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SAN ANTONIO -- Superman has the sniffles. Or a sore stomach. Or some sort of ailment that couldn't stop him from hanging 25 points, nine rebounds and four assists on UCLA in the Final Four on Saturday night, but did stop Memphis guard Derrick Rose from speaking to the media on Sunday.
Which is fine. I don't need Rose's words to write this story. All I need is what I saw Saturday, and what I saw five years ago, and the similarities between the two.
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| D.J. Augustin is just one of the guards that Derrick Rose has embarrassed in this tournament. (Getty Images) |
Five years later, Rose is halfway to putting his signature on the 2008 Final Four, and this entire NCAA tournament. For two weeks the story of the tournament was Davidson's Stephen Curry, who lit up four basketball powerhouses for 32 points per game. But Davidson fell to Kansas in the Elite Eight, creating a vacuum that has been filled so far by Rose.
In a typical development, Rose's rise to prominence has been obscured by teammate Chris Douglas-Roberts, who earned more individual awards this season -- Conference USA Player of the Year, Memphis' only consensus All-American -- and led the Tigers in scoring against UCLA with 28 points. Douglas-Roberts deserves every accolade that has come his way, but Rose has become his team's best player.
Even if his own teammates don't quite get it. Douglas-Roberts was asked why Memphis won 33 games in the regular season yet seems to be playing its best basketball since then. Douglas-Roberts never mentioned Rose by name. He indicated it was a team thing, and of course in a lot of ways it is. Memphis plays unselfishly, and everyone in the rotation has contributed.
"We've sort of peaked," he said. "We've sort of found ourselves in this tournament. ... Everybody has their role."
Exactly. And Rose's role has evolved into this mandate from coach John Calipari: Become the best player on the court.
No longer is Rose deferring to everyone else, and that doesn't come easy to him. When Rose is compared to NBA greats Jason Kidd and Deron Williams, it is because of his ability, his desire, to put his teammates ahead of himself. That dates to high school, when Rose was considered one of the best three seniors in the country and yet was satisfied to score two points -- two -- in the Illinois Class 2A state championship game. His team, Chicago Simeon, won by 23. And isn't winning the game the No. 1 job of a point guard?
Yes and no. Calipari made Rose his top priority from the high school class of 2007 -- ahead of similarly rated guards Eric Gordon and O.J. Mayo -- because of Rose's unselfishness. That unselfishness helped Memphis go 33-1 in the regular season and helped Douglas-Roberts emerge as the team's recognized leader. But when Memphis entered the elimination part of its schedule, Calipari told Rose that it was no longer good enough to blend into the team. Calipari told Rose to become the focal point. To dominate.
"We needed a point guard who could run this team and ... who wanted to pass before he shot, which is what (Rose) has done," Calipari said of the first few months. "The reason he shoots as much as he does now is because I tell him to."
The results have been spectacular. After averaging 14 ppg in the first 34 games, Rose has averaged 21.4 ppg in the NCAA tournament. He also has improved his assist average, from 4.5 apg to 5.6 apg in the tournament. Throw in his four rebounds per game, and Rose has been ridiculous. Cruel, too. He has destroyed three consecutive point guards with All-America credentials: Michigan State's Drew Neitzel and UCLA's Darren Collison, who were first-team All-Americans in the preseason, and Texas' D.J. Augustin, a first-team All-American now.
Rose manhandled them all. Neitzel nearly went scoreless in the Sweet 16, finishing with six points on 2-for-8 shooting. Augustin had 16 points in the Elite Eight, but it was a team-killing 16 points. He was 4-for-18 from the field and had more turnovers (four) than assists (three). Collison had two points and five turnovers in the Final Four before deciding he'd seen enough -- fouling himself out on an unnecessary reach-in 50 feet from the basket with almost three minutes to play.
Meantime, Rose was putting up 27 points and five assists against Michigan State. And 21 points and nine assists against Texas. And those 25 points, nine rebounds and four assists vs. UCLA. He was just as good in the second round against Mississippi State, too, approaching a triple double with 17 points, nine rebounds and seven assists.
Now Rose will try to dominate a Kansas team that has more guards -- if not any one All-American guard -- in its arsenal. The Jayhawks will rotate Mario Chalmers, Russell Robinson and Sherron Collins on Rose, and if that doesn't work, 6-foot-7 small forward Brandon Rush might take a turn.
Will it work? Don't ask me. But Memphis has announced that Rose's stomach ailment won't keep him out Monday -- and if anyone's wondering, the freshman scoring record for an NCAA championship game was set in 1996 by UCLA's Toby Bailey. The record is 26 points.
For a few more hours.
