Oklahoma vs Memphis (Coaches vs Cancer)

Derrick Rose proved that he is both human and a freshman. While showing some flashes of "specialness", he was not Jason Kidd in that game. Nevertheless, he led his team to a grinded out win, and that's perhaps something Memphis wasn't able to do in the past (see: 2006 Elite 8 meltdown against UCLA).



Dookie Jeff Capel did the best he could to increase his teams chances to beat the Memphis Tigers. After probably watching the Memphis losses of the last couple of years, including their epic meltdown against UCLA in the 2006 Elite 8, he decided to play them tough (that's not a new thing to the Oklahoma Sooners), and mix in the defenses to confuse them and take away their AASAA principles. This worked to a certain extend, but he was betrayed by his offense - or perhaps Memphis was playing some defense too?

The good news for John Calipari and fans was that Memphis was able to win a game that was a grinded out affair. The Tigers were all over the place in their performance - granted this was just their 3rd game, and they were under the bright lights of MSG and the bold dome of Dookie Vitale. But they did not look like a Final Four team in this particular game.

Joey Dorsey had his impact on the game on defense and on the boards, but he seems to be trouble too, this time in a pushfest with touted freshman Blake Griffin.

Calipari went to a nine man rotation, leaving Jeff Robinson (red-shirting? suspended? DNP?) and the two space-eaters (Pierre Niles and Hashim Bailey) on the bench. The nine man rotation gives Calipari a lot of flexibility, and Shawn Taggart gives him something new, a big man with polished offensive skills. One open question is: who will emerge as reliable shooter(s)?