Memphis NCAAB Tournament Review 2008

Memphis Tigers: Should we believe the odds to win March Madness?

The pollsters, the NCAAB Tournament odds – even the TV experts, baby! –all agree that Memphis will go to the show this March with a real chance to win. But is the form to be trusted, or are we looking at paper Tigers?

Memphis is on the up since John Calipari took over as head coach in 2000, after three years with the New Jersey Nets of the NBA. Memphis has shown consistent improvement in those eight years, winning the NIT Tournament in 2002, posting back to back Conference USA titles and reaching the Elite Eight in the past two years, in 2007 and 2006.

The only problem with success is that people start raising their expectations proportionally. So far, those expectations are being met. Memphis has been a persistent No 1 in the polls this year and, although the C-USA schedule may not be of the first rate, the Tigers non-conference results have been outstanding. When your résumé shows wins over Arizona, Connecticut and Georgetown, you’re pretty good at basketball.

The two biggest knocks on Memphis as National Champions are to do with the Tigers’ ability to score from free throws and the fact that Memphis is a C-USA team. The problems at the charity stripe are something that the team can address – it involves the same procedure that you need to get to Carnegie Hall – but still the shadow of the C-USA persists. The C-USA has never had a National Champion and, until that changes, its teams will always have that question mark hanging over them. Memphis may very well change that – it’s got the coach in Calipari and it’s got the players in people like Chris Douglas-Roberts and Antonio Anderson – and the hour has now come for Memphis to deliver. They just need those free throws to drop, or else it could be another sad case of what might have been on the Beale.