CINCINNATI VS. MEMPHIS

[Link, Logan]

CINCINNATI VS. MEMPHIS PREGAME
The #4 University of Cincinnati Bearcats (26-3, 13-2 C-USA) will play the
University of Memphis Tigers (22-7, 12-3 C-USA) Sunday ay 1:00 pm ET in the
Shoe in front of a sold out crowd. This game will be broadcast nationally on
ABC by Bob Carpenter and Larry Conley. The radio broadcast is on WLW-AM 700.
This game will be another "Ring of Red" game urging fans to wear their best
red Bearcat attire. If UC wins they can claim the C-USA title for themselves
and a #1 seed in the C-USA tournament. This game means a lot to UC but means
even more to the bubble bouncing Tigers. Their coach John Calipari said, "If
they don't pull off the upset at Cincinnati, they likely must reach the
C-USA tournament final to solidify their NCAA hopes," and he's right. The
NCAA gives heavy consideration to their RPI (59th) and Strength-of-Schedule
(134th, not good). The Memphis out-of-conference schedule had 8 teams that
aren't in Top 175 of the RPI (can you say cupcakes), had an 2-4 record
against the Top 100 RPI teams, and went 0'fer against their Top 50 RPI
opponents. They beat underachievers Tennessee and Temple while losing to
(rankings when played) #8 Iowa, #22 Alabama, Mississippi, and Arkansas. The
Tigers won their first 10 C-USA games but then lost 3 straight including to
Houston in the Pyramid while Kelly Wise was out with knee problems. Memphis
didn't even have to play Marquette, weak. The Tigers 22-7 record came from
wins over Wofford(88-61), Old Dominion(91-66), Northwestern St.(97-69), SE
Louisianna(65-46), Christian Brothers(86-54) Div.II, Eastern
Kentucky(111-74), Tennessee(71-69), Temple(64-54), Austin Peay(109-68),
Tennessee-Martin(88-58), Southern Miss(75-53), TCU(98-93), Tulane(78-70),
South Florida(81-62), Southern Miss(73-64), UAB(64-46), Houston(84-66),
Louisville(80-70), TCU(98-72), Tulane(78-72), South Florida(71-59), and
DePaul(88-61). Their losses came from Iowa(75-71), Alabama(81-70),
Mississippi(71-67), Arkansas(90-73), UAB(64-46), Charlotte(75-63), and
Houston(76-73). The Tigers are led in scoring by their freshman Allen
Iverson imitation Dajuan Wagner, son of former Louisville star & current
Memphis assistant coach/chaperon Milt Wagner. Dajuan is actually stronger
than Iverson, handles the ball well, can break down defenses with
penetration or pull his jumper anywhere and nail it. He averaged 42.5 ppg in
high school and is the state New Jersey's all-time leading scorer with 3,462
points (scored 50 or more points 9 times, wow). Dajuan leads C-USA with (19)
twenty-or-more points games this season. I was surprised by how well he
jumps, they run a back pick play with a cross court lob pass like we do for
McElroy and he skied to grab it and dunked it with authority. At 19 years
old he can be inconsistent and throw the ball away. The real leader of the
team is senior Kelly Wise, 1st team C-USA last year and he is the C-USA all
time leading rebounder that passed Kenyon Martin. He is a taller Maxiell
with long arms and is a quick jumper who will rebound out of his zone. He
can hit his midrange jumper. He just returned from a strained knee to win
C-USA Player of the Week last week (2/24). On their Senior Day Wise got 23
points and 11 rebounds for his 42nd career double-double. Earl Barron is
their 7-0 center that moves well for a big guy, he has slimmed down much
like BJ did last year and his numbers have improved. He was invited to the
trials for the USA Basketball's National Team and was on the USA World
University team that won the bronze medal in China. Earl also was a state
finalist in Mississippi's Class 4A tennis playoffs in mixed doubles. With
Wise they have excellent size. Chris Massie was a JUCO All-American that UC
recruited, he just had his 7th double-double of the season. He did not play
basketball in high school and was discovered playing pickup ball in Houston,
he is 23 and plays like Chris Webber, not as polished but has good size,
strength, and averages 8 rebounds in 20 minutes/game. Antonio Burks is their
true point guard who handles the ball and has a explosive first step, he
averages 5 assist/game and just scored 26 against South Florida. Scooter
McFadgon is their big guard off the bench that was on the C-USA's
All-Freshman Team last year and was the College Insider website's C-USA
freshman of the Year. Scooter is 3rd in scoring and 2nd in minutes for
Memphis, shoots the 3 well, second only to Wagner. Anthony Rice is a high
energy small forward that starts now and is seeing more minutes. UC has won
5 in a row against Memphis and Sunday should bring the red worshippers
screaming for a 6th. Please get there early to honor our 4 seniors to be
recognized in pregame ceremonies: Rodney Crawford, Jamaal Davis, Immanuel
McElroy, and Steve Logan. Memphis will really try to push the ball up the
court and score in transition, sound familiar. I think UC will win by 10, UC
80 UM 70.

HEAD COACH: John Calipari is in his 10th year coaching college basketball,
236-93 overall, 43-22 at Memphis in his 2nd year. Last year he took them to
the NIT. At UMASS he was 193-71 (73.1%) and took them to 2 NIT's, then 5
straight NCAA appearances, 3 trips to the NCAA Sweet 16, 2 Elite Eights, and
1 Final Four in 1996. He was named the 1996 Naismith National and The
Sporting News Coach of the Year. He left UMass in 1996 to become Exec. VP of
Basketball Operations and Head Coach of the New Jersey Nets. He led the Nets
to a 2nd-place finish in the Atlantic Div. and the playoffs in 1998. The
Nets' 17-game turnaround from the previous year was the best that season. He
was also an assistant at Kansas and Pittsburgh. 
  
PLAYERS TO WATCH
CINCINNATI
G 22 Steve Logan, 6-0 Sr, 22.3 ppg, 3.1 rpg, 5.6 apg. 
G 13 Leonard Stokes, 6-6 Jr, 12.1 ppg, 4.5 rpg, 1.4 apg. 
F 23 Immanuel McElroy, 6-4 Sr, 9.0 ppg, 5.0 rpg, 2.4 apg. 
F 54 Jason Maxiell, 6-7 Fr, 8.0 ppg, 6.7 rpg, 1.6 bpg. 
F 1 Jamaal Davis, 6-8 Sr, 7.5 ppg, 5.5 rpg, 1.4 apg. 
C 50 Donald Little, 6-11 Jr, 6.7 ppg, 6.9 rpg, 1.8 bpg. 
G 2 Field Williams, 6-3 So, 6.3 ppg, 1.1 rpg.
G 20 Taron Barker, 6-1 Jr, 2.9 ppg, 1.7 rpg, 1.6 apg. 

MEMPHIS
G 2 Dajuan Wagner, 6-3 Fr, 21.2 ppg, 2.4 rpg, 3.5 apg.
F 34 Kelly Wise, 6-10 Sr, 12.3 ppg, 11.0 rpg, 1.3 apg.
G 3 Scooter McFadgon, 6-5 So, 9.3 ppg, 4.1 rpg, 1.8 apg.
F 4 Chris Massie, 6-9 Jr, 9.2 ppg, 8.4 rpg.
C 30 Earl Barron, 6-11 Jr, 9.2 ppg, 5.4 rpg.
G 1 Antonio Burks, 5-10 So, 8.0 ppg, 2.3 rpg, 5.1 apg.
F 23 Anthony Rice, 6-4 Fr, 7.3 ppg, 2.8 rpg, 1.8 apg.
F 55 Arthur Barclay, 6-8 So, 2.6 ppg, 2.1 rpg.

DID YOU KNOW      *The 20,000 seat Pyramid was sold out for the season.
*Milt Wagner and Dajuan Wagner are the first ever father-son McDonald's
All-American duo.
*The Memphis Commercial Appeal quoted Dajuan Wagner as saying that he would
likely return for his sophomore season.  
*Chris Massie who was recruited heavily by UC said, "When we go down there,
we know it's going to be a war. They recruited me, and when I signed with
Memphis they got mad."
*Steve Logan is now 2nd in assist at UC with 430 passing Oscar Robertson and
he is C-USA's #2 career scorer behind South Florida's Altron Jackson who's
at 1,930. Steve has 50 straight games of double figure scoring, if/when he
gets his 51st Sunday on Memphis, he will have tied Lloyd Batts for the 3rd
longest streak at UC.


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