Three inches. That’s an educated guess on how close the Tigers came to knocking off top-ranked Kansas tonight. Had Elliot Williams’ three-point attempt at the buzzer been a bit more shy — by thaaaaat much — Memphis earns its greatest upset in 89 years of basketball. Instead, the Tigers walk off the court in St. Louis disappointed with a 57-55 defeat.
Remarkable first half. Despite converting only two field goals over the last nine minutes of the half and missing 12 of 14 three-point attempts, the U of M was down only six points against the consensus number-one team in the country. (Consider: had the Tigers made merely 25 percent of their three point attempts in the half, the score would have been tied.)
Just as eye-opening was the way seven Memphis players were able to trade punches against a Kansas team that went 10 deep, with two All-Americans (Cole Aldrich and Sherron Collins) and a freshman phenom (Xavier Henry) in its starting lineup. A strength to this year’s collection of underdogs may well be its team defense (witness the six Kansas turnovers over the game’s first six minutes). Josh Pastner has an undersized team, but it’s not lacking for quickness or athleticism. Kansas players not named Aldrich made but 13 of 33 shots.
