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NCAA Tournament Projections – National Championship Edition
AthleteVault
Updated April 7, 2008...
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An exclusive look at Monday’s National Championship game between the Memphis Tigers and Kansas Jayhawks
April 7th – 8:21 PM
Memphis Tigers vs. Kansas Jayhawks
Memphis
Coach John Calipari
Starting Lineups:
F: #2 Robert Dozier
F: #3 Joey Dorsey
G: #5 Antonio Anderson
G: #14 Chris Douglas-Roberts
G: #23 Derrick Rose
Kansas
Coach Bill Self
Starting Lineups:
F: #00 Darrell Arthur
F: #32 Darnell Jackson
G: #03 Russell Robinson
G: #15 Mario Chalmers
G: #25 Brandon Rush
At the beginning of this tournament, I originally penciled in Memphis as the national champ. After some thought, it changed to Kansas. After watching both games Saturday night, I’m inclined to change back to Memphis, but Kansas looked unbelievable in the first half. Both teams are strong at the guard position, with a little bit of an edge to Memphis. The front line in my opinion is a big edge to Kansas.
Kansas is ultra athletic but so is Memphis. Chris Douglas-Roberts has been a matchup problem at the guard position, but Kansas can counter that with Brandon Rush who is also a tough draw at the guard position. In our article about the semi-final games, we really didn’t focus a lot on the bench play. The bench play is going to be huge in this game. Sherron Collins is a tough guard that can bull his way inside. Cole Aldrich really impressed me on Saturday and was a beast inside. Sasha Kaun has also been impressive and combined with Arthur and Jackson, this gives Kansas a big edge on the boards. Kansas needs to do what they did against Curry when they played Davidson. They need to throw different bodies at Rose and tire him out. Douglas-Roberts will get his points, but the offense flows through Rose. Rose will get his 20, but they can’t let him control the tempo. When Kansas played their game on Saturday, they owned North Carolina. When North Carolina started to dictate the tempo, they came roaring back.
Kansas needs to make sure they don’t turn the ball over a lot and they need to take good shots. Memphis has looked almost unstoppable in this tournament, but the team that gave them the best game was Mississippi State in a slugfest. Kansas needs to run a half court offense and let Arthur, Jackson, Aldrich, and Kaun control things and that will allow the offense to open up to let Rush, Chalmers, and Robinson do what they do best. If Kansas tries to run, Memphis will run them out of the building. In the end, I think Kansas controls the tempo. Memphis has the edge in coaching, but so did North Carolina. Kansas did a decent job of taking Ellington and Lawson out of their games and making them take bad shots. Rose and Douglas-Roberts will get their points, but the key is making them take twice as many shots than they normally do to get those points. I like Kansas in this exciting matchup featuring two powerhouse teams. It could go either way, but I just have to go with Kansas.
Kansas by 3