TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

More May Crash Final Four

ADVERTISEMENT

By JOEY JOHNSTON

jjohnston@tampatrib.com

Published: February 7, 2009

The Bowl Championship Series was designed for football. But those three little initials - B-C-S - are often used to describe college basketball's power structure.

The BCS conferences (ACC, Big East, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-10 and SEC) have dominated Final Four appearances in the past 10 seasons, claiming 37 of a possible 40 spots.

Only Memphis (Conference USA, 2008), George Mason (Colonial, 2006) and Marquette (C-USA, 2003) got to the final weekend.

But this season, there might be more non-BCS schools contending for the Final Four than ever before.

You'll see evidence of that tonight with an intriguing nonconference game - Memphis (19-3) at Gonzaga (17-4).

The Tigers, national runners-up last season, continue to make a mockery of their C-USA competition. Memphis has a 50-game winning streak in the league following Wednesday night's 79-66 victory at SMU.

"I don't even remember the last loss, because it was so long ago," Memphis senior forward Robert Dozier said.

For the record, it was March 2, 2006, when UAB defeated Memphis. Dozier was a freshman.

Memphis, which has lost only to Xavier, Georgetown and Syracuse, is led by a freshman this season in guard Tyreke Evans, the Tigers' leading scorer (16.8 points per game). The Tigers don't look as deep as last season, but they should be well-tested by March. Tonight's game at Gonzaga was scheduled for exactly that reason.

The Bulldogs, members of the West Coast Conference, are no strangers to elite competition. After all, they swept Oklahoma State, Maryland and Tennessee to win the Old Spice Classic during Thanksgiving weekend at Lake Buena Vista, then fell in overtime against top-ranked Connecticut.

But holding serve at home against Memphis would lend credence to prognosticators who had Gonzaga as a chic preseason Final Four pick.

There are big-time contenders everywhere from smaller conferences. The Xavier Musketeers are 20-2. Butler (20-2) at Davidson (20-3) shapes up as an excellent BracketBusters matchup Feb. 21. Utah State (22-1) has won 17 consecutive games.

Any of those teams could reach the Sweet 16. Final Four? Probably not.

That's a job for Memphis or Gonzaga, best of the non-BCS teams. Tonight, they face each other in a nonconference game that could have plenty of March Madness reverberations.

Reporter Joey Johnston can be reached at (813) 259-7353.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT