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Home > Mark Bradley > Archives > 2008 > April > 04
Friday, April 4, 2008
Memphis is most intriguing team at Final Four
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
San Antonio - If UCLA or North Carolina or Kansas wins the national championship, nobody will be surprised. If Memphis wins, more than a few folks will be. So we need to take this opportunity to prepare ourselves.
Because the Tigers are really, really good.
In a Final Four for heavyweights only, Memphis arrives having landed the biggest blows. It won its regional by beating Michigan State and Texas by 18 points apiece, having led at halftime in those two games by an aggregate 41 points. The No. 1 seed expected to lose first seems the most talented, most focused No. 1 on the board. Where’d that come from?
Not, as you might have been led to believe, from John Calipari’s espousal of the hoary Us-Against-The-World motivational tack. “We never talk about that,” guard Antonio Anderson said Friday.
Said Calipari, who during a previous Final Four run with UMass copyrighted the slogan, “Refuse To Lose”: “We haven’t had [that underdog mentality] all year. We won most of our games [37 of 38, to be precise]. But in the NCAA tournament most analysts picked us to lose — is that not true?”
It’s true. (I know I did.) But Memphis is the most intriguing team in this Final Four because it’s taken the least seriously. Calipari again: “The other programs are more highly thought of, and they should be. Between UCLA and Memphis, we’ve won 11 national titles.”
This generated the desired laugh — UCLA has, as we know, won 11 by itself — but the cold truth is that the regal Bruins will take the floor tonight at the Alamodome as the betting-line underdog. Apparently the boys in Vegas rate Memphis somewhat more highly than we grizzled college basketball observers.
Certainly the Tigers themselves, having lost only nine times (against 103 victories) the past three seasons, don’t discount their chances. “It’s not everybody who expects us to lose,” said Chris Douglas-Roberts, the team’s leading scorer. “It’s just some. And that’s how it’s supposed to be. Some people don’t think UCLA is going to win, or North Carolina or Kansas. It’s just a matter of opinion. We know we’re a pretty good basketball team.”
The Tigers were pretty good the past two seasons, when they lost in regional finals. They’re rather better now. As UCLA coach Ben Howland, whose Bruins beat Memphis in the Elite Eight in 2006, said: “Adding Jason Kidd [meaning freshman point guard Derrick Rose] to that lineup makes it doubly difficult.”
None of these teams lacks talent, but Memphis might well have the most. The Tigers made tough-minded Michigan State look slow and weak. (UCLA, as Howland noted, barely beat the Spartans in December.) Asked if Memphis resembles any Pac-10 opponent, the Bruins’ Darren Collison mentioned Oregon.
Said Kevin Love, the freshman center: “Oregon on steroids.”
Last spring, Memphis center Joey Dorsey raised a ruckus before the regional final by calling Ohio State’s Greg Oden “overrated.” (On cue, Oden outscored Dorsey 17-0.) This year’s Dorsey story line revolves around the stories Calipari demands that he write regarding the Tigers and their season and Dorsey’s role therein.
Calipari: “I said, ‘I want you to write a story about how you want your season to end. It’s your fairy tale, your dream — write it.’ … For my team, I keep saying, I want you to expect good things to happen because your only other option is to wait for bad things to happen. I want these young men to learn that it’s OK to expect good.”
A significant chapter in the Memphis story will be told tonight. Maybe the Tigers will trip over their moment. Maybe they’ll revert to missing the free throws they made against Michigan State and Texas. Maybe they’ll be revealed, as many have expected all along, as the least of these No. 1 seeds. Then again …
“We’re really not paying attention to what people are saying,” Douglas-Roberts said. “We’re creating our own happiness.”
