The Memphis Tigers, athletic and deep, are the cats no one wants to run with in college basketball.
Run with John Calipari’s big cats and wind up clawed and mauled on the corner of 32nd and 7th. So USC coach Tim Floyd decided the best way to go big-game hunting in last night’s second game of the Jimmy V Classic in the Garden was to slow the chase with a junk defense.
Maybe when the Tigers felt caged they’d make a fatal error. Maybe not.
In what can only be construed as bad news for other teams looking to go into the tall grass in search of the Tigers, USC got exactly the game it wanted and Memphis still came out on top, 62-58, in overtime.
We know the Tigers are lethal when they’re allowed to get out and run. And now we know the Tigers, which faced a triangle-and-two defense most of the night, can prevail in a slow dance.
“That is how people are going to have to play us,” said Calipari. “We ran our offense four or five times the whole game. We never got into it. I give them credit.”
But Memphis (7-0) got the win. Robert Dozier, who missed a 3 at the buzzer in regulation that would have won it for Memphis, scored 13 points and grabbed eight rebounds. Chris Douglas-Roberts added 10 points and seven rebounds. And freshman Derrick Rose notched nine points, 10 rebounds and four assists as the Tigers pulled out the win.
USC (6-3) almost won it in regulation when Daniel Hackett made one free throw with five seconds left to tie the score at 54-54, but he missed the second. Memphis then had a chance at victory, but Robert Dozier’s 3 from the left corner was off the mark.
“In the shootaround, I say the shootaround, it was really we put the triangle-and-two in the ballroom at 7:15 [last night] and these kids took it and ran with it,” said Floyd. “We decided we were going to have a real hard time guarding them.”
The game went to overtime, and after Rose converted two free throws with 4:21 left, the Tigers never trailed. Memphis has two more tough non-conference games (Tennessee and Gonzaga) to get ready for March Madness.
The Trojans are one of those teams no one might want to play in March. Led by Brooklyn’s Taj Gibson (eight rebounds, five points, four blocks) and freshman phenom O.J. Mayo (16 points, three assists), the Trojans, who lost 59-55 to Kansas on Saturday, have major potential.
“We’re going to get better from this,” said Floyd. “We played the most challenging schedule in the country at this point.”
OVERTIME Memphis 62 USC 58