2008 NCAA Tournament South Regional

2008 NCAA Tournament South Regional
Reliant Stadium in Houston, March 28th & 30th
Posted on Tuesday, March 25th by TD at Totals 4 You

  Just 16 squads are left standing in your 2008 NCAA Men’s College Basketball Tournament with the Memphis Tigers, Michigan State Spartans, Stanford Cardinal, and Texas Longhorns earning their way to the home of the South Region, Reliant Stadium in Houston, where the foursome will battle on Friday, March 28th and Sunday, March 30th for a ticket to the Final Four in San Antonio the following weekend. This bracket was certainly the most successful (11 of 12, missing only St. Mary’s over Miami-Florida) of our entry in the yearly contest among the cappers at freeplays.com this season (we currently lead at 37-11 with our entire Great 8 still standing!) so let’s take a look at the match ups and which crew will survive the weekend. 

#1 Seed Memphis (35-1, 15-0 road/neutral) walked through UT-Arlington 87-63 in the first round and battled past the physical Bulldogs of Mississippi State 77-74 in the second with 6′9″ 265 senior F Joey Dorsey (6.8p, 9.6r, 61 blocks) displaying incredible grit with 13 points, 12 boards, 6 blocks, and 5 fouls. Hey, this kid is the first in his family to earn a high school diploma and is just 4 credits from adding a college degree; you can get in his way but you can’t stop him. Joining him on the blocks is 6′9″ junior F Robert Dozier (9.4p, 6.8r, 59 blocks) to earn a 40.7 to 43.2 edge on the glass and 6.1 to 3.2 edge in blocked shots this season but it’s the Tiger guards that make John Calipari’s (216-64 in 8th season at Memphis) a contender. All-CUSA 6′3″ freshman G Derrick Rose (14.0p, 4.2r, 4.5a) runs the break, taking advantage of the size of 2008 Naismith Player of the Year Finalist 6′7″ junior G Chris Douglass-Roberts (17.3p, 4.2r, 1.7a) and 6′6″ junior G Antonio Anderson (8.5p, 3.7r, 3.4a) on the wings. Much has been made of Memphis’s 59.7% free throw shooting – and it may stop them yet – but with 79.9 points of offense per game on shooting marks of .467 from the field and .353 from behind the arc plus 16.1 assists per game compared to just 12.2 turnovers per contest give this crew the firepower to hang with anyone. Overshadowed by the run and gun show is a pretty damn, fine defense. The Tigers allow just 60.7 points per trip on stingy shooting marks .384 from the field and .299 from deep with a paltry 10.8 assists allowed per game dwarfed by the 16.5 forced turnovers this unit piles up. Discount your Conference USA Champions at your peril. A win over Michigan State earns Memphis their 3rd consecutive Great Eight appearance.

#5 Seed Michigan State (27-8, 10-8 road/neutral) earned its 7th Sweet 16 appearance in the last 11 seasons by completely shutting down the offenses of Temple in a 72-61 first round win and Pittsburgh in a 65-54 second round win, holding the Owls to 37.5% and the Panthers to 32.7% shooting from the field. Such has been the game plan for coach Tom Izzo (305-129 in 13th season in East Lansing), who is seeking his 5th Final Four, all season. 6′10″ 245 sophomore F Goran Sutton (8.7p, 8.2r, 32 blocks) and 6′10″ 245 senior C Drew Naymick (4.3p, 4.2r, 59 blocks) swallow up everything entering the paint, earning a 37.2-29.9 edge on the glass this season and have intimidated shooters into an errant .398 mark from the field. 6′7″ sophomore F Raymar Morgan (14.2p, 6.1r) and 6′0″ freshman G Kalin Lucas (10.2p, 1.6r, 3.8a) work off the interference provided by the trees in the middle to slash to the bucket for easy hoops while being freed up to extend their defense, limiting opponents to just .311 shooting from downtown. And then their is 6′0″ senior G Drew Neitzel (14.1p, 2.5r, 3.9a). Just watching this kid move without the basketball for two hours is worth the price of admission for us, ducking in and out of multiple screens to nail 97 of 237 attempts from behind the arc this season – despite every opposing coach on his schedule building a game plan around stopping him. Defensively, the Spartans can hang with anyone at 61.7 points allowed per contest and Michigan State makes the most of their scoring opportunities with marks of .480 from the field, .374 from behind the arc, and .739 from the stripe but if Neitzel’s shots don’t fall, his team will.

#3 Seed Stanford (28-7, 12-6 road/neutral) dwarfed Cornell 77-53 with their size in the first round and scrapped their way past Marquette with an 82-81 overtime victory in the second round to earn Coach Trent Johnson (80-47 in 4th season at Palo Alto) his first trip the Sweet 16. The fourteen feet and 515 pounds of sophomore Lopi have been superb with C Robin (10.3p, 5.7r, 83 blocks) playing the more stationary, defensive role and Brook (19.0p, 8.1r, 54 blocks) taking the rock aggressively to the rack for big numbers including 30 against the Golden Eagles and the game winner with 1.3 second remaining to advance. Everyone knows his role for the Cardinal. 6′1″ junior G Mitch Johnson (6.7p, 4.3r, 5.1a, 16 assists vs. Marquette) runs the point and has no plays designed for him. 6′3″ junior G Anthony Goods (10.3p, 1.7r, 1.a) is Stanford’s designated 3-point gunner with 64 makes in 182 attempts and rarely leaves his perimeter home. 6′5″ senior F Fred Washington (4.5p, 4.1r, 2.3a) and his sub 6′8″ junior F Lawrence Hill (8.7p, 4.9r) are the crew’s designated garbage men, scrapping for loose balls, crashing the boards, and earning put-backs for a squad that holds a fine 39.1-31.1 edge on the glass in 2007-2008. These well-defined jobs have served the Cardinal well with a 71.2 points per game (.452 field, .366 from 3-point, .695 free throws) to 61.0 points per game (.393 field, .334 from 3-point) edge over opponents but it also makes the job of stopping them easier to game plan. Marquette did one hell of a job defeating size with quickness to top Stanford 45-38 on the glass and have provided a blueprint for how to send the Christmas Trees back to the black hole that swallows most one-dimensional teams.

#2 Seed Texas (30-6, 13-5 road/neutral) coasted past Austin Peay 74-54 in the first round before besting a scrappy Miami-Florida team 75-72, as well as an absurdly hostile crowd in Little Rock, in the second round to punch their ticket back to the friendly Lone Star State. The Longhorns may have the most talented starting five in the country, but lack depth and used a ton of energy to get to the Sweet 16 with the front line playing 179 of the squads 200 minutes on Sunday. 5′11″ junior A. J. Abrams (16.6p, 2.8r) and 6′0″ sophomore D. J. Augustine (19.2p, 2.9r, 5.8a) make up the best guard-tandem in the nation, playing with incredible motor and have combined to nail 181 shots from behind the arc in 471 attempts. In fact, each of the Longhorns are dangerous from behind the arc (.391 as team from 3-point) including 6′6″ sophomore F Damion James (13.2p, 10.7r, 51 blocks, 17 double/doubles) with 37 made treys in just 83 attempts and 6′10″ junior F/C Connor Atchley (9.6p, 5.3r, 75 blocks) with 41 made in 97 attempts from downtown. Enough firepower (75.5 points per game on .453 shooting from the field) to run with anyone and enough defense (64.4 points allowed on .388 shooting from the field and .326 from 3-point) to grind with the best of them makes Texas a dangerous team but it’s the ball handling that commits only 9.6 turnovers per game that makes Coach Rick Barnes’s (246-92 in 10th season at Austin) team a legitimate contender to reach San Antonio. Just ask the teams selected to this season’s NCAA Tournament. 18 of the Horn’s 36 games were against squads that earned invitations to The Big Dance and the boys from “The Forty Acres” brought home victories in 14 of those contests.

The Analysis: Back to our brackets where (did we mention this already?!) we currently lead the contest among the cappers at freeplays.com, we selected Michigan State to beat Memphis, Texas to beat Stanford, and the Longhorns to move on to the Final Four up the road in San Antonio next weekend. After taking in play from the first two rounds we would make two changes were we allowed to redraw our South Bracket. We would mop up our St. Mary’s/Miami-Florida miss and would take Memphis to stop Michigan State before ultimately falling to Texas. Good luck this weekend root for us! – TD

NOTE: A new article will be posted each Wednesday throughout the season breaking down a major match up for the upcoming weekend. For now, enjoy the above and plan on checking out our weekly analysis all season long.