Another Valley Basher Going Down ??

[TigerTwice]

Tiger fans, there is no BU fan who is naive enough to ignore the fact of the rankings and seedings.
We know that the vast majority of people view Memphis as a stronger team overall with a better record.

But it comes down to one game and I think it will be close.
The only team that can really beat Bradley is Bradley.
When BU plays their game, they have been able to run with even the ranked teams and beaten them.

Beating Kansas & Pitt deserves respect. One thing's for sure, you're either getting respect or we (Memphis) still isn't. The line opened at 6.5 or so and 31 of our 32 wins have been by 7 or more.

I'm sure the majority of the people view us as the stronger team. We're 32-3 with the #4 RPI, #2 non-conference RPI, #3 ranking, C-USA regular season and tournament championships, and have won 21 of our last 22 games. Compare that to your team, which is 22-10 with 3 bad losses to teams outside the RPI Top 100, finished tied for 5th in your conference and didn't win your conference tournament.

We know A LOT about being disrespected. Try:

- being predicted to be the first #1 seed to ever lose to a #16, handling them, then
- dominating a very good Bucknell team that was 26-4 (and went undefeated in their conference & won their tournament), being the most impressive #1 seed in the tournament
- still being predicted by the "experts" today as the first #1 seed to lose
- being favored by less than the margin of victory in 31 of our 32 wins

We know all about disrespect.

Too bad you guys can't trade places with one of the other teams playing a #1 seed so we could both win and knock of another "Power 6" team.

[Da Coach]

Memphis has guys that barely get off the bench who could be stars at other schools. Their athleticism and depth make them the clear favorite, and I don't see how Bradley can stay with them for 40 minutes. They were a #1 seed for a reason, they are one of the top 3-4 teams in the country. Bradley will have to play their "A" game again, and hope to catch Memphis on a down night, and maybe they will have a chance.

[tornado]

Penders and Houston go down just as predicted.
One of the few remaining ACC teams goes down, too,
and even little Hofstra keeps winning.

OK, let's open this discussion up again on how good the CUSA is.
Bradley is tough because they are tested by a full conference schedule and conference tournament loaded with top-50 teams.
Memphis just didn't have the challenges along the way as they played a pretty weak conference schedule with lots of 200+ and even 300+ teams.
I like Bradley's chances!

[bradley fan]

Memphis did play a very tough non-conference schedule. They played Duke, Texas, UCLA, Gonzaga, Tennessee, Cincinnati, Alabama, UW-Milwaukee, Winthrop, and La. Tech. Their non-conference SOS was #3 in the NCAA- the highest of any top 20 team.

[Brave4life]

Thanks, I appreciate your comments. I was a little bewildered at the direction that this thread was headed.

I'm impressed by your team and have a great deal of respect the history of Braves basketball.

My comments were not directed towards oldtiger...they were pointed towards "adallastiger" who believes that because Houston played hard against Memphis that no Valley team could beat them.

I happen to be think that the Memphis/Bradley game will be a great matchup of two fast paced teams.

Oldtiger, you have my apologies for the misunderstanding. I guess maybe I should've just let MSU do the talking.

[oldtiger]

No problem Brave4Life, I understand, no apology necessary.

[TigerTwice]

OK, let's open this discussion up again on how good the CUSA is.
Bradley is tough because they are tested by a full conference schedule and conference tournament loaded with top-50 teams.
Memphis just didn't have the challenges along the way as they played a pretty weak conference schedule with lots of 200+ and even 300+ teams.
I like Bradley's chances!

In C-USA, you have:

Tier 1: Memphis
Tier 2: UAB, UTEP
Tier 3: Houston
Tier 4: Everyone else

Go to http://www.kenpom.com/rpi.php and http://www.kenpom.com/sked.php?&y=2006&team=Memphis and check out our resume.

We're 13-2 in road/neutral games vs. Bradley's 9-9. Our guys LOVE playing away from home. They feed off the crowd being against them.

The difference between our team and ANY other team in the nation is that we legitimately go 9-deep without ANY drop-off.

PG Darius Washington, 6'2" sophomore, is our starter & is a score-first PG. Backup PG Andre Allen, 5'10" sophomore, is a lightning-quick, strong "fireplug" that plays smothering defense and really ignites the team when he comes in.
SG: Antonio Anderson, 6'6" freshman, took over the starting role when Chris Douglas-Roberts (CDR), 6'6" freshman, "tweaked" his knee in the opening game of our conference tournament. Antonio has great handles (#3 PG), can shoot and defend and drive. CDR is a slasher. Nicknamed "Buckets" because he simply knows how to finish around the basket.
SF: Rodney Carney, 6'7" senior. 3rd all-time on Memphis scoring list, averaging 18 ppg this year. He can really stroke the 3, runs a 4.3 40, has a 43" vertical and can drive & dunk. Mid-range jumper is his weakness, but he rarely has to shoot mid-rangers because he so dangerous from behind the arc that if you lay off he'll stroke it and if you play him close he'll blow by you. He lets the game come to him and doesn't try to do too much. He's also our lock-down defender that can guard the 2 or 3. He has no "real" back-up as Antonio Anderson, CDR and Shawne Williams also play that position.
PF: Shawne Williams, 6'9" freshman, will be a lottery pick in the NBA and will play the SG or SF, but on our team he plays a lot of PF because that's what we need him to do. Can shoot the 3, drive, post, rebound and defend. Great handles for his size. The total package. Robert Dozier, 6'9" freshman, is a long, lanky PF that can also play SF. He can shoot the 3, but doesn't really have the green light. He does what the coaches ask. He can also drive and finish. Rumor is that the NBA scouts like his game a lot and he has as much upside as anyone on our team.
C: Joey Dorsey, 6'9" 265 lb. sophomore. He's a monster. His game is like Ben Wallace's. Can get down on himself a bit if he gets in early foul trouble but in the last 10 games has really turned it on and been able to play through foul trouble. He's strong, athletic and also a great leaper. Kareem Cooper, 6'10" freshman, is his backup. Kareem plays a little soft and is a little slow compared to the other athletes on this team. However, at 6'10"-6'11", he causes problems and is a decent defender. He's got a very soft touch, can hit the baby hook and is a lefty which always seems to give people problems.

Our 9-deep has 1 senior, 2 sophomores and 6 freshman. It sounds very young, but as a Memphis alum and season ticketholder, I can promise you that Kareem Cooper is the only one that you might even think is a freshman. The others play like seniors.

[chitownBUB]

Wow, Memphis is way too good to expect anyone will beat them.
let's just call this off now and save time and trouble.
They seem almost as invincible as Virginia was with Ralph Sampson and as UNLV was when they were undefeated going into the Final Four in 1991 and Georgetown was in '85 when they had to face a Villanova team that had 10 losses and wasn't even ranked!

[oldtiger]

Wow, Memphis is way too good to expect anyone will beat them.
let's just call this off now and save time and trouble.
They seem almost as invincible as Virginia was with Ralph Sampson and as UNLV was when they were undefeated going into the Final Four in 1991 and Georgetown was in '85 when they had to face a Villanova team that had 10 losses and wasn't even ranked!

I think we'll still play the game. lol

While we've matured a lot, we're still freshman loaded. Lots of talent, lots of height, lots of confidence.....sometimes we can get lethargic and expect great things to happen because of talent. That usually manifests itself in a lot of 3 point shots.....sometimes they go in, sometimes they don't. They didn't against Texas. That's the weakness that I've seen this year. All teams have some weaknesses, exploiting the weakness is the secret.

[TigerTwice]

Wow, Memphis is way too good to expect anyone will beat them.
let's just call this off now and save time and trouble.
They seem almost as invincible as Virginia was with Ralph Sampson and as UNLV was when they were undefeated going into the Final Four in 1991 and Georgetown was in '85 when they had to face a Villanova team that had 10 losses and wasn't even ranked!

I simply responded to tornado's post with some information.

We've heard the "C-USA stinks and Memphis hasn't been challenged" line since we started conference play on January 11th.

We're not invincible. I could be witty like you and say we shouldn't show up because you guys have a superstar 7-footer that scores 28 points a game (despite the fact that he scored 8 in the game prior)!

[collegehoopjunkie]

Tiger-

check for yourself:

http://www.bradleyfans.com/phpbb/search.php

and do a search of this entire site and find that the only place anyone has ever said Memphis stinks or CUSA hasn't been challenged is your own words.
There isn't anyone else on this site who has even come close to saying that, so I think you're barking up the wrong tree.

[TigerTwice]

Tiger-

check for yourself:

http://www.bradleyfans.com/phpbb/search.php

and do a search of this entire site and find that the only place anyone has ever said Memphis stinks or CUSA hasn't been challenged is your own words.
There isn't anyone else on this site who has even come close to saying that, so I think you're barking up the wrong tree.

I interpreted this:

tornado wrote:
OK, let's open this discussion up again on how good the CUSA is.
Bradley is tough because they are tested by a full conference schedule and conference tournament loaded with top-50 teams.
Memphis just didn't have the challenges along the way as they played a pretty weak conference schedule with lots of 200+ and even 300+ teams.
I like Bradley's chances!

as C-USA stinks and Memphis, by proxy, isn't that good. We've heard it all year.

[Grassman]

Tiger-

check for yourself:

http://www.bradleyfans.com/phpbb/search.php

and do a search of this entire site and find that the only place anyone has ever said Memphis stinks or CUSA hasn't been challenged is your own words.
There isn't anyone else on this site who has even come close to saying that, so I think you're barking up the wrong tree.

I interpreted this:

tornado wrote:
OK, let's open this discussion up again on how good the CUSA is.
Bradley is tough because they are tested by a full conference schedule and conference tournament loaded with top-50 teams.
Memphis just didn't have the challenges along the way as they played a pretty weak conference schedule with lots of 200+ and even 300+ teams.
I like Bradley's chances!

as C-USA stinks and Memphis, by proxy, isn't that good. We've heard it all year.

Hey Tiger. You guys are really good. I have seen you on Tv 4 times this year. You are very athletic and have great "ups".
You have many impressive wins ie; UCLA, GONZAGA,TENNESEE, CINCINNATI, ALABAMA, AND ONLY LOST TO THE DOOKIES BY 3.
Only weakness, sometimes your team seems to be overconfident and does not play hard all 40 minutes.
For that reason I hope they highly under estimate Bradley.
I don't care what conference you are in. You are a #1 seed and deserve it!

[CaliBU03]

All I will say is that I love this Memphis team. I have watched them all year and hope like heck that we win, but you have to respect the talent of Carney, Washington, Dorsey and Shawne Williams.

Heck even their walk-on Andre Allen has been playing fantastic basketball in the tournament. I don't think the Braves should run with them, unless they can keep the turnovers low.

[TigerTwice]

Grass- I agree with your assessment that we tend to not play hard all 40 minutes. Mainly it's the very beginning and then somewhere in the middle. As a Memphis fan, I don't like it- it scares me.

Cali- don't be fooled by the "walk-on" label. There is an urban outreach program in Memphis that helps a lot of at-risk youth get on the right path and go to college (pays tuition). It's called Streets Ministries. They get involved with a lot of kids early on in life. They're paying his tuition. They did the same thing with Antonio Burks, our PG that graduated in 2004. Both kids went to the same inner city high school. It's essentially like an extra scholarship player. He was Mr. Basketball in Tennessee in 2A twice and led his team to a state championship.

The story on him is that in 8th & 9th grade he was a phenom, but he never grew. He was offered scholarships to Tennessee and a couple other high D1 schools.

I've been reading about your coach this week. Great story. You can almost hear how much he cares through the printed word in the papers.

I wish we could both play & knock off two "power conference" schools.