NEW YORK -- We all came to the Big Apple for the showdown, for a classic matchup between future NBA players led by former NBA coaches. It was gonna be great, just electric and incredible and all those other adjectives people love to toss around.
But then USC's Tim Floyd decided to screw it up.
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"We put a triangle-and-two (defense) in at 7:15 tonight," Floyd said afterward. "We took it and ran with it."
Ran with it?
More like walked with it.
But either way, the byproduct was the "most painful game" John Calipari said he has ever coached, and that he felt that way despite Derrick Rose and his Memphis teammates escaping with a 62-58 overtime victory against Southern California should speak to the degree of ugliness witnessed by all here at Madison Square Garden late Tuesday night.
How ugly was it?
So ugly only a mother could love it.
Like O.J. Mayo's mother, for instance, who was sitting behind the Trojans' bench with a sign that read "Failure Is Not An Option." Crisp offensive possessions and made field-goal attempts weren't either, apparently, because USC shot 28.8 percent from the field while Memphis shot 37.3 percent.
And it was worse from strictly behind the 3-point line.
Back there, USC shot 11.1 percent and Memphis 22.7 percent.
So the Trojans and Tigers couldn't make two-pointers or 3s, and did I mention it was ugly? Neither team scored more than 30 points in a half, and at intermission the matchup everybody came to see -- Mayo vs. Rose -- wasn't living up the hype or even coming close, really.
