Monday night’s title game should be a good one. Kansas is the one team in the country that can match up with Memphis’ athleticism, though thus far no one has had an answer for Derrick Rose. If Memphis prevails, they’ll have Rose to thank. He has elevated his game and has truly become the Tigers’ floor general. In years past, the team has had a tendency to struggle in the half court, but his ability to get into the lane and make a play has given Memphis a “go to” guy in the crunch.
To beat the Tigers, Kansas has to do three things: 1) score effectively, 2) take care of the ball and 3) contain Rose and Chris Douglas-Roberts. Memphis wants to run, so if a team can’t score or turns the ball over with regularity it will ignite the Tigers’ fast break. UCLA was careless with the ball and was unable to score with any consistency and it killed them. In the half court, the Tigers don’t really run a set offense. They expect their wings to penetrate and either score themselves or draw the defense and dish. Rose and Douglas-Roberts are two of the best dribble-drive players in the country and the Kansas guards will be focused on keeping them out of the lane.
Conversely, the Jayhawks are about as balanced as a team can get. This is nice from the standpoint that any guy can post 20 points on any given night, but when Kansas struggles to score, they don’t seem to know who to lean on to get a bucket. As good as the Jayhawks looked in the first 10 minutes of the first half, they looked lost for the next 20 minutes as North Carolina made its terrific run.
Vegas has declared Kansas as the underdog and Bill Self would be wise to use this as motivation to get his team focused on the task at hand. They are going to have to play a clean game to beat the Tigers, who seem to have the momentum on their side heading into tomorrow night’s game.
