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.