On Thursday Night the Cincinnati Bearcats will get another opportunity to get a top 100 RPI win and improve it's NCAA profile as Tubby Smith and Memphis Tigers come to town.
MEET THE OPPONENT: Memphis Tigers
First off, the Tigers have been all but eliminated from an at large bid in the last couple of days. Sitting at 17-6 with SMU and Cincinnati still on the schedule it looked like Memphis could possible sneak into the tournament but the Tigers have lost 3/4 to put them at 18-9 on the year.
Tubby Smith's Tigers are one of the best passing teams in the nation as they average over 16 assists per game. When you average many assists, that means you don't turn the ball over and Memphis is one top 20 in the nation in turnover margin.
Memphis has two brothers who are really good. Dedric Lawson is their best player and he was the AAC Preseason Player of the Year along with Troy Caupain. The 6'9 sophomore guard is averaging a double-double right now with 19.5 points and 10 rebounds a game. Lawson was held in check at UConn last week scoring just 12 points and 7 rebounds. Last year, UC and Memphis split a two game series; in the Memphis win Lawson had 20 points and 11 rebounds, in the UC win he was held to 7 points and 8 boards.
His brother, KJ Lawson is the teams 3rd leading scorer, but he has proved he can carry the team. KJ has scored 20+ points 5 times this year and is the teams leading 3 point shooter. He is basically this teams Kevin Johnson except a little better and can rebound.
One final player to look out for the Tigers is Markel Crawford. Crawford is the teams 2nd leading scorer and their best shooter from the field percentage wise. Crawford has been hot from the field lately going 59% from the field in the last three games.
Memphis' main ball handler is Jeremiah Martin averaging over 4 assists per game. The 4 man tandem of the Lawson boys, Crawford, and Martin play almost the entire game. All of them play over 34 minutes a game.
Both teams are virtually the same in the rebounding category with both teams grabbing around 37 boards a game. Kyle Washington and Gary Clark will have their work cut out for them to get 2nd chance points.
Memphis gives up a lot of three balls. In their last 4 games the Tigers have given up 28 made three's. That is why I expect this game to perfect for Kevin Johnson and Jacob Evans, UC's best three point shooters.
Lastly, both teams are not going to turn the ball over so it should be a pretty clean played game. This will be a guard oriented game so look for a lot of jump shots, Memphis really doesn't have a big man, but they will still hold their own on the boards.
As long as Jacob Evans, Troy Caupain and Kevin Johnson can get some shots to fall early, hopefully the that draws the Memphis defense out and we can kill them with Gary and Kyle in the 2nd half. I think UC's home win streak will continue to 25 games as the Bearcats pick up the win 82-74 with Jacob Evans leading the way with 20 points.
Side note: The voice of the Bearcats Dan Hoard tweeted out that if UC can pick up a win this will be the 9th time Mick Cronin has beaten a coach with a national tittle.
Also, a UC win could do even more good then we think. The Bearcats need UCF to be ahead of Memphis in the final standings so Cincinnati can beat out SMU to get the #1 seed in the conference tournament. Memphis is currently leading by a game over UCF in the latest AAC standings.
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