Final Four Musings: Memphis 78 UCLA 63

Well my final of UCLA/North Carolina is going down in flames as we speak. Memphis dominated the Bruins earlier, and now Kansas is taking it to a level beyond domination as they're up 31-10 on Carolina midway through the first half. Some thoughts on the second half of the first game (I was looking for apartments during the first half).

* I had only seen Memphis play once before the Tourney, in their only loss of the season to Tennessee. In that game, while the Tigers certainly looked athletic and plenty talented, they didn't look any better than Tennessee, and ended up losing because of their free throw shooting. My thinking heading into the tourney was that yes, the Tigers are freakishly athletic and pretty damn talented, but they would eventually run into someone else who was just as good, and then Memphis dismal free throw shooting would do them in. Well after five tourney games, it hasn't happened yet. At this point I'm wondering how many NBA teams would give this group a run.

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With 7:32 left in the first half, Billy Packer has just declared the Kansas/Carolina game over. 38-10 Rock Chalk Jayhawks. Kinda hard to argue with Billy right now.
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During the first weekend of the tourney, I saw an interview with Memphis coach John Calipari, and of course they asked his team's free throw shooting. His answer? That when the time came, they'd shoot it well. He believed his kids had good form, and when the time came, they'd get it done. I laughed out loud when I heard that, wondering how a coach who had accomplished as much could be so naive. If your kids can't shoot free throws all year, why in the hell would they just suddenly get better? And if they could, wouldn't this mean they weren't trying all year? No matter how you looked at it, this looked like a dumb statement.

Of course, now I'm the one looking dumb. Memphis shot 20-23 from the stripe today, good for 87%. I guess Coach Cal knows his team a little better than I do. I still don't like what that says that his kids CAN shoot free throws well and don't all year, but considering they're in the title game Monday night and are definitely the team to beat, I guess it doesn't matter much, does it?

* UCLA is a damn good basketball team, and well deserving of their seed and their spot in the Final Four: but they got outworked and outplayed badly today. Memphis was AT LEAST 15 points better today, at least in the second half. Defensively they could not contain Derrick Rose or Chris Douglas-Roberts, and they could not get a rebound. Didn't it seem like Memphis was getting second, third and fourth opportunities on offense? It also seemed like Memphis was getting a lot of easy baskets, or were at least getting to the rim much more often than the Bruins.

When the Bruins got on offense, they had to work really, REALLY hard just to get a shot off, and it always seemed like they had to settle for outside jumpers. Not only that, but watching the highlights after the game, whenever UCLA put up an outside jumper, there were ALWAYS three or four white shirts under the basket, while Love was usually the only blue shirt anywhere near the bucket. For the game Memphis outrebounded UCLA 42-35, and only 14-12 on the offensive glass, but I'd love to see the second half numbers, because it looked much more lopsided than that.

* After hearing the hype all season about the freshman Rose, I just hadn't seen what all the fuss was about. Well I'm a believer after today's game. He finished with 25 points, nine boards (four offensive), four assists and was 11-12 from the free throw line. And maybe most impressive: In 37 minutes, while playing at a furious pace, he had just one turnover, which wasn't even his fault. The turnover he was given was the gorgeous lob pass to Joey Dorsey with five minutes left in the second half. He couldn't have run up and PLACED the ball at a better position around the rim and yet Dorsey, who seems to have decent hands, just plain dropped it on the way up. Anyway, if Rose doesn't go #1 overall in the NBA draft in June, the team who passes on him better have a damn good reason. And it better be more than "well nobody ever takes a point guard number one overall." This is the same thinking that dropped Chris Paul to fifth while Andrew Bogut and Marvin Williams went first and second overall. Rose will make someone look very foolish if they pass on him too.

* Chris Douglas-Roberts has one ugly game. He looks like he should be playing in an over-40 men's league at the Y. How many dirty, greasy, old-man moves did he have in that ball game? How many ugly shots did he hoist up at odd angles that found their way in? And yet at the end of the game, he finishes with a game-high 28 points. And what's more, as a first team All-American, he's been doing this all year. He'll probably go late in the first round or sometime in the second, getting passed over for guys with more "upside" but he could be a a crafty scorer of the bench for a good team.

* I know Joey Dorsey's only offensive move is dunking (and that's when he actually catches the lob passes), but I'd take him on my team anytime. 15 boards (six offensive), two blocks, a steal, and zero turnovers? At 6-9 and 265 pounds, he'll also get passed over on most draft boards for guy with more "upside" but could he, or could he not, develop into another Ben Wallace?

* Who's going to be a bigger bust: that stupid Speed Racer movie they've shown 9,457 commercials for, or Bruins guard Darren Collison? Collison, who's been trying to prove he's an NBA point guard, finished with two points, four boards, four assists and two steals, but also had five turnovers and fouled out. He couldn't get a decent shot off all day, and what's worse, he couldn't find any for his teammates either. And defensively, Rose, Douglas-Roberts, and Antonio Anderson absolutely owned him. Whichever guy he picked up, they'd make sure to take advantage. You can stick a fork in Collison's pro prospects after today's game.

Well Carolina is trying to make a game of it, but still down a ways 44-27 at the half, they've got a long way to go to prevent a Kansas/Memphis final. We shall see.