left to give Memphis a 73-64 lead.

Then, with 1:03 left and Cincinnati back within six points, Rose dribbled inside the arc and fed Anderson, who swished a 3-pointer from the corner to cap off his 12-point night and clinch the victory.

"I thought Cincy played great," Calipari said. "They made shots when they had to, they kept the game close, they did everything they could to give themselves a chance to win. And I had three guys who really stepped on the gas."

Of course, Calipari was talking about Rose and Anderson. But he could not leave out the contribution from Allen, who poured in nine points in 14 minutes, including two 3-pointers.

For Allen, who came into the game with just two 3-pointers on 19 attempts all season, it was a satisfying way to break out of his slump. Furthermore, when Calipari paired Allen with Rose and Willie Kemp in a three-point-guard lineup, the Tigers pushed a 44-40 lead to 54-42 with 9:49 to go.

"We went to that lineup, and they were leaving me open the whole game," Allen said. "Coach knew us three, we're going to play defense, we're going to be aggressive, we're going to take our open shots. So they left me open and I made shots."

And the Tigers needed to make open shots -- they went 12-for-28 from beyond the 3-point line -- against a Cincinnati team that stubbornly refused to come out of its zone defense except for a handful of possessions.

Though the Tigers were efficient from 3-point range, they also moved the ball crisply and got shots for Robert Dozier and Dorsey, who each scored eight points. Memphis shot 45.1 percent for the game and got to the foul line 36 times, making 21.

But perhaps the most impressive thing was that Memphis withstood three Cincinnati runs -- on the road in front of an announced crowd of 8,254 -- and never let the Bearcats get closer than four in the second half.

"It shows we won't never fold, really," Rose said. "Whatever you do, we're going to make a big play to calm everything down. That's all we were doing."

Of course, it helps to have Rose, who seemed like he was single-handedly fending off momentum every time he shot the ball.

"He was the difference in the game," Cincinnati coach Mick Cronin said. "You have to give him all the credit in the world. When he shoots the ball like that, he's a devastating player to deal with. He hurt us in every possible way."

Reach Dan Wolken at 529-2365; read his blogs on the Tigers at thememphisedge.com.

Cincy Post - Bearcats close again, But moral victories becoming tiresome

Bearcats close again
But moral victories becoming tiresome

By Josh Katzowitz
Post staff reporter

Once again, the University of Cincinnati made a top-25 team sweat in the final minutes of the game. Once again, the Bearcats fell short and took another defeat. Again, they showed improvement.

But don't expect senior center Adam Hrycaniuk or senior swingman Marcus Sikes to break into a celebration.

A close loss - this one a 79-69 defeat to No. 2 Memphis on Wednesday at Fifth Third Arena - doesn't make them feel any better about the state of their team.

"I think we're getting better," said Hrycaniuk, who scored 13 points and recorded five rebounds, three assists and three turnovers. "But we still didn't execute our offense today as well as we're supposed to do. We didn't do a good job on the glass. We missed a lot of layups. That's what let us down."

Following a disturbing theme this season, Hrycaniuk missed two layups, and senior forward John Williamson clanged a dunk with 3:03 to play that would have cut the Tigers (9-0) lead to five.

But, perhaps surprisingly, UC (4-6) out-rebounded a more-talented Memphis team 33-32, and with 2 minutes left to play, this was still a two-possession game.

Doesn't matter to Sikes that the Bearcats led at Xavier University late in the game last week before losing, and it doesn't matter that they had a legitimate chance to beat the second-best team in the country Wednesday.

A loss, to him, is still a loss.

"I can honestly say we're getting better," said Sikes, who was 2-for-20 from the 3-point line this season before making one midway through the first half en route to scoring five points. "It's just the little things. Rebounding, boxing out and defending. The most important rebounds at crunch time, giving them second-chance opportunities, that really hurt us."

Good, UC coach Mick Cronin said. That's how he wants his players to feel.

"That's the attitude we need to have," Cronin said. "One thing you learn at this level is that nobody feels sorry for you. We're playing a ridiculously tough schedule. A lot of our brethren in the Big East are in the cozy confines of their home gym playing unranked teams. We're not. But it's irrelevant. You have to play the cards you're dealt."

So, UC continued to improve with senior Jamual Warren running the team at point guard, and sophomore guard Deonta Vaughn impressed his coach with his aggressiveness, scoring a team-high 20 points on 8-of-13 shooting.

Hrycaniuk continued to miss layups, and the Bearcats defense showed that it's just a little better.

UC has lost four straight.

But they're getting closer to victories, even if this opportunity was smashed by Memphis freshman guard Derrick Rose, who hit five 3-pointers and scored a career-high 26 points.

"You have to give him all the credit in the world," Cronin said. "When he shoots the ball like that, he's a devastating player to deal with. He hurt us in every way possible tonight. You can see why so many people talk about him as such a great player."

Although Warren's long jumper with 1 second left on the clock in the first half cut the Memphis lead to one heading to intermission, the Tigers took a 15-point advantage with 6:50 to play on an Andre Allen 3-pointer.

But after a Vaughn jumper with 2:22 left cut the Memphis lead to 68-62, the Bearcats were poised to make the Tigers nervous. They just didn't have enough to complete the comeback.

Afterward, nobody was happy about it.

"I don't want those guys to feel like that we should be happy that we're improving and that we're playing with more intensity," Cronin said. "You need to be happy when you win."

NOTEWORTHY - Marvin Gentry, who was badly injured when his head collided with Vaughn's knee in the Crosstown Shootout and had to be wheeled off the floor on a stretcher, didn't play Wednesday.

Cronin said Gentry didn't practice this week, and although he was cleared to play late Wednesday afternoon, Cronin didn't feel right about it.

"He hadn't practiced since he had the concussion," Cronin said. "I wasn't comfortable putting him out there."

Rose leads No. 2 Memphis past Cincy

Rose leads No. 2 Memphis past Cincy

Cincinnati, OH (Sports Network) - Derrick Rose poured in a career-high 26 points and dished out six assists, as second-ranked Memphis remained undefeated after a 79-69 victory over Cincinnati at Fifth Third Arena.

Antonio Anderson was the only other player in double figures with 12 points for the Tigers (9-0), who played their first true road game of the campaign.

Andre Allen donated nine points off the bench for Memphis, which hit 12 shots from beyond the arc.

Deonta Vaughn netted 20 points for the Bearcats (4-6), who have dropped four straight. Adam Hrycaniuk and John Williamson each contributed 13 points in the loss.

Ahead by four, Memphis pulled ahead after rattling off a 10-2 run to take a 54-42 lead with just under 10 minutes remaining. Rose jump-started things with a trey and Willie Kemp followed with a three-point play. Robert Dozier then went 1-of-2 from the charity stripe, but followed up with a tip-in off a Joey Dorsey miss. Dorsey ended the run with a free throw.

With just over eight minutes to go, Rose hit a jump shot in the paint to extend the Tigers lead to 62-49, and a layup by Dorsey a little less than two minutes later made it a 14-point game.

The Bearcats wouldn't go down without a fight and pulled within six, 68-62, with less than four minutes to go after Vaughn sunk a shot from beyond the arc. That was as close as Cincinnati would get through the remainder of the contest.

Memphis controlled the contest from the opening tip and went up 14-6 after Rose drained a three-pointer about five minutes into the contest.

The Tigers led most of the first half until Cincinnati closed out the stanza with an 11-1 run to pull within 33-32 at the break. Jamual Warren had four points during the surge.

Rose led Memphis with 10 points at halftime while Hrycaniuk paced the Bearcats with eight.

Game Notes

Memphis is 9-0 for the first time since the 1985-86 season when they went 20-0 to start the campaign...The Tigers have won four of their last five road openers and improved to 37-50 overall...The Bearcats held a 33-32 advantage in rebounds...Cincinnati ended with 16 turnovers.

Tiger struggles to meet standard set 2 years ago

Tiger struggles to meet standard set 2 years ago
By Dan Wolken
Wednesday, December 19, 2007

CINCINNATI -- When Antonio Anderson left Fifth Third Arena 728 days ago, having just played his seventh college game, he could not have anticipated that his accomplishments that night would remain, more than two years later, both legendary and bittersweet.

Legendary because of his 32 points, which propelled the University of Memphis to a 91-81 victory over Cincinnati. And bittersweet because Anderson has not come close to matching his output from that night when he made 7-of-9 from 3-point range and 11-of-15 overall.

Indeed, as Anderson has struggled to find his perimeter stroke, he has been looking forward to tonight, when the No. 2 Tigers return to the scene of his greatest performance.

"I wouldn't even have to shoot like I did the first time, but just go and make some shots," Anderson said. "That would get me back to thinking that I'm going to do it every game. I'm thinking that anyway, but when they're not falling, it's pretty tough."

For Cincinnati fans who remember Anderson from that night, it would probably be difficult to imagine how his career path has changed since then. Despite turning himself into one of the nation's premiere defensive players, building his body to overpower smaller guards and asserting his leadership during two straight Elite Eight runs, Anderson's shooting continues to perplex him.

After making 36.5 percent of his 3-pointers as a freshman, Anderson dipped to 24.5 percent last season. And though he showed flashes of breaking out of the slump -- 4-for-8 against Rice was his best shooting night -- he never found his Cincinnati form and admits that he passed up open shots at times because of how badly he was struggling.

Not wanting to go through that again, Anderson spent hours and hours fine-tuning his stroke this past offseason.

It has not yet paid dividends. So far this year, Anderson has made just 24.1 percent, and it was clear early on that his frustrations were spilling over into other parts of his game. Not only were his assists down, but he had 22 turnovers through seven games after committing just 50 all of last season. He wasn't rebounding with the same aggression. He simply wasn't the same player.

"When the assist-to-turnover ratio went south, we were like, 'Oh my God,'" coach John Calipari said. "And you're not guarding real well and you're not rebounding. For a while, that's what he was. But when he played bad, it's nice to know that you've got people with you. He played poorly, but he knew we were all with him, the staff, the team."

Calipari knew it was just a matter of time until Anderson got his game together, and it happened Saturday in a 65-41 victory over Middle Tennessee. Anderson was at his boxscore-filling-best with nine points, six assists and six rebounds in a performance reminiscent of his best from last season.

Now, Anderson hopes to reach back a little bit further and remind people -- himself, most of all -- of his best from two seasons ago.

"I remember we won, and I was lights out," Anderson said. "That's all I can remember. It was a situation where Rodney (Carney) wasn't playing (well), wasn't hustling. Coach took him out and told him, 'I'm going to play the freshmen' -- talking about me and Chris (Douglas-Roberts) -- 'until you get your act together.' But we didn't want to come out. We were freshmen, it was the big time. So I just started making shots, and he didn't take us out."

Calipari doesn't miss an opportunity to remind Anderson about what happened that night.

"Rodney copped an attitude, so I just didn't play him," Calipari said. "I just said, 'You know what, we'll win without you.' And I didn't play him. And this kid went nuts. They didn't (guard) him and he just kept shooting. He was unbelievable."

Another night like that one would be useful against Cincinnati, which has struggled to a 4-5 record but played well against Xavier in a 64-59 loss one week ago. More important, Anderson hopes the scenery helps him break a slump extending into a second season.

"He couldn't miss a shot that night," junior forward Robert Dozier said. "When we get up there, it could happen again."

Reach Dan Wolken at 529-2365; read his blogs on the Tigers at thememphisedge.com.

The Detroit News - Douglas-Roberts knows it's a title, or it's nothing

Douglas-Roberts knows it's a title, or it's nothing
David Goricki / The Detroit News

Chris Douglas-Roberts will settle for nothing less than a national title.

Douglas-Roberts, a 6-foot-7 junior guard, has led the Memphis Tigers to an 8-0 start and No. 2 ranking.

He's averaging a team-high 18.3 points heading into tonight's game at Cincinnati (7, ESPN2). Memphis also will play host to No. 5 Georgetown on Saturday (noon, ESPN).

"Everybody on the team knows it's win the national championship or it's failure for us," Douglas-Roberts said of the Tigers, who advanced to the Elite Eight the last two seasons.

"It's very possible. We feel we should get it done. We have the talent, the experience and the depth."

And, it starts with Douglas-Roberts, an outstanding athlete and one of the best in the country at taking the ball to the basket.

He returned home to Detroit last summer to work on his game, lifting weights and shooting hundreds of jumpers.

"I just wanted to get better in all aspects of my game," Douglas-Roberts said. "I've gotten a lot stronger (200 pounds), and my shot is a lot better, too. My goal is to be the best at my position."

Douglas-Roberts (Cass Tech/Northwestern) is shooting 53.8 percent (45 on three-pointers).

Add 6-9 junior Joey Dorsey, a dominant defender; 6-9 junior power forward Robert Dozier; and freshman Derrick Rose, a 6-3 point guard, to the mix, and you can see why the Tigers have high expectations.

Toast of the town
The Tigers, the class of Conference USA, are the toast of the town Elvis made famous.

They play in front of sellout crowds at the 18,000-seat FedEx Forum.

Numerous billboards throughout the city publicize them. The NBA's Grizzlies take a back seat.

"We're treated like a pro team here," Douglas-Roberts said. "The fans here love their basketball, and we've had a lot of success."

Douglas-Roberts has made sure the success continued early.

He scored 33 in an 81-70 victory over Connecticut in the 2K Sports College Hoops Classic in New York, earning MVP honors.

"I was just clicking," Douglas-Roberts said of his 14-for-24 effort from the field. "It was a great feeling to be named MVP. It showed I was valuable to my team.

"I just came out aggressive. It was a championship game, and I was a little frustrated the game before since I got into foul trouble. I wanted to make it up to my teammates. I really felt Dorsey should have been MVP since he does all the little things well."

Dorsey is averaging 7.7 points, 9.7 rebounds and 3.2 blocks. Rose is averaging 14.4 points, 5.3 rebounds and four assists.

Some believe Rose is the best freshman in the game, others think it's USC's O.J. Mayo, UCLA's Kevin Love or Kansas State's Michael Beasley.

"My teammate is the best one out there," Douglas-Roberts said. "He's more of a point guard. He can do a lot."

NBA is the goal
Douglas-Roberts' ultimate goal is to play in the NBA.

He could be a first-round pick if he decided to leave early.

"The NBA is definitely in my future," Douglas-Roberts said. "I feel I can play in it, and coach (John Calipari) is getting me prepared for it. I'll be looking at that decision during the off season."

But right now, Douglas-Roberts is concentrating on getting the Tigers to the Final Four and a shot at the national title.

How impressive would a national title be for Memphis? It would be the first non-BCS team to win it since UNLV in 1990, and only the second since Texas Western (now UTEP) in 1966.

You can reach David Goricki at david.goricki@detnews.com.

Scout.com - Thanks, but no thanks

Thanks, but no thanks

By Randy Moore
Posted Dec 18, 2007

It's no secret that Memphis University basketball coach John Calipari is not excited about continuing the Tigers' home-and-home series with Tennessee.

Supposedly, Calipari believes his program is the state's finest and is only giving legitimacy to UT's program by facing the Vols. In addition, Calipari reportedly isn't thrilled about letting Tennessee play a showcase game in talent-rich Memphis every other year.

Naturally, Big Orange fans say Calipari is scared, pointing to Tennessee's 76-58 drubbing of the 16th-ranked Tigers Dec. 6, 2006 at Knoxville as Exhibit A.

In his ongoing quest to end the home-and-home series with UT, Calipari has suggested a compromise. Instead of playing in Knoxville and Memphis, he proposes that the Vols and Tigers meet at Nashville each year in a game he suggests be dubbed “The Governor's Cup.”

When asked for his reaction to the proposal, Vol coach Bruce Pearl flashed a smug grin.

“I didn't know that Governor Bredesen had contacted the presidents of the universities and asked for a Governor's Cup,” Pearl deadpanned. “If Governor Bredesen wanted it, I would certainly – as serving the commonwealth – be happy to consider it.”

The Vol coach has absolutely no desire to move the game site to Nashville on a permanent basis. He was happy to see the Tigers' visit fill Thompson-Boling Arena last December. And he's OK with paying a return visit to Memphis this season on Feb. 23.

“I like the series,” Pearl said. “I don't like going to Memphis but I certainly like Memphis coming to Knoxville.”

The Vol coach rewarded UT fans' support last year by bringing in such high-profile opposing players as Texas' Kevin Durant and D.J. Augustin, along with Memphis' Joey Dorsey. This year's home schedule includes a Jan. 19 visit from talent-rich Ohio State.

“I'm really proud and pleased that our fans got to see Kevin Durant and got to see John Calipari and his team,” Pearl said. “John is one of the greatest coaches in the business, and he's got a No. 2 ranked team this year. I don't want to deny our fans here at Tennessee the opportunity to see Memphis basketball at a period of time when it's as good as it's ever been.

“I'd like to continue to honor the contract that we currently have.”