Thursday,
March 20, 2008
By
Rich Barton
NJS.com Staff Writer
SOUTH
REGION
Player
to Watch:
Dominic James, Marquette
James had initially
entered the NBA draft last fall, only to pull himself out of draft
consideration and head back to college. He battled through injury
and has never gotten into a rhythm. That said, he is as quick
and as explosive as any player in this region, even at a generously
listed 5’11”. The junior can shoot the Golden Eagles
to a long run through the tournament or shoot them right out of
it. Either way, he’s a player who has to be accounted for
every time he’s on the court.
Biggest
First-Round Upset:
No. 13 Oral Roberts over No. 4 Pittsburgh
Lots
of people around the country feel that Pitt is the sleeper team
in this bracket, but I feel it’s the other way around. Oral
Roberts is a team noone has heard of from a league noone has heard
of (Summit). But they have a pair of players, including the most
dangerous sixth man in the country in freshman Robert Jarvis (16
ppg). While they are often at a size disadvantage, they make up
for it by shooting a ton of threes at a high percentage. If they
can keep this game close, they will win it in the end with free-throw
shooting. The team’s two leading scorers, Jarvis and Moses
Ehambe, are both shooting 85 percent or better from the charity
stripe. That always bodes well come tourney time.
Biggest
Sleeper:
Mississippi State
On
the down side, the Bulldogs have only one win over a ranked opponent
all season. On a positive note, they have two of the most dangerous
players, one on each end of the court. Jarvis Varnado leads the
nation in blocked shots with nearly five per game, and Jamont
Gordon is as talented as any point guard in the country. This
team won the SEC West by a comfortable three-game margin, but
this is also a team that lost to Georgia in the SEC semifinals,
the second game Georgia played in an eight-hour span. With Mississippi
State, what you see is what you get. A quintessential example
of a team that can beat or lose to anyone in the tournament depending
on how well it is playing.
First-Round
Winners:
Memphis,
Mississippi State, Michigan State, Oral Roberts, Marquette, Stanford,
Miami, Texas
Second-Round
Winners:
Memphis, Michigan State, Stanford, Texas
Region
Finalists:
Memphis, Stanford
Region
Champion:
Memphis
The
Tigers get bashed a lot for their non-competitive league schedule,
but they did schedule tough non-conference opponents and beat
all but one of them (Tennessee). However, two glaring weaknesses
were exposed in that game: the inability to play at a slow pace
and being one of the worst free-throw shooting teams in the country.
But I feel this quarter of the bracket matches up favorably for
them. Plus, the backcourt of Derrick Rose and Chris Douglas-Roberts
is, in my mind, the best backcourt in the country.
Noone
in this region can slow them down and the Tigers will advance
to their first Final Four since 1985, when they were led by Elliot
Perry (one of my all-time favorite college players simply because
he wore goggles). Speaking of which, when did goggles stop being
cool? I may start sporting while covering games this spring and
get the trend up and running again.
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