Posts Tagged Memphis Tigers
April 8, 2008 at 5:01 am · Filed under MLB, NCAA ·Tagged Arizona Diamondbacks, Atlanta Braves, Baltimore Orioles, blown leads, blown saves, Chicago Cubs, Chicago White Sox, Cincinnati Reds, Cleveland Indians, Colorado Rockies, Florida Marlins, Houston Astros, Kansas Jayhawks, Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, Los Angeles Dodgers, Mario Chalmers, Memphis Tigers, Minnesota Twins, New York Yankees, Philadelphia Phillies, Pittsburgh Pirates, San Diego Padres, San Francisco Giants, Seattle Mariners, St. Louis Cardinals, Tampa Bay Rays, Washington Nationals, YouTube
Obviously, Monday’s biggest sports story had nothing to do with baseball. As we predicted less than a month ago, the Kansas Jayhawks knocked off the Memphis Tigers in overtime, 75-68, to be crowned the collegiate national champions for the first time since 1988.
It was an incredible back-and-forth affair, as neither team could seemingly pull away when it took the lead. It wasn’t until late in the second half, when the Tigers took a nine-point advantage with 2:12 left on the clock, that the game looked to be in hand. Kansas had chosen to foul Robert Dozier, with its apparent game plan being to exploit what was perceived to be Memphis’s glaring weakness, foul shooting. But when Dozier sank both shots, the game looked to be over.
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April 6, 2008 at 3:27 am · Filed under NCAA ·Tagged Final Four, free throw shooting, Kansas Jayhawks, Memphis Tigers, Men's Basketball Championship, NCAA Basketball, NCAA Tournament, projections, Tyler Hansbrough, wacky formulas
Exciting times here at Merrill Park Superstar headquarters, as with wins by the Memphis Tigers and Kansas Jayhawks in Saturday’s National Semifinals, the wacky formula that we’ve been working on throughout much of the 2007-08 college basketball season is actually starting to look like a pretty useful tool for predicting the likely outcomes of college games.
The wacky formula, which as press of time lacks a more clever name or even a more descriptive name, has correctly projected the Final Four (not a big stunner) and the teams that are to compete in the National Championship game on Monday. It also had Davidson reaching the Elite Eight. The big issue I found with that bracket, which you can view here, is that the formula called for a lot of first round upsets that didn’t pan out.
I actually kind of saw that coming before the tournament began, though, and decided that I needed to modify the formula a bit. As mentioned in this post, I noticed last year that the Pythagorean theorem of basketball was fairly reliable in predicting the tournament. Whereas the wacky formula figured North Carolina and Kansas would end up in the finals, Pythagoras did a little bit better, forecasting a Florida-Texas A&M showdown. The Gators, of course, went on to win their second straight NCAA Championship a year ago.
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March 12, 2008 at 2:43 am · Filed under NCAA ·Tagged Bamba Fall, Ben Uzoh, Chris Douglas-Roberts, conference tournaments, Conference USA, Houston Cougars, Jeremy Wise, Jermaine Taylor, Jerome Jordan, Joey Dorsey, March Madness, Marvin Kilgore, Memphis Tigers, NCAA Basketball, projections, Rob McKiver, Robert Vaden, Stefon Jackson
The time is at hand for the 2008 Memphis Invitational Tournament. The class of Conference USA will play a series of virtual home games against the second- and third-tiers of the conference as those teams fight for their Big Dance lives.
Memphis has had a few scares in Conference USA play, so it’s entirely possible that they’ll stumble in the tournament given that they won’t exactly need to be playing with a sense of urgency in this tournament. Of course, the Tigers could beat, at the very least, the vast majority of the other teams in the conference without giving their best effort. The disparity is just that great. Add in the fact that the entire tournament will be taking place at the Fed-Ex Forum in Memphis, and it just makes the #2 team in the country that much more formidable.
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February 28, 2008 at 8:51 pm · Filed under NCAA ·Tagged Amateur Bracketologist, Butler Bulldogs, Drake Bulldogs, Duke Blue Devils, Indiana Hoosiers, Kansas State Wildcats, Kent State Golden Flashes, March Madness, Marquette Golden Eagles, Memphis Tigers, Mississippi Rebels, Morgan State Bears, NCAA Tournament, Oral Roberts Golden Eagles, projections, South Regional, Virginia Tech Hokies, West Virginia Mountaineers, Western Kentucky Hilltoppers, Winthrop Eagles, Xavier Musketeers
Please feel free to post your comments regarding my first attempt at projecting the field and pairings of this year’s NCAA tournament. Keep in mind that these projections reflect games through February 24.
First and Second Rounds:
Little Rock, Arkansas:
#1 Memphis vs. #16 Morgan State
#8 Mississippi vs. #9 Butler
Birmingham, Alabama:
#5 Xavier vs. #12 Kent State
#4 Marquette vs. #13 Virginia Tech
Omaha, Nebraska:
#6 West Virginia vs. #11 Drake
#3 Kansas State vs. #14 Winthrop
Washington, D.C.:
#7 Western Kentucky vs. #10 Indiana
#2 Duke vs. #15 Oral Roberts
South Regional to be played in Houston, Texas. Winner of South Regional to meet winner of Midwest Regional in Final Four in San Antonio, Texas.
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February 27, 2008 at 4:31 pm · Filed under NCAA ·Tagged Amateur Bracketology, Kansas Jayhawks, Memphis Tigers, North Carolina Tar Heels, UCLA Bruins
I’m about halfway through the number crunching — I started with the power conferences — and have discovered that the likely #1 overall seed in this year’s NCAA tournament will be North Carolina. They’re projected to be joined by Memphis, Kansas and UCLA. Despite Tennessee’s win on Saturday, the top team in the nation (not for long) was projected to wind up with a #2 seed based on numbers accumulated prior to February 25.
A full report is coming once I get done with the mid-majors, and there are some surprises in terms of seeding.
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February 24, 2008 at 3:10 am · Filed under NCAA ·Tagged Brown Bears, Centenary Gentlemen, Cornell Big Red, Fun With Reclassification, Ivy League, March Madness, Memphis Tigers, Missouri Kansas City Kangaroos, NCAA Basketball, Summit League, Tennessee Volunteers
The Tennessee Volunteers will replace the Memphis Tigers as the #1 ranked team in the country next week following their 66-62 win over the team that currently holds that title. The game certainly lived up to the hype, evolving from a high-scoring track meet early on to an every-possession-is-crucial dog fight down the stretch. From the looks of things, both teams left everything they had out on the floor Saturday night, and it so happened that the team entering the game as the second-ranked team in the nation was slightly better than the previously undefeated Tigers. That may or may not be the case again if and when these two teams meet down the road, with, frankly, a lot more on the line.
Being the top-ranked team in the Associated Press poll is surely a great honor for any college basketball program, but in the end, a team can be the consensus best in the land for the whole year. It doesn’t much matter if they don’t get the job done in March (and April).
To that end, I earlier proposed that there were a few games on Saturday’s slate that had to the potential to, in reality, be bigger — or at least more significant — in terms of the Big Dance than the Tennessee-Memphis encounter. After the jump, we follow up on the outcomes of those games.
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February 23, 2008 at 3:09 am · Filed under NCAA ·Tagged Brown Bears, Centenary Gentlemen, Cornell Big Red, Memphis Tigers, Missouri Kansas City Kangaroos, NCAA Basketball, NJIT Highlanders, Tennessee Volunteers, Utah Valley State Wolverines
Everyone that cares even a little bit about college basketball knows by now that the undefeated, top-seeded Memphis Tigers are facing their toughest test to date on Saturday night when they host the second-ranked Tennessee Volunteers. In fact, the Bottom Line on ESPN has already started to count down the seconds until the big game. It’s going to be hard to avoid hearing about it if you flip your TV on to any sporting event during the day on Saturday — particularly since you’re likely to be limited to hoops and hockey, and the NHL announcers, in an effort to be relevant, might give the big game a shout-out.
Now, don’t get me wrong. I think it’s going to be a hell of a game, and I’m sure to be watching tomorrow night. But, it’s far from the only interesting game on tomorrow’s slate, and it may not even have the biggest impact on the tournament. Let’s face it, if Memphis loses tomorrow, unless they go in the tank — pretty darn unlikely in that conference — they’ll end up with a #1 seed in an NCAA tournament bracket. If the Vols lose, they could conceivably fall to a #2 seed, but losing to the top team in the country isn’t exactly something that’s going to kill them. It’s not going to help, but Tennessee will probably have to stumble again during its regular season slate or early in the SEC tournament to fall precipitously in the tournament seedings.
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February 16, 2008 at 10:03 pm · Filed under NBA, NCAA ·Tagged Chris Douglas-Roberts, cupcake, Gerald Green, live blog, Memphis Tigers, NBA All-Star Saturday, Slam Dunk Challenge
10:01 ET: The NBA Cares. I don’t. Time to look for the Memphis game. Yahoo’s telling me they’re down 5 with 2:40 to go.
10:07 ET: The white dude’s probably still singing, but there’s a hell of a finish in Birmingham. UAB was up by 7 against Memphis with under three minutes to play, but the Tigers have fired back, and a Chris Douglas-Roberts three has cut the lead to 1 with 40 seconds to play.
10:09 ET: Douglas-Roberts ties it with a runner AND is fouled. If he makes a free throw, Memphis may well escape and remain undefeated.
10:10 ET: He made it.
10:12 ET: And Memphis improbably hangs on to win 79-78 and remain the only undefeated team in the nation.
Back to TNT.
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