Column: Memphis shows true stripes
Feb. 26, 2008
With less than three weeks until Selection Sunday and the newest installment of the NCAA Tournament, the college basketball scene is beginning to unfold and the greatest imposter upon it is the Memphis Tigers.
The most recent team to fold under pressure happens to be to the team at the top of the heap, the once-undefeated Tigers. Facing scrutiny from as early as the pre-season that it was only the strongest of the weak Conference USA, the Tigers finally proved critics right as they lost to No. 2 Tennessee 66-62 on Saturday.
Memphis’ lack of competition ultimately became their demise. While beating two ranked teams early in the season in Georgetown and Arizona, the Tigers have since found their greatest challenge to be mighty Alabama-Birmingham, who they beat 79-78.
Whereas superior conferences like the Atlantic Coast Conference, with Duke and North Carolina, and the Big 12, with Kansas, Kansas State and Texas, offer in-conference rivalries that prepare teams for bigger games months in the future, Memphis often becomes one of the few representatives from their fragile conference to enter the NCAA Tournament.
Of the Associated Press Top 25 teams, twenty belong to the six major conferences: the ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, Big East, Pacific-10 and the Southeastern Conference. George Mason in 2006 and Utah in 1998 are the only mid-majors to make the Final Four in the last decade.
The reason is simple: easier opposition early on makes for harder contests down the road. Never have truer words been spoken about Conference USA, as in its 13 years of existence, no team has made a Final Four, and the last team currently in the conference to reach the Final Four was Houston in 1984 when they were in the Southwest Conference.
Memphis has contributed to Conference USA’s lackluster post-season resume by never advancing past the Elite Eight. Entering the tournament with an inflated record and overrated seeding, Memphis struggles past the first two rounds and loses in the third or fourth round. When winning 76 percent of the regular season games since 2000, a team should accomplish greater successes.
In addition, over the last decade, Memphis has offered terrific talent, but when freshmen leave after only one year of college, little chemistry and sustainable progress can be made. Memphis has become the intermediary between high school and the NBA, where players can serve their mandatory waiting time before jumping ship and going pro. DaJuan Wagner was one of the first to start that trend and continues today with freshman sensation Derrick Rose, who will undoubtedly leave this year.
Only four games remain in the regular season for Memphis, who will face opponents with a combined 46 losses. Soon after, it will run through the Conference USA Tournament as it usually does and earn an inflated No. 1 or 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament. And as typical with the Tigers, they will probably lose in disappointing fashion.
Following the season, young players will leave and a new crop will come in, continuing a cycle of high mediocrity that has and will plague the program and the conference for years to come.
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