LITTLE ROCK - Memphis wins 87-63 and I get to go take some sleepy time cold medicine. All's well that ends well.

We'll check in from interview day on Saturday, but it will be pretty light. Be sure to join in with all the live-blogging form the nation's other sites with the able-bodied posse of CSTV.com live-bloggers.

. . . Pouncer, the Tiger mascot, has whipped out his blue Elvis jumpsuit costume. We get a big kick out of that outift for some reason. There's a special hole in the rear for the tail to protrude through. We wonder if Elvis had a similar trap door.

. . . Amazing sub-regional in Tampa. Two 12-13 games on tap for Sunday. Incredible.

Posted by David Scott at 12:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

LITTLE ROCK - It has not been pretty and it is definitely the kind of game that John Calipari will use to motivate his troops, but Memphis continues to lead comfortably, 73-55 with 7:45 left in the game.

. .. To go with his monster dunk, Dorsey now has a monster rejection on one of the UTA guards that led to tiger free throws at the other end.

. . . Sitting very close to the same seat that the Austin Peay iron lung band member sat, is now a UTA female band member with lungs of steel. Even the dude next her on clarinet had to shake his head at the latest screech from the basketball-face-painted co-ed.

. . . Rod Epps has fouled out for UTA. he had zero points

Posted by David Scott at 11:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

LITTLE ROCK - The Mavericks are still hanging around and trail 65-50 with 11:56 left in the game. Again, Memphis isn't in danger of losing this one, but they also aren't putting it out of reach the way their fans would like.

The Tigers continue to get beat on fast breaks and hustle plays, not to mention put backs. The Tigers also have 5 turnovers this half in 8 minutes. they had five all of the first half.

. . . There are rim rattlers and then there are rim rattlers. What Joey Dorsey threw down with just over 14 minutes left in the game was one for the books. How the basket withstood the trauma, I'll never know.

. . . Taggart picks up his third foul with 11:56 left as Vereen gets after it inside the lane and scores a hard-earned bucket.

Posted by David Scott at 11:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

LITTLE ROCK - A rather ho-hum continuance of this onw and Memphis is now up 55-40 with 15:52 left in the game.

It's clear Memphis is going to win, but they are not doing it in the fashion the other No. 1 seeds have and it will ikely give rise to more talk of the Tigers being a soft 1-seed.

. . . The Tigers are getting beat on long outlet passes and back door cuts, two things that don't sit well with the coaching staff. Memphis also isn't finishing well around the bucket. Lots of missed bunnies and lay-ups and put-backs.

. . . Dorsey picked up his third foul with 16:25 left and was taken out for Dozier.

Posted by David Scott at 11:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

LITTLE ROCK - Some pretty remarkable numbers form the first half, to wit:

Both teams shot better than 50 percent from the field.
Both teams shot 50 percent from 3-point land.
Memphis held just a 16-13 edge in rebounding despite a noticeable size advantage.
Both teams had 10 or more assists (10 for UTA, 12 for Memphis)

UTA had 10 turnovers, while Memphis had just five. Memphis converted the ten turns for 12 points and has 11 second-chance points as well.

. . . Memphis just didn't play with the intensity that Calipari expects from his team, but the numbers are pretty impressive and they executed well when they had to. UTA probably can't play much better and they're still down 14. There's been too much "Mr. Fumbles" from the Tigers - especially Dorsey and Dozier - and that drives Calipari bonkers.

Posted by David Scott at 11:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

LITTLE ROCK - Give UTA some credit, they kept this thing from getting out of hand despite a 57 percent shooting half for the Tigers. UTA shot 54 percent (13 of 24) from the field. Both teams were also 50 percent form 3-point land as Memphis hit 5 of 10 and UTA hit 3 of 6.

. . . CDR leads all scorers with 14 and Moffitt and and Vereen each have seven for UTA.

. . . UTA cut the lead to single digits with 2:20 left in the half, 38-29.

Posted by David Scott at 11:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

LITTLE ROCK - Memphis leads 36-21 with 3:52 left in the half. The Tigers aren't playing great, but CDR has 13 points and UTA continues to turn the ball over (10 so far this half).

. . . The five for five thing appears to be over as Shawn Taggart replaced Robert Dozier after the under-8:00 media timeout. More regular one-for-one and two-for-two substitution patterns have ensued.

. . . No mention of whether Anthony Vereen of UTA is related to Ben Vereen, the entertainer. No idea why I would care, either. he reminds me of a former Calipari player at UMass, Will Herndon. But Herndon could jump out of the gym, not to mention over cars.

Posted by David Scott at 10:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

LITTLE ROCK - Memphis is out ot a 12-point lead but UTA is certainly kepeing it within reason. Memphis leads 27-15 with 7:41 left in the half.

Memphis has forced six UTA turnovers and only holds a slim 10-9 lead in rebounding.

. . . As we indicated pre-game, Calipari is using the hockey line change approach once again. The second-teamers came in with 13:29 left in the half and was made up of Willie Kemp, Doneal Mack, Jeff Robinson, Andre Allen and Shawn Taggart. The players said they like the pattern of subbing because they are used to playing with each other that way in practice.

The First Five checked back in with 11:38 left in the half and look like they'll remain in.

. . . There's got to be a "Top Gun" joke in here somewhere with the 'Mavericks' involved, but I'm a little weak on that movie. How about: UTA has lost that lovin' feelin after starting out hot.

Yeah, I know. But you try live-blogging for 12 straight hours, you haters.

Posted by David Scott at 10:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

LITTLE ROCK - The Tigers have been back on their heels a bit to start out but lead 10-6 with 15:19 left in the half.

UTA won the game-opening tip a true moral victory. They even took a 4-0 lead on two buckets from Jermaine Griffin.

But a 3-pointer by Antonio Anderson gave Memphis an 8-6 lead and probably ended the Mavericks' hopes of staying in this one.

. . . Rebounding is even at 4-4. Let's see how long that lasts.

. . . UTA lists on ten players on its roster. Most teams have 14.

. . .UTA is clearly loose and easy for this one. Widebody Larry Posey has been bouncing and smiling since well before the game started.

. . . Two strong sections of UTA fans directly behind the Posting Up Perch, including a string of shirtless dudes spelling out UTAMAVS. The "M" is quite a specimen, as is the "V."

. . . Our sneaker battle is between adidad (Memphis) and Nike (UTA).

. . . With a No. 16 seed basketball team comes a No. 16 seed cheer and dance squad. That's just how it is. The dance portion of the Mavericks' rooters is especially, shall we say, "M" and "V"-like.

Posted by David Scott at 10:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

LITTLE ROCK - We're about 15 minutes from tip of the nightcap her at Alltel.

Probable starters look like this:

No. 1 seed Memphis (33-1)
Robert Dozier
Joey Dorsey
Antonio Anderson
Chris Douglas-Roberts (leading scorer with 17.2 ppg)
Derrick Rose

No. 16 seed UTA (21-11)
Rog'er Guignard (leading scorer with 13.0 ppg)
Rod Epps
Tommy Moffit
Larry Posey
Jermaine Griffin

. . . Officials for the game are Reginald Greenwood, John Hampton and Wallace Rutecki.

. . . UTA started shooting around at the wrong end of the floor and had to be shuffled off to the other end when Memphis took the court. rookie mistake.

. . . Look for Memphis to revive its platoon system of five in-five out that worked so well in the C-USA Title game against UAB.

Posted by David Scott at 09:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)