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How to Play and Beat Memphis


slcute

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Although I thought the Billikens were seeded a little low, I was actually delighted with the matchup with Memphis and the potential second round contest against the Spartans. For those of you that will remember SLU's last tournament appearance (against the Utah Utes), SLU played a Utah team that had two players with significant injuries sitting out. Utah found a way to get past the Billikens in the first round and then had to play the Spartans best team ever under Izzo (led by Mateen Cleaves). Everyone thought Utah would get blown out in that game, but Utah was either ahead or within a basket until 2 minutes left in the game when Cleaves hit a huge 3 pointer - a shot that propelled the Spartans to the National Championship. Anyway... how to play Memphis and win? Well, you play them the same way Southern Miss played Memphis. Larry Eustacy, Southern Miss's current coach, coached at Utah State while Majerus was at Utah (he then went on to Iowa State). He is a good coach (and had some very good teams at Utah State and Iowa State) and employs a similar philosophy as Majerus (although not quite in Majerus's league in terms of defense). He doesn't like to give up transition points, tends to make a team work hard defensively into the shot clock and plays the percentages and trys to force his team to take high percentage shots. This year, Southern Miss had a shot to win at Memphis and won at home against Memphis in close games. Southern Miss did that despite having much less talent than Memphis by refusing to give Memphis transition points and making them hit jumpers. Rick will do the same thing. Memphis is athletic and long, but they are not big and physical and their outside shooting comes and goes. I think Conklin and Loe should play well inside (as well as Evans), and we be able to dictate the tempo of this game. That will frustrate Memphis and give SLU a chance to win the game and move on to play a wonderful Michigan State team.

SLU 69 Memphis 64 Go Billikens!

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I just did a quick rundown of Memphis's roster / minutes per game. It looks like they basically play 6 deep (another 2-3 players get about 10 minutes per game but don't look to be offensive threats). Also, they don't have any size (6'9" 207 starting PF, then pretty much guards).

Looks like a game of tempo: if we play SLU ball (good defense, make them work on defense, keep the turnovers down) and don't shoot horribly, we might be able to get them into foul trouble and really expose their back ups. However, if they come out shooting lights out and get into the open court, they can put up some points quick on us. Should be interesting to see how it plays out.

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I'm telling you, Memphis' players are too talented for our guys. Too many recruiting stars. I know math and 4 stars is more than 2 stars. Their press is going to make us quit 3 minutes into the 2nd half. We will actually walk off the court. We're fuoked.

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It probably isn't fair but I can only picture Memphis in my mind with a bunch of Calipari recruited amazingly talented street ballers with zero discipline and zero teamwork (and zero coaching.)

Majerus > Calipari

Hopefully Majerus can come up with a plan for defending four guards (and then a Big Ten monster team.......)

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I'm telling you, Memphis' players are too talented for our guys. Too many recruiting stars. I know math and 4 stars is more than 2 stars. Their press is going to make us quit 3 minutes into the 2nd half. We will actually walk off the court. We're fuoked.

-is this reality?

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wow...you guy do know Cal is 3 years gone to Kentucky right?

Memphis doesn't just "roll the ball out" and let em play street ball...this is Josh Pastner ball.

Memphis has insanely talented players working inside a system...actually it's one of the most efficient systems around averaging .494 Field Goal percentage per game (ranks 5th in US) and 75.3 points per game (ranks 33rd in US)

the only down side for Memphis is the inside game and rebounding.

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Pastner's system against Majerus' system? Hmmmmmmmm. For some reason, I'm going with the vet over the kid. And there is a whole bunch of homerism in that pick too but Memphis looks like a good matchup for us.

I am pleasantly surprised to know that according to a Memphis fan, Memphis has problems wiht the inside game and rebounding. That cna be our issue too so maybe we can actually get an advantage here in an area normally ouir achilles heel.

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Pastner's system against Majerus' system? Hmmmmmmmm. For some reason, I'm going with the vet over the kid. And there is a whole bunch of homerism in that pick too but Memphis looks like a good matchup for us.

I am pleasantly surprised to know that according to a Memphis fan, Memphis has problems wiht the inside game and rebounding. That cna be our issue too so maybe we can actually get an advantage here in an area normally ouir achilles heel.

coaches can't lace em up and play...Josh spent 7 years under Lute Olson and John Calipari...so he's ready to go...this is his 3rd season as Head Coach.

Memphis' is great with offense and even better at defense...but our inside game is 1 player deep...so we have rebounding issues. (that said we rank higher in rebounding than St. Louis)

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coaches can't lace em up and play...Josh spent 7 years under Lute Olson and John Calipari...so he's ready to go...this is his 3rd season as Head Coach.

Memphis' is great with offense and even better at defense...but our inside game is 1 player deep...so we have rebounding issues. (that said we rank higher in rebounding than St. Louis)

Memphis fans love to point out stats that favor their team without understanding the impact of the pace of the game.

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@UofMemphis -- not arguing with you on the supposed readiness of Pastner, I heard similar arguments about Quinn Snyder, Mike Brey, Brian Gregory, Ollie Purnell and many others. I don't care if Pastner studied at the foot of God, Iba and Knight. All I'm saying is I'll take a HOF coach over this youngster in this particular matchup. I believe I have a number of buds on this board that would question just what exactly Pastner "learned" under Calipari --- Calipari is about as bad a game coach as I've ever seen. He has lost games he had no buisness of losing with the payroll on his bench. If I were Pastner, I wouldn't associate my resume with Cal's. Just saying.

Remember --- if you can't dazzle 'em with brilliance, baffle 'em with bullshat. If all that fails, use statistics. It's going to be a great game, I think.

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Memphis fans love to point out stats that favor their team without understanding the impact of the pace of the game.

STL will not be the first team to use the shot clock and a zone-D to try and slow this team...we've seen everything from a basic 2-3 to Tim Floyds triangle-and-two...that's nothing new for Memphis.

i find it amazing how little people know about Memphis outside of "hey, wasn't Calipari their coach?"

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@UofMemphis -- not arguing with you on the supposed readiness of Pastner, I heard similar arguments about Quinn Snyder, Mike Brey, Brian Gregory, Ollie Purnell and many others. I don't care if Pastner studied at the foot of God, Iba and Knight. All I'm saying is I'll take a HOF coach over this youngster in this particular matchup. I believe I have a number of buds on this board that would question just what exactly Pastner "learned" under Calipari --- Calipari is about as bad a game coach as I've ever seen. He has lost games he had no buisness of losing with the payroll on his bench. If I were Pastner, I wouldn't associate my resume with Cal's. Just saying.

Remember --- if you can't dazzle 'em with brilliance, baffle 'em with bullshat. If all that fails, use statistics. It's going to be a great game, I think.

this is another thing...statistics are easily quantifiable and a good measure of a team...they aren't perfect...but they give you a baseline reading about the other team.

and for every Quinn Snyder, Mike Brey, Brian Gregory there is a Brad Stevens, Steve Prohm, or Josh Pastner

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STL will not be the first team to use the shot clock and a zone-D to try and slow this team...we've seen everything from a basic 2-3 to Tim Floyds triangle-and-two...that's nothing new for Memphis.

i find it amazing how little people know about Memphis outside of "hey, wasn't Calipari their coach?"

why do Memphis fans think we will be using a zone defense? Hopefully pasner is as dumb as their fanbase.

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STL will not be the first team to use the shot clock and a zone-D to try and slow this team...we've seen everything from a basic 2-3 to Tim Floyds triangle-and-two...that's nothing new for Memphis.

i find it amazing how little people know about Memphis outside of "hey, wasn't Calipari their coach?"

Memphis-

I agree with you on that point. I had very few opportunities to watch Memphis play this season. I'd imagine most are in the same boat.

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STL will not be the first team to use the shot clock and a zone-D to try and slow this team...we've seen everything from a basic 2-3 to Tim Floyds triangle-and-two...that's nothing new for Memphis.

i find it amazing how little people know about Memphis outside of "hey, wasn't Calipari their coach?"

Super. Just realize that when you are quoting statistics, they are going to be skewed based on the pace that each team plays. I wasn't commenting on Memphis' ability to play against a slow-down team, but that your statistics are a red herring.

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