Hoyas 86, Memphis 69 Post-Game Discussion

[DanMcQ]

www.gotigersgo.com/sports/m-baskbl/mem-m-baskbl-body.html

[joey0403p]

game with memphis is a great opportunity to show we are an elite team. if we go into another ranked team's house and play the way we are capable - this will be a fun game to watch.

glad we didn't have any type of let down today - now i just hope we continue to beautiful play vs memphis.
their leading scorer being out doesn't hurt either.

[berrypatch26]

Here's why "one stop, one score" and "practice perfection" are important:

Baylor #9 loses to Gonzaga
Illinois #13 loses to Illinois (Chicago)
Brigham Young (BYU) #16 loses to UCLA
Kansas State #6 loses to Florida
Syracuse #5 barely gets by Iona
Kansas #3 barely beats Southern Cal

Good luck Hoyas.

[McBricks]

I hate Memphis. My road trip to Memphis a few years back just before Christmas was miserable. We got crushed, the town was dead and they cancelled my flight and I had to stay an extra day. To this day, I still hate visiting Memphis, even though I cook at Memphis in May every year.

I hope we take it to them and further prove just how good we are. I want this one really badly and it would make for an awesome Christmas present. Bring it Hoyas.

[FrazierFanatic]

Yeah we need to be ready from the opening tip. They will play up tempo, but if we keep our heads and play with discipline at both ends we WILL win this game.

[bronxhoya87]

They are hurting....we should Esther Rolle

[chep3]

They're a tremendously talented team, but they're extremely young. If we play our A or B game, we should walk away with a W. Even if they get us into a track meet, I have confidence our guards will handle that. Our bigs need to board though, if this is your typical Memphis team that crashes the glass really well. But I'll be honest, I've only seen thme play once and don't really know much about them outside of the press clippings.

[dense]

They are talented in the sense of they have high recruit rankings, in essence without Witherspoon they are a glorified AAu unit now, playing a rag tag game of b-ball...Alot of Fr. and 1st time people to the team getting major minutes. Only players im really afraid of on their team are Will Coleman cause he is an atheletic Big, and Chris Crawford cause of his Jumper getting on fire. They dont shoot Ft's very well, and dont have much of an interest in playing D, if the game gets bogged down. Will Barton isnt as dominating as his press clippings, and really is a scorer who needs to take alot of shots to get his points.

[tashoya]

Maturity and gameplan should whup street ball. We have enough street ball in us to know how to shut it down and Memphis lacks the discipline and experience to turn the tables. I expect it to be very close in the first half and for the Hoyas to build a bit of a lead toward the 10 minute mark of the second.

[GUJook97]

Yeah, IMO, we are a much better team than Memphis. I dont think they should really even be ranked. Id be pretty disappointed if we lost this game. A road game is still a road game, but Memphis is very young and very raw and we are exactly the type of team that matches up well against them.

[Ranch Dressing]

If Memphis plays their typical man-to-man defense, I expect our offense to be very efficient at find open looks. Need to rebound on the defensive end and we should be fine.

[seaweed]

Dec 19, 2010 8:50:51 GMT -5 GUJook97 said:

we are exactly the type of team that matches up well against them.

for years it has been the opposite, "this is the type of team that matches up well with us/gives us fits"

I worry, of course I worry, but I also think our guys can go into Memphis and tame that crazy FedEx crowd. Keep turning up the defense for good long stretches, but as I have said before, our best defense can be our awesome offense and this game is going to be offensive. Used to be we lost the high scoring games, now that is our turf.

[gtowndynasty]

COunt me amongst those that believe we will beat them fairly easily. I have followed them this year relatively close and while no one can question their talent, they are young and dont have that true leader. At times they can play selfish too. We are so much more efficient than them and I can vision a scenario where they are trying to play from behind, and that just doesnt suit them. Also, they have not played that competitive of a schedule so I expect our guys to go in there, smack them in the mouth off the rip, and take care of business. Lets GO!

[MassHoya]

We need momentum going into the Big East. The whole nonconference schedule was designed for this purpose. Put it to good use. One stop, one score is the mantra for the rest of this season.

GO HOYAS!!! Beat the Tigers.

[alleninxis]

I don't think this is anywhere near as easy as some of you.

mostly due to the environment we'll be walking into. FedEx Forum is a TOUGH place to play and their team will certainly be up for this one.

[GUJook97]

Yeah, we havent really earned the right to think that a road game like this will be easy, but for the reasons mentioned above, I just think we matchup well against Memphis and should win. That's all I am saying.

[gutuna]

Dec 19, 2010 13:45:08 GMT -5 alleninxis said:

I don't think this is anywhere near as easy as some of you.

mostly due to the environment we'll be walking into. FedEx Forum is a TOUGH place to play and their team will certainly be up for this one.

Agreed. We've played three road games against quality teams and we've struggled in all three of them. Memphis doesn't have the defensive ability of ODU or Temple, so we'll likely see a game with the character of the Mizzou game.

In this type of game we need to continually make sure we get into our defensive set quickly and stop the ball when Memphis presses it up the floor. Teams have continually been able to do this against us, even after made baskets. I know many of us like to press to get us in a defensive set early and avoid this. The more often Memphis sees our five in a set defensive, the better off we are.

Offensively it's all about limiting turnovers. Memphis is not a defensive power. If we can limit turnovers to 15-20% of possessions we'll be in very good shape. We don't need a ton of scoring out of the post, but we certainly can't have Vaughn getting stripped like has happened all too many times this season.

[bigelephant]

Playing away is never easy and I've seen the Hoyas cold too often on the road to think this will be a definite W - we need our A game and big time hustle on D - then we'll be OK.

[chep3]

I think people are confident that if we play well, we'll come out with the W. This isn't a situation like 07 where their ceiling is higher than ours. We just have to make sure we come out more like 1st half Mizzou than any half Temple.

[AustinHoya03]

Dec 18, 2010 21:37:05 GMT -5 McBricks said:

I hate Memphis. My road trip to Memphis a few years back just before Christmas was miserable. We got crushed, the town was dead and they cancelled my flight and I had to stay an extra day. To this day, I still hate visiting Memphis, even though I cook at Memphis in May every year.

I hope we take it to them and further prove just how good we are. I want this one really badly and it would make for an awesome Christmas present. Bring it Hoyas.

Although I wasn't in Memphis for the game, I remember the Hoyas getting rolled by the Tigers in 2007 pretty well. It sucked. We beat Memphis at the phone booth the following season, but it was a sloppy game and did not fulfill my fantasies of revenge.

So, despite the fact that we have the last victory in the series, Thursday's contest can be classified as a full-fledged REVENGE GAME for yours truly. I hope this year's seniors feel the same way. Let's ruin Tiger Christmas.