Tigers’ teeth

Memphis coach John Calipari has been talking lately about the Tigers’ lack of national respect, and Monday he said the way his Tigers played lately shows they are deserving being in the Final Four, where they will face UCLA.
“They way we played this weekend, we deserve to be in the Final Four,” Calipari said. “We were really defensive-minded. We were really unselfish. We really took care of the ball, and offensively, we really executed.
“You got to see the true gist of the third and fourth drive, the back door cuts, the post-ups. Ya’ know, all the stuff we do, you got a better vision of it for those that didn’t know about it.”

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Reply

No Wooden

Not that it is a surprise, but legendary UCLA coach John Wooden will not be at the Final Four. He did not attend either of the last two, either, and continues to recover at home after being hospitalized a month ago after falling at his condo.

Kareem at the Coliseum

Anyone go to the Dodgers-Red Sox game at the Coliseum last night? If you did, you had the opportunity to see Kareem Abdul-Jabbar on the field at the Coliseum. If that wasn’t strange enough, so was his pitching. Between the first and second innings, Abdul-Jabbar one-hopped his ceremonial pitch to the left of catcher Russell Martin. Then he sky hooked a pitch to Martin, who had stepped in front of the bag before he tossed it. Fittingly, the hook-shot pitch worked much better than his real pitch.

Thoughts on Memphis

I am looking forward to this matchup between UCLA and Memphis because I think the contrast in styles make it very interesting.
In a nutshell, I think Memphis has the edge in athletic ability, but UCLA gets a big edge in the coaching department. I know there are some similar opponents — like Texas and Michigan State — but I don’t think comparing how UCLA and Memphis did against each one matters much, especially since the Bruins played both of them in the first month of the season and Memphis played them in the last three days.
Anyway, what are everyone’s thoughts on the matchup?