2008 ncca tournament bracket
2008 ncca tournament schedule
NCAA tournament bracket
This NCAA tournament was supposed to be dominated by stellar freshmen. However, the likes of Michael Beasley, O.J. Mayo and Eric Gordon weren’t around after the first weekend.
But two of the Final Four teams are led by diaper dandies, and they will square off Saturday: UCLA with Kevin Love and Memphis with Derrick Rose.
The Tigers are 2-point betting favorites (over/under: 134.5) on WagerWeb.com.
While Love was a first-team All-American and has been on the national radar all season, it’s Rose who has the keys to his ballclub as the point guard. He has stepped up his game in the tournament.
Rose is averaging 20.5 points, six rebounds and six assists, with a 4.8 assist-to-turnover ratio. In two South Regional games in Houston, he shot better than 65 percent from the field, hit 13 of 15 free throws and averaged 24 points, seven assists and five rebounds. And he had just three turnovers in 60 minutes. Not to mention thoroughly outplaying first-team All-American D.J. Augustin of Texas in the Elite Eight.
The Longhorns' 6-0 sophomore shot 4-for-18 and had just two of his 16 points during a 15 12-minute stretch in the second half in which Memphis turned a five-point game into a rout.
"He controls the ball, he controls the game and he controls his team," Augustin says.
Rose, at 6-foot-3, steers the Tigers' unorthodox offense, which is based on its perimeter players being able to drive past their defenders. Rose’s 177 assists this season are a Memphis record.”He's so unselfish. He's a true point guard,' said Memphis junior guard Chris Douglas-Roberts, a first- team All-America selection. 'He wants his teammates involved and wants to be a teammate. He doesn't have the attitude that 'I want to be the guy.'
As evidenced by their 3-for-11 performance from beyond the 3-point line against Texas, which came on the heels of two 4-for-13 outings against Mississippi State and Michigan State, the Tigers are placing less emphasis on perimeter jumpers and more on Rose and Co. getting into the lane during the tournament.
Only twice during the regular season -- Nov. 16 against Connecticut (3 of 13) and Dec. 29 vs. Arizona (4 of 10) -- did the Tigers attempt as few as 13 threes in a game.
Memphis has shot 50 percent from the field or better in four of its past five games while hitting progressively fewer threes each time, mainly due to Rose’s penetration.
UCLA junior point guard Darren Collison, who, like Rose, was named third-team All-America by the Associated Press on Monday, said there may be no harder job in college basketball than to be a freshman taking over the point guard spot on a nationally ranked and veteran team.
"You have so much responsibility at point guard," Collison said. "You can't be selfish at all, so for him to take that team to the Final Four, that's a good accomplishment. He's a great athlete and he has a hard job."
Collison, incidentally, will have the task of guarding Rose on Saturday night.
"He reminds me, honestly, of Jason Kidd," says UCLA coach Ben Howland of Rose. "He has a Jason Kidd-type body. He's 6-3, 6-4, just so strong and physical. He overpowers you. “He defends like Kidd, and he's a much better shooter at the same stage."
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