Welcome to the Blues City; home of dry ribs, blues, the University of Memphis Tigers and the Conference USA Championship trophy. For the fourth straight year, the Memphis Tigers have followed up a dominant year in regular season conference play with a Conference USA tournament championship.
After stuffing down some bacon and eggs with a hot cup of joe, Memphis fans packed the FedEx Forum to watch this year’s version of the Tigers for one last time at home. This finale did not disappoint. Absolutely smothering Tulsa, the Tigers’ performance exemplified why they have had so much success within conference this year. Taking a step back to explain what was seen on national television this morning, the Tigers literally threw the Golden Hurricane to the ground, went straight for the jugular and choked them into submission in rather brutal fashion.
The Tigers started out on an 8-0 run start the game while the Golden Hurricane began with an ice-cold 2-for-15 from the floor.It was obvious early that, even though the full-court pressure was not drastically effecting Tulsa to start, it was effective in forcing a hectic pace and a tendency for Tulsa to start their offensive sets well into the shot clock. Once again, the Tigers ran a shifting double team at 7-footer Jerome Jordan any time he touched the ball which kept him from being a force on the offensive end for Tulsa. The bad news for Tulsa was that Jordan’s measly four points came early in the game. After their early run, Memphis went almost seven minutes without scoring, missing nine shots in a row. Keeping the game close in the first half by making timely shots and handling the Memphis full-court pressure, Tulsa was only down by eight at half.
Opening up the second half with a 7-0 run, the Tigers came out with the same defensive pressure as they did in the first half but it was obvious that they had gotten their offense back on track. Tulsa went 6:33 without a field-gaol while the Tigers went on a 17 to nothing run.
Tyreke Evans scored 18 points and Robert Dozier added 18 points and 14 rebounds Saturday, leading No. 4 Memphis to a 64-39 victory over Tulsa in the Conference USA tournament final. Antonio Anderson added 12 points and Doneal Mack had 11 for Memphis.
After the game and trophy presentations, a banner paying tribute to this team’s three seniors and their NCAA record number of wins was raised in the rafters. The number of wins was left blank. After the game, John Calipari said, “We got to get to 141. 1-4-1. And mark it down. That one won’t be matched.”
POST GAME NOTES:
- Tyreke Evans was named the Conference USA tournament MVP.
- All-Tournament Team: Ben Uzoh, Ray Reese, Robert Dozier, Shawn Taggart and Tyreke Evans.
- This Memphis team is now #4 in college basketball history in defensive FG%.
1) 2000 Stanford – 35.2%
2) 1994 Marquette – 35.8%
3) 1997 Marquette – 36.2% (.3619)
4) 2009 MEMPHIS – 36.2% (.3621)
5) 2000 Temple – 36.2% (.3623)
6) 1997 W.Forest – 36.4%
- For the tournament, the Tigers held their opponents to the following averages:
First half points: 22
Second half opponent points: 21
Points per game: 43
FG%: 29.6%
FG% 3pt: 17.8%
MemphisRoar’s Seed Projection for the Tigers: Top #2 Seed
VIDEO OF POSTGAME FESTIVITES:
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