NEW YORK -- In what turned out to be a 45-minute back-and-forth struggle Tuesday night, No. 2 Memphis managed to avoid being the second top five team to lose in the last three days after holding off a feisty USC team for a 62-58 overtime win in the Jimmy V Classic at Madison Square Garden.
And despite shooting a dismal 37.3 percent from the field and an even more atrocious 38.9 percent from the free throw line, the Tigers are happily headed back to Memphis with a 7-0 record.
But if there's anyone that you feel for right now, it's Daniel Hackett.
You feel for him because no one had a better chance to be a hero than the sophomore guard.
You feel for him because his free throw with five seconds remaining could have stopped all the talk that's surrounded Memphis this season and put it squarely on the Trojans as a bonafide national contender.
Yet even more, you feel for him because in a matter of two days, USC has had its heart broken not once but twice.
The Trojans made their way to the Big Apple Monday hoping to forget about a tough loss to No. 3 Kansas Sunday but instead ended up leaving the world's most famous arena with another agonizing loss and a long flight back to Southern California.
"It wasn't Hackett's free throw [that cost us the game]," USC coach Tim Floyd said during his post-game press conference. "We played foolish at the start of the second half. We had so many opportunities with such great stops. We were in the open floor [and] couldn't play on the open floor [and] turned it over."
Hackett finished with 10 points on just 3-of-11 shooting, and freshman phenom O.J. Mayo paced the Trojans with 16 points, four rebounds and three assists. Davon Jefferson, who despite not receiving a lot of preseason hype has shown over the last three games that he could just be one of the best freshman in the country, was the third USC player to score in double figures, tallying 12 points and a team-high 13 rebounds in 40-plus minutes of action.
Memphis, meanwhile, had two players that scored in double figures, as Robert Dozier led the way with 13 points and Chris Douglas-Roberts recorded 10 on 4-of-13 shooting. Freshman sensation Derrick Rose struggled most of the night in going up against Mayo and a stingy USC defense that mixed between a triangle and two, one-three-one zone and man-to-man set, but the Chicago native still managed to finish with a team-high 10 rebounds in addition to his nine points.
Afterward, Memphis coach John Calipari was nearly speechless about his team's performance, giving credit to USC for its ability to slow the tempo down and keep the score in the 60s as they had done against Oklahoma and Kansas last week.
"I got thoroughly out-coached this game," Calipari admitted. "We ran our offense four or five times the whole game. We never got into it, and I give them credit.
"We prepared for the triangle and two, [and] whatever that preparation was, we better not try that again."
So as Professor Scott, Mr. Palm and I wrap things up from 33rd and 7th, look for more on USC and Kansas State in my weekly Thursday column, while Professor Scott handles the Memphis reporting as our regular Tiger insider. And if you're looking for something from Palm, well, you might have to wait until college football season is finally over, as our BCS expert is still busy trying to make sense of all those numbers that those infamous computers like to spit out.
