UConn vs Memphis

Calipari vs Calhoun, the non-rivarly rivarly was downplayed and overplayed at the same time. It was just two games after all.

The subtitle of this game should be "Joey Dorsey and AJ Price appreciation night". Both showed how valuable they were to their team when they got in foul trouble and left the game.

UConn survived a horrible start, and made the game competitive and exciting. This is a fast team, and at times they were blazing past Memphis, but at other times, the Tigers were blazing past them. AJ Price had a solid game showing he is baaaack, Dyson was slicing and dicing in the second half including a facial dunk on Dorsey who got back at him with a sensational block. He spend the first half in the dog house. Thabeet is just too raw, he has the ingredients, but you can't expect him to make up for a dozen years of formal hoops training in just a handful of years. It looks like he may be a longer time frame project perhaps, but you never know. At times players grow fast during a season.

Memphis's offense was very two dimensional, with Derrick Rose and CDR dominating the ball and the scoring. So much for Derrick Rose being a pass first guy. Of course you can't blame him, he had to take what the defense gave him, and if his other teammates were not producing offensively, what's a superstar to do? CDR had an unassuming 33 career high points, and he would have had more had Rose given him the ball even more often.

Because of foul trouble Calipari went 11-deep in his rotation. What was evident in this game is that they badly needed someone else to actually score. Despite his hard work, Antonio Anderson continues to not be an offensive presence - he must have transfered all his offensive skills to CDR. And while Calipari is probably going to be loyal to his Laurinburg starters, troublemaker Robinson is probably the one that should start by January. Watch out for this freshman!

Despite the foul troubles of Dorsey, Taggart and Dozier, the speed of UConn made this not a good game for Pierre Niles and Hashim Bailey.

So what did we observe about Memphis today?
1) They can start games really well
2) Derrick Rose is as good as advertised, but he is a freshman and he is human. He even takes bad shots, and too many shots at times.
3) CDR can score. Okay we knew that already.
4) Dorsey is an impact player inside the paint even if he doesn't score
5) they seem to be able to handle physical play and adversity a bit better than last year

This game was exciting enough that we are making it our first nominee for game of the year. To find all the game of the year nominees in the future, click on the Label (tag) named "game of the year nominee".

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