Spotlight: Memphis' Derrick Rose
Mike DeCourcy
Posted: November 14, 2007
The basketball always has belonged to Derrick Rose. At the high school level, a point guard with his degree of talent gets handed the ball and the license to do most anything he wants. "It's totally different now," he says.
Memphis plays a free-flowing offensive style that allows Rose, who is 6-4, to use his athleticism and skill to manufacture scoring opportunities. But the flow is as important as the freedom.
Rose has averaged 19 points in his first two games with Memphis.
"If you play around with the ball," Rose says, "you're coming out of the game."
Rose constantly is reminded by Tigers coach John Calipari to "attack, attack, attack." Memphis' system is based on driving into the defense, forcing a reaction and then taking advantage of that reaction to make a play. It produced consecutive Elite Eight teams with a combined 66-8 record, and that was before it was operated by a point guard who involves teammates without entirely sacrificing his scoring.
In a city that once embraced only those Tigers born, raised and trained at home, Rose has been an instant star.
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