No. 1 Memphis puts its unbeaten record on the line Saturday afternoon in what should be one of its toughest remaining regular-season games as Gonzaga (15-4) comes to town.
The Tigers (18-0) took over the top spot in the rankings this week for the first time since 1983 and are coming off a 56-41 win at Tulsa, but Gonzaga is very familiar with top 10 teams.
Memphis will be the third top 10 team the Zags have played this season. They previously lost to No. 6 Washington State 51-47 and to No. 3 Tennessee 82-72.
Gonzaga's other losses this year are to good teams Texas Tech and Oklahoma.
"We'll have to play just about perfect," Gonzaga coach Mark Few said of Memphis. "You are dealing with one of the best accumulations of raw, physical, athletic talent in the last 10 years."
Chris Douglas-Roberts, a 6-foot-7 junior guard, leads a balanced Memphis attack with 16.6 points per game.
Point guard Derrick Rose, a 6-3 freshman who appears destined to be the No. 1 overall NBA draft pick, averages 14.1 points and 4.2 assists. Joey Dorsey, a 6-9, 265-pound senior forward, averages 7.4 points, 10.4 rebounds and 2.4 blocked shots.
"We can't simulate (at practices) that kind of athleticism, that kind of talent, that kind of ferociousness with which they attack the offensive glass and block shots," Few said.
The Zags, who have won six games in a row, likely will need a big game from their lone semi-big name: Josh Heytvelt. The 6-foot-11 junior missed the first 11 games this season due to a stress fracture in his foot and was starting to play well before a six-point outing in Monday's win against San Francisco."We're going to chalk it up to him being sick," Few said of Heytvelt, who had the flu. "He was awful. He wasn't running and his legs still aren't completely back under him yet."
Few said that Heytvelt still isn't moving as if he's 100 percent and doesn't have his athleticism back, especially after losing 15 pounds with the bout with the flu.
"He's showed flashes, but the thing he gives us anyway is that he's skilled," Few said of Heytvelt, who is averaging 11.9 points and 5.0 rebounds per game after 15.5 and 7.9 averages last year.
Both teams block shots well: The Tigers average 6.6 blocked shots per game and have nearly twice as many blocks as their opponents (118-61). Gonzaga leads rivals 91-67 in blocks.
One flaw for Memphis, which averages 81 points per game, could be that it shoots only .585 as a team free-throw line, although that is brought down big time by Dorsey, who only shoots 35.8 percent.
The only other time the Gonzaga squad has faced No. 1 was against Cincinnati in a 75-68 loss on Dec. 4, 1999. Memphis leads the series with Gonzaga 2-1. Last season, the Tigers won 78-77 in overtime in Spokane.
Memphis and Gonzaga have two common opponents this season. Memphis defeated Oklahoma 63-53 and Connecticut 81-70; Gonzaga lost to Oklahoma 72-68 and beat Connecticut 85-82.
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