TigerSportsReport.com - Basketball Weekly Review (Week of Feb. 25-March 1)

March 1, 2009

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Special to TigerSportsReport.com

TIGERS CLAIM FOURTH-STRAIGHT OUTRIGHT C-USA TITLE
With its 71-60 victory over UAB Feb. 26, Memphis clinched the 2008-09 Conference USA regular season title outright. The win gave the Tigers a 13-0 league mark.

With the win over UAB, the Tigers claimed the C-USA regular season title outright for a fourth-straight year. This is the first time in school history that the Memphis basketball program has won four-consecutive league titles outright.

The Conference USA regular season crown is Memphis' fourth-straight and fifth in the last six seasons. Memphis shared the 2003-04 C-USA regular season title and then claimed the league's outright championships in 2005-06, 2006-07, 2007-08 and 2008-09.

TIGERS TIE A C-USA RECORD
By claiming this year's Conference USA regular season crown, Memphis joins former league member Cincinnati as the only two programs to win four-consecutive outright C-USA regular season titles.

The Bearcats won four-straight C-USA outright regular season titles from 1997-2000. The Tigers have tied the feat, winning the last four C-USA regular season championships.

MEMPHIS GETS TOURNEY'S TOP SEED
Along with winning the Conference USA regular season title with their Feb. 26 win over UAB, the Tigers also claimed the top seed in the C-USA Tournament, which is scheduled for FedExForum Mar. 11-14. As the top seed, Memphis receives a first-round bye in the league tournament and begins play in the quarterfinals on Mar. 12. It is the fourth-straight year the Tigers earned a first-round bye.

FINALLY, SOME SATURDAY HOME LOVE FOR THE TIGERS
February is the month for love with Valentine's Day, but Memphis received little from the schedule-maker when looking at the Tigers' weekend home schedule this month. Memphis played the first three weekends of February on the road with games at Gonzaga Feb. 7, Southern Miss Feb. 14 and UTEP Feb. 21.

Finally, after three-straight road weekends, the Tigers played a home Saturday game (Feb. 28) versus Southern Miss. The last Saturday home game for Memphis this year was a Jan. 31 encounter with Houston (83-68 Tiger win).

NOT EVEN CLOSE
The usual case when two conference rival schools meet is that more close games are played than blowouts, and that increases the intensity of the rivalry. Since Conference USA began play in 1995-96, the Memphis-Southern Miss encounters have been intense, but a majority of the contests have not been close.

Of the 28 meetings between the two schools since 1995-96, only eight have been single-digit victories, including a 67-64 Tiger win in 2006-07 and a 76-67 Memphis win in 2007-08. In the last 28 encounters, the average margin of victory has been 15.4 points per win. In addition, only two of the last 11 meetings were decided by single digits.

This contest was no different. Even fatigued from playing their second game in less than 48 hours, the No. 5 Memphis Tigers had little trouble against Southern Mississippi.

Robert Dozier had 18 points and seven rebounds, and the Tigers extended the nation's longest winning streak to 20 games with a 58-42 victory over the Golden Eagles on Saturday.

The win came after a hard-fought 71-60 victory at UAB on Thursday night. The Tigers didn't arrive back in Memphis until past midnight on Friday morning, facing a noon game Saturday.

"Guys are tired," Dozier said. "You could see it in their faces. You could (sense) it in the mood in the locker room. We pushed through it, and we played great enough defense to get the W. That's all the matters."

Dozier was 6-of-8 from the field and made both of his 3-point attempts as Memphis (26-3, 14-0 Conference USA) also extended its conference winning streak to 56 games, including the postseason.

Tyreke Evans had 14 points for Memphis, and Antonio Anderson finished with 10.

Southern Mississippi coach Larry Eustachy, in his fifth year, has seen plenty of good Memphis teams, including last year's that made a run to the national championship game. He thinks this year's version may be the best.

"This team's just plays and nothing rattles them," Eustachy said of the Tigers performance. "This team is every bit as good and deserving of a No. 1 seed (as last year's team).

"I think it is as together a team with talent and a great coach as I've seen in a long time."

Jeremy Wise and R.L. Horton led Southern Mississippi (14-14, 4-10) with 14 points each.

Courtney Beasley, the Golden Eagles' second-leading scorer at 14.8 points per game, had two points, missing his first 10 shots. Southern Miss shot 29 percent.

Beasley's only basket came on a goaltending call late in the second half.

"The way they play, they are hard to score against," Eustachy said.

The Tigers had a bit of extra motivation because of comments that came out of Hattiesburg in the days prior to the game. The Golden Eagles lost to UAB 86-56 last Saturday, and several Southern Mississippi players, including Beasley, had said they thought UAB was a better team.

Memphis players were aware of the comments, and made sure they jumped out early.

Memphis was aggressive on defense, causing the Golden Eagles to take difficult shots. Then things got worse as the Tigers went to their zone defense with 6-foot-8 freshman Wesley Witherspoon at the top.

The Golden Eagles missed their next six shots, including a pair of attempts as the shot clock neared expiring, and committed a trio of turnovers. Southern Mississippi went almost 10 minutes without scoring.

That helped Memphis build a 23-7 lead.

The Tigers would hold Southern Mississippi to 19 percent shooting in the first half (5-of-26) and outrebound the Golden Eagles 25-14, as Memphis carried a 32-14 lead into the break.

No one was in double figures for either team. Evans had nine points, and Shawn Taggart made all four of his shots for eight points for Memphis.

Taggart said he didn't feel well, and didn't score in the second half as the Memphis intensity dropped. That allowed the Golden Eagles to shoot 40 percent in the half, and outscore Memphis 28-26.

"The first half we went out there and played great defense and shut them down," Taggart said. "We got offensive rebounds, tip backs. We got steals. ... The second half, they started making shots. You're not going to stop a team all day."

As for the Golden Eagles, only two players scored - Horton with eight and Wise with six- in the first half. The other six Southern Mississippi players who played in the first half were a combined 0-for-16.

Things got a little sloppy for Memphis to open the second half. The Tigers missed all but one of their first four shots after intermission and committed five turnovers in the first four minutes.

The Tigers quickly recovered and stretched the lead to 20. Southern Mississippi never got the deficit under double digits the rest of the way.

And most of the Tigers were just happy that the game was over after having such a quick turnaround from the UAB victory.

"I hate to coach this way, but with 5 minutes to go, I am looking up and thinking: 'Let's just get this over with,"' Memphis coach John Calipari said. "I was disappointed, but I said after the game that I'm chalking this up to playing when you get home at 1 in the morning on a road trip on Thursday and have to play a game on Saturday at noon.

"So, let's move on and get better from here."

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