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It's been some time since a Sweet 16 team looked positively helpless in a half as Michigan State did.
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"That is definitely the best first half we've played all year," said Memphis forward Shawn Taggert. "Coach even said that was the best first half of his career. We played really well together at first and eased up a bit during the second half."
Ouch. They eased up a bit? Why not kick Michigan State's dogs while you're at it.
What Memphis did to a well-coached Michigan State team was stunning in so many ways -- but, sorry, Memphis fans, you continue to look for accolades about how precisely orchestrated your offense is, how it's like Duke or Carolina's. It's not.
The Memphis offense is a track meet. While it's possible the Tigers could torpedo the rest of the field -- yes, they could easily beat the Tar Heels or UCLA -- the Tigers offense remains the basketball equivalent of the 4x100.
They run and gun better than anyone else. It's that simple.
The means by which they beat the snot out of opponents does not overshadow the fact that they do.
Upcoming teams have to be intimidated seeing this group on film. It's like watching the Joe Montana San Francisco 49ers or UNLV.
There were several Texas players who watched a portion of the game from the stands of Reliant Stadium. They must have been thinking: "How in the hell are we going to stop that?"
Michigan State's greatest accomplishment in the game was cutting the lead to 14 points with about four minutes left.
Then again, at that point, Memphis had decided to start kicking field goals instead of scoring touchdowns.
If they really wanted to be fair, the Tigers should have taken a knee.
