March Madness - Memphis Tigers

Sweet Sixteen Week

My thoughts about Memphis Basketball. I grew up on Tiger games in The Coliseum, and now I'm one of many blogging about the Tigers in the Tournament at The Commercial Appeal's sports blog, TheMemphisEdge.com


It's the same old song and dance for Tiger fans. Everywhere I turn, I hear "Memphis hasn't been tested."

You know, I expected this kind of treatment before the tournament and even before Nevada, but Memphis is now in the Sweet Sixteen and this lazy storyline is getting tired. Suddenly "the experts" are trying to tell us that beating a top ten team (Nevada - AP & USA Today # 10) is not good enough. The double digit drumming was probably just a fluke, right?

After witnessing Memphis's dominance over The Wolf Pack, ESPN's Gene Wojciechowski moved Memphis down to a 3 seed in his recalibrated bracket! Yeah...I know. Do tell, Wojo:

"Maybe it's because I expected more in the North Texas opener (15 point win), or that I thought Nevada would beat the Tigers in the second round (16 point win)"

This is a leading basketball opinion maker, folks. I don't know what's in the water up in Bristol, but if you thought Memphis would lose, and then they win by SIXTEEN, you might want to think about giving them some credit. Instead we get another slap in the face. This from an anonymous Sportsline.com writer:

"It's difficult to measure how much the Tigers have been hurt by dominating Conference USA. The team is relatively untested, with road losses to Georgia Tech and Arizona and a one-point win over Gonzaga at a neutral site (Spokane)."

First off, I think Memphis should start playing back at The Coliseum and calling it "a neutral site." As for the rest of that statement, I wonder how much Ohio State was hurt by playing in the Big 10 (they are the only team from their conference remaining, just like Memphis) OSU came within a Greg Oden shove of packing their bags (OT win against a 9 seed!)

By the way, Wojo rated The Buckeyes above Memphis at a 2 seed because Xavier was "a tough 9-seed."

If only The Tigers could go to overtime with a 9 seed...Then Memphis would turn some heads.