South Region Final
Memphis 85, Texas 67
Junior Chris Douglas-Roberts led Memphis with 25 points on Sunday (AP Photo).
HOUSTON (AP) ?
John Calipari has a good reason for calling his Memphis Tigers a "Dream Team" - a kid from Chicago who wears No. 23 and makes plays that bring fans out of their seats.
With freshman Derrick Rose soaring and scoring, Memphis ended two years of regional final failure and routed Texas 85-67 Sunday to reach the Final Four. The victory backed up the Tigers' season-long reign near the top of the poll and made them the third No. 1 seed headed to San Antonio.
Rose had 21 points, nine assists and six rebounds, outplaying Texas star D.J. Augustin and leading the Tigers (37-1) into a national semifinal Saturday against a UCLA team making its third straight Final Four appearance.
Memphis and UCLA met in the regional finals two years ago and in the 1973 title game, with the Bruins winning both.
"I'm living a dream right now," Rose said.
Rose took the doubt out of this one in the first half, making a Michael Jordanesque layup as part of his 4-for-4 start, blocking an open-court layup by Augustin and throwing a long pass for a thunderous dunk by Joey Dorsey among his four early assists.
The Tigers were up 29-13 after 12 minutes, with Rose accounting for more points than Texas (31-7) scored.
The Longhorns slowed Rose for only about a minute - when he got poked on the cut above his right eye, forcing him to the bench for a new tape and glue job. No stitches, though; despite all his tattoos, needles creep him out.
Rose finished 7-of-10 and was voted the most outstanding player of the South Regional. The game ended with him getting one last assist of sorts ? generously bouncing the ball to a Texas player for the final seconds.
When the horn went off, Rose tugged at the Memphis on his jersey and gestured to the few Tigers fans. They soon were chanting "One more year!," in hopes that he might not turn pro.
Chris Douglas-Roberts, a Naismith Award finalist, led Memphis with 25 points, with 14 coming on free throws. Joey Dorsey provided 11 points and 12 rebounds, and Shawn Taggart added 12 points. Antonio Anderson had nine points and four assists.
Rose and his teammates already are in elite company. Their 37th win matched an NCAA Division I record held by four other teams, and it was their 103rd victory over the last three seasons, the second-best run by any program.
If the Tigers can win it all, they'll hold both marks. That would take a lot of the sting off the last two years, when Memphis was knocked out a game shy of the Final Four.
Memphis has only been back to the Final Four once, with Keith Lee leading the way in 1985. But that trip was vacated according to the NCAA record book because of rules violations. Ditto for the only other time Calipari coached a team to the Final Four, UMass in 1996.
Despite being labeled the top seed most likely to lose, Memphis has hardly been tested in the tournament. There was a three-point win in the second round, but that was only because of a late flourish by Mississippi State in the second round. This was the closest of the other games - and, of course, it wasn't really close.
"There have been some doubters, but that's OK," Calipari said.
The Longhorns got a 17-point deficit down to 11 at halftime, then got within 39-34 early in the second half. But their lack of size - and the lack of an answer for Rose - ended any hopes of a second Final Four trip in six seasons and a short drive to San Antonio.
Having Kevin Durant back for a sophomore season certainly would've helped. Without him, and without any major additions, coach Rick Barnes got the most out of his leftovers just to get this far. They even won the most games in school history.
Although the Longhorns were the lower seed, having this game in Houston gave them a heavy homecourt advantage. But even that didn't help much Sunday.
With Texas trailing 34-20 late in the first half, about a dozen fans tried getting some spirit going. Their call-and-response chant of "Texas! Fight!" took a while to build steam - and once it did, the Memphis band drowned it out. With 1:01 left, some Tigers backers got a cheer of "Final Four" going.
Last year, Memphis' title hopes ended in San Antonio with a regional final loss to Ohio State. The Tigers have been reminded of it by a "Remember the Alamodome" sign back home.
Now the Tigers are returning, with a chance to make a great memory in that building.
They bring an interesting collection of guys: Rose and Dorsey, a 24-year-old Ben Wallace wannabe, escaped rough neighborhoods in Chicago and Baltimore. Douglas-Roberts is from Detroit. The other starters are from Georgia and Illinois. Only three reserves are from Tennessee.
And, of course, they're cajoled as much as coached by Calipari, who made a name for himself with Marcus Camby and UMass in the mid-'90s, struggled during his 2? seasons in the NBA and now is back atop his profession working in Elvis' hometown.
Calipari is quite the program pitchman, but he knew Rose made this his best group yet. It was harder for him to lash out at critics considering Memphis opened the season ranked third, moved to second and spent five weeks at No. 1.
Calipari not only considers these guys a "Dream Team," he's even given them a poem explaining why it's true.
While Rose is the obvious difference between this Memphis team and the ones that fell short of the Final Four, basketball aficionados also know about the Dribble Drive Motion offense and a steal-seeking defense that Calipari has installed.
One thing that hasn't changed is their wretched foul shooting.
Or has it? The Tigers made about 75 percent in the regional semifinal and were 30-of-36 this time.
Midwest Region Final
Kansas 59, Davidson 57
| Senior Sasha Kaun led Kansas with 13 points and added six rebounds on Sunday (AP Photo). |
DETROIT (AP) ? And then there were ones.
Four No. 1s, that is.
Kansas wore down Stephen Curry and plucky upstart Davidson with its size and strength, holding on for a 59-57 victory Sunday that put all four No. 1 seeds into the Final Four for the first time.
After Kansas' Sherron Collins missed with 19 seconds left, the 10th-seeded Wildcats got one last chance. Curry was double-teamed, could not get off a shot and forced to pass to Jason Richards, whose 25-footer from the top of the key thudded off the backboard.
Richards dropped to his back at midcourt while the Jayhawks celebrated with a measure of relief.
Kansas moved on to play overall No. 1 seed North Carolina on Saturday, and UCLA and Memphis will round out the party at the Alamodome. Three No. 1s have advanced three times, most recently in 1999.
The win also rids Bill Self of that dreaded "best coach never to make a Final Four" label. Self had fallen short with three different schools, including last year's edition of the Jayhawks. But this year's bunch had too much talent, depth and experience to be denied.
Curry, who became only the fourth player to hit the 30-point mark in his first four NCAA tournament games, finished with 25 on 9-of-25 shooting and was picked Most Outstanding Player of the Midwest Regional. His roommate, Bryant Barr, was the only other Davidson player in double figures, scoring all 11 of his points in the second half.
The loss snapped Davidson's 25-game winning streak, longest in the nation.
Brandon Rush scored eight of his 12 points in the second half, and Sasha Kaun came up with big baskets down the stretch whenever the Jayhawks needed them as Kansas ended the feel-good story of the tournament. Tiny Davidson, trying to become only the third double-digit to make the Final Four, ran out of gas in the stretch.
Not that the Wildcats didn't put up a valiant fight. Curry looked exhausted much of the second half - with good reason, after leading the Wildcats to upsets of Gonzaga, Georgetown and Wisconsin. But he showed the same moxie he's had all tournament, drilling an NBA-range 3-pointer with 54 seconds left that cut Kansas' lead to 59-57.
Kaun and Mario Chalmers led the Jayhawks with 13 each.
But these Wildcats have nothing to be ashamed of. They hung with the toughest teams in the nation - Georgetown and Wisconsin had two of the stingiest defenses in the country - and gave little Davidson something to be known for besides providing free laundry to its students. The Wildcats left the floor to applause from a fan club that's gotten a lot bigger over the last two weeks, and Max Paulhus Gosselin acknowledged them by holding up his index finger.
This is the Jayhawks' 13th trip to the Final Four, but the players celebrated as if it was their first. Which, it was.
Kansas lost to UCLA in the regional finals last year, and Self had come up short with three different teams. No more. He smiled and gave a thumbs-up to the Kansas fans who shouted his name, and the players beamed as they lined up to cut down the nets at Ford Field.
Curry, the son of former NBA sharpshooter Dell Curry, had made the tournament his own little party, hanging 30 points on Georgetown and 33 against Wisconsin and delighting fans with his silky-smooth shot. The rest of the Wildcats weren't bad, either, and they had folks all over rooting for yet another underdog-made-good story.
And for a while, it looked as if it just might happen.
Kansas came in walloping opponents by almost 20 points a game, best in the nation, and the Jayhawks' "toughest" test in the tournament thus far had been a 15-point win over Villanova on Friday night. They had a distinct advantage in size and stature - on and off the court.
Yet Davidson's pesky defense had them looking downright tight for most of the afternoon. They had 14 turnovers - nine in the first half alone - and at one point had more turnovers (3) than field goals (1). They even had a shot-clock violation coming out of a timeout.
They had foul trouble, too, with Kaun playing only eight minutes in the first half after picking up two fouls. Rush practically disappeared after a couple of baskets, enduring a 19-minute stretch that spanned halftime without a field goal.
Barr made three 3-pointers, and Curry scored on a long jumper to give Davidson a 51-47 lead with 8:54 left. But the Wildcats were clearly tiring, and they couldn't hold the Jayhawks back any longer.
Chalmers stripped the ball and took it in for a layup, Collins followed with a 3 and Kaun scored on a layup. After Barr made a layup, Arthur kissed one off the glass to make it 56-53. Kaun made a free throw, and Rush made a pair to push the lead to 59-53, matching the largest margin of the game.
But Curry had one last highlight left in him. Thomas Sander missed the second of two free throws and, after the loose ball went off a Jayhawk, Curry hit his 3-pointer that cut the lead to 2. But that's where the game would end.