Meandering Memphis needs to pick up the pace
NORTH LITTLE ROCK, Ark. -- Welcome to the totally predictable, easily digestible, strictly by-the-numbers sub-regional. No sexy upsets, no huge headlines, no one shocking the world. The only tremors here were the ones made by 310-pounder Pierre Niles from Memphis, who looks like he just snuggled up to a Yoo-hoo and plate of pulled pork.
No San Diegos or Siennas or Western Kentuckys, just top-seeded Memphis delivering a mostly uninspired 87-63 ho-hum beat-down of No. 16 Texas-Arlington.
With Memphis native Penny Hardaway watching from behind the Tiger bench, and perhaps sensing that upsets were suddenly in the NCAA water, Memphis marked its territory, stabilizing brackets and thus preventing the space-time continuum from collapsing onto itself.
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| Coach John Calipari's Tigers need to improve if they want to even sniff the Final Four. (Getty Images) |
Memphis coach John Calipari, generally happy with his team's performance, did understand something was slightly out of whack for his club, at least initially.
"It was like pulling teeth a little bit to get our guys going," he said.
Don't let the score fool you. Memphis's game against the Mavericks was actually somewhat competitive for a lengthy stretch, much more competitive than it should have been. The Tigers may indeed be Halle Berry and UT-Arlington Tori Spelling, but during some stretches it was hard to tell which team was the title contender and which one shopped at Costco.
Memphis should have obliterated this team from the beginning. Instead the score was just 40-31 with two minutes remaining in the first half and never totally out of reach for the Mavericks for much of the second. The steady drip of the Tigers' depth eventually eroded UT-Arlington into a fine paste.
Memphis scares me. One minute it looks like the Boston Celtics, the next an undisciplined mess.
Calipari blamed the Tigers' occasional lapses on the team's recent lack of physical contact and actual game experience. He noted how the players understand they can't play like that as the tournament progresses.
I just wonder. I know the Tigers can win a dunk contest but are they disciplined enough to win a national championship?
They're well coached. They have the most athletic starting five in college basketball. They're certainly capable of taking it all.
The problem is of all the No. 1 seeds, Memphis is the most mentally fuzzy. The Tigers go into lapses of sloppiness. They miss easy baskets. They daydream. They're not great free-throw shooters.
