SoAffable

In politics, we call people who switch their positions on the issues "flip-floppers."

In sport, we call people who switch their positions on who will win the big game "smart."

Sometimes, anyway.  Hopefully that's the case with me.

I liked UCLA to win the National Championship before the tournament started.  I liked that they had been to consecutive Final Fours.  I liked that they [had] the most cohesive five on the floor at any given time.

I could not say such things about Memphis.  But "then" is not "now."

No, the Tigers can't retroactively be a back-to-back Final Four participant.  They can, however, be this year's national champion.  It's not that they decimated Texas, it's how they did it.  They used their superior athleticism and size to clog passing lanes and alter shots.  They used those same qualities on the offensive end to rise over defends for jump shots, points in the paint, and second chances.

In short, they played smart.  They played like a team intent on winning "the whole (expletive) thing," as Jake Taylor of Major League lore would say.

Still, they weren't tested.

They led Michigan State by a gazillion at halftime.  They buried Texas from the start.  They have been taken to task only once in this tournament -- against Mississippi State.

Mississippi State and UCLA may not be carbon copies of each other, but Memphis will have to do everything they did in surviving that second round matchup and more tonight against the Bruins.  This game won't quite be a contest between polar opposites, but it's close.  Although it's completely obvious, tempo will be a key.

But so will Memphis's poise.

I'm not sure Memphis is capable of completely smashing UCLA from the get-go in the same vein as their thrashing of their previous two opponents.  However, I have a hunch -- only a hunch -- that Memphis is capable of showing poise down the stretch.

It boggles my mind that the Tigers are 37-1 -- 37 and freaking 1 -- and I, nor anyone else, takes much notice.  They have withstood challenge after challenge and have faltered only once (in a game I would consider a total fluke, considering I think of Tennessee as a total fluke).  It may have taken me 38 games, but as I see it, that's better than 39 games and thirty more minutes.

I don't think this team is going down.  Not tonight, not Monday.

They're doing it Jake Taylor style.  They're winning "the whole (expletive) thing."


Memphis, 79
UCLA, 74


As for the other game, I'm not sold on drinking the Kansas Kool-Aid.  The folks over at ESPN have talked them up quite a bit (and, mind you, with good reason), but I don't think they're capable of beating North Carolina.  That's really the whole argument.  UNC has been a walking buzzsaw this entire tournament (moreso than Memphis, for they have never been in danger of losing a game -- sorry 'Ville).  Granted, Kansas matches up with the Tar Heels very, very well.  I like Rush's chances of having a big game.  I like the fact that Sasha Kaun, Darrell Arthur, and Darnell Jackson can essentially switch on defense and keep Hansbrough in check (my opinion, of course).  I like KU's athleticism.  I like their balance.

Well, then.  What's there not to like?

I mean, seriously, I'm reaching for something.

Oh, yeah -- Carolina is just better.  I can't quantify it.  I can't qualify it.  Carolina is just better.  My eyes tell me so, and in these danged tournament formats, my eyes always see better than my mind.


Carolina, 84
Kansas, 77