(Editor’s Note: Sorry to all of you who aren’t following the Tigers and the NCAA Tournament for all these stories regarding basketball. Some moron named Jonathan has hijacked the site and will not allow anything other than basketball related content to come across these pages. It will end soon. Like April 3rd soon. We promise.)

It’s been covered from all angles. The Tigers are playing in San Antonio, some 200 miles from Texas A&M’s campus. The Tigers aren’t getting any respect from the national media. The Tigers are the underdogs once again. We’ve seen it, read it, heard it and discussed it. If any of this is news to you, you’ve been under a boulder for the last four days. Oh, and by the way, CDR injured his ankle. I know, groundbreaking stuff here on DI2M.com. So, coming from a guy who watched at least ten A&M games this year, here’s an (attempted) unbiased account of the game.

The Matchups:
Maybe not so surprisingly, The Press (the Sports magazine that I co-publish), in our preseason top 25, had the Tigers and the Aggies ranked right next to each other at #9 (Memphis) and #10 (Texas A&M). We felt that both teams would be very, very good, but not on that great level of UNC, Florida, Kansas and Ohio State. Of course, that was in October. We’ve learned a lot in those almost five months.

Joseph Jones v. Joey Dorsey
Joey should be smiling when he sees this matchup because for the first time in a long time, he’s going to get to bang with a guy who likes to do just the same. The strange this is, coming into the season, I thought Jones, and not Acie Law, would become the force for the Aggies. It didn’t happen as maybe no one in the country hurt his pro stock during the season more than Jones. Dorsey, on the other hand, has become less of a question mark with each passing game. At the start of the season, the guy was guaranteed two fouls in the first four minutes of the first half. It affected the Tigers immensely. Since he’s learned he has to be on the floor to A) get the Tigers a win and B) to get drafted, he’s calmed a little and is actually staying in games and dominating. Jones will not like this matchup and it favors the Tigers, all things being equal. But, if one of these two guys gets in foul trouble early, not a stretch by any means, the pendulum swings to the opposing team. Now, if Jones gets in trouble before Dorsey, the Tigers have a huge advantage they’ll be able to exploit. Texas A&M is not deep. They can’t hang with the Tigers depth especially in the frontcourt. Fouls and post play will determine this game and Dorsey is key to the Memphis attack.
Edge: Slightly to the Tigers

Antanas Kavaliauskas v. Robert Dozier
It’s never been a secret to anyone I know that Robert/Rob/Bob/Bobby is my favorite player along with Andre Allen on the team. It’s not that I don’t like any of the other players, because I have a ton of love for each one of them, but those two guys I identify with. With Dozier, he just has that type of game I get excited about. With Allen, it’s that we wear the same size shorts. Regardless, this will be the X-factor (start dreaming of Pete Gillen guys) matchup of the game. AK (hey, I just got done having to spell Jake Tsakalidis’ name for four years. Cut me some slack.) is a bread and butter type player who really ignites this team when Law isn’t dropping threes. AK is one of the few guys in the country that has guarded a player with the athleticism of the Memphis team. That guy was Kevin Durant, who he guarded three times during the season. That leads to Dozier, a player who has really shown himself in the first two tourney games and looks ready for a big game. It couldn’t come at a better time for the Tigers. AK is going to look to be aggressive on the blocks with Dozier, giving him a multiple amount of head fakes, spins, dump downs and post ups to try and get his offense started and get fouls on Dozier. Dozier, for his part, is much more athletic and will be looking to shut AK down when he does go into the post because the Tigers won’t double-team him. Dozier has the edge in ability, but AK has done on the biggest of stages. It looks to be a wash. Neither player is overly foul prone, so they should be on the court around 32 minutes apiece. Both players can bring a good amount of offense to the games, which will also offset the other. Dozier’s clearly a better defender. But, it will matter who is going to the basket with authority. Whichever of these two players do, that team will get the edge from the power forward position.
Edge: Even

Acie Law IV v. Andre Allen/ Antonio Anderson
The reason I leave Willie Kemp out of this is he will start and see about seven minutes after that. And the reason I’ve put two players against Law is due to the overwhelming advantage the Tigers have in bench play over the Aggies. Besides, Willie’s a freshman and Law will be the biggest one-man challenge the Tigers have faced since either Lofton in Knoxville or Morrison from last season. Law is that good. People who just look at his stats don’t realize that in every game I saw A&M play, as soon as it looked like the game was slipping away from the Aggies or the other team was getting close or the clock was running thin, this guy stepped up. You knew it would happen, the fans in the arena knew it would happen and the announcers knew it would happen and it did. That’s how clutch this guy is. I think he’ll have a Sam Cassell type career in the NBA and that’s a great thing. For Thursday, though, he’s going to have to deal with two of the better on-ball defenders in the country. Allen and Anderson present a unique set of problems for opposing point guards and it’s the reason the Tigers are so tough to beat. If you can start to get by the 6’6” AA, Cal brings in the 5’9” version. Law, with all of the deserved accolades (I think he, and not Durant, should be the National Player of the Year), hasn’t seen this kind of defensive duo this season. I know Kansas has some incredible athletes. Maybe the more important point is that A&M needs the offense to go through Law and the Tigers don’t need the offense to go through either of the AA’s. That’s the only real plus for the Tigers in this matchup unless both Anderson and Allen continue to shoot at the clip they have in the last two games. If those two can match Law’s offensive production, the Aggies will be in trouble.
Edge: Texas A&M

Josh Carter v. CDR
No one pays Carter much mind, but they should. He’s one of the, if not the, most deadly three point shooters in the nation. He can single handedly change the course of a game with a hot four minute stretch which he has done on numerous occasions. That being said, there isn’t much other than that shooting in his offensive repertoire. Maybe it’s by design, maybe not. Either way, the Tigers are going to have to check him tight at the three-point line to stave off elimination. But, that’s not the real story with this matchup. It’s The Ankle. For starters, there is no way CDR doesn’t play in this game. Yes, there has been no word from the U of M about his readiness, but I’d be more shocked in the sun came out tomorrow. The funny thing is, we won’t even know if he’s hurt. He’s always slumped over, dragging some body part around with his herky-jerky type mannerisms. He might have just taken a tire iron to the shin or dunked on somebody. Who knows? But, he’s a money player and a gamer and if you think for one second he’s going to miss this with all that is riding on the game, well, I’ll take that bet. The edge in this matchup will be determined by CDR’s health.
Edge: Memphis (If CDR is 70%+)
Even (If CDR is 70%-)

Dominique Kirk v. Jeremy Hunt/ Doneal Mack
Kirk is the fifth wheel to this team- he’s Eddie Murphy to the Beatles (does anyone even remember this classic SNL sketch?). Kirk is also the guy that kind of gets lost in all of the hype surrounding Law, Jones, AK and Carter. He’s a glue guy. Think Anthony Rice with a little less on the offensive end of the floor. And he’s going to have to match wits with two of Memphis’ cold-blooded scorers. Between Mack and Hunt, neither of them has ever met a shot they didn’t like. Jeremy seems to be trying to extend his range with every game played. He could line up from half court and exactly nobody would bat an eye. One of the great betting lines of the Tigers season is whether Doneal would get a shot up in the first 30 seconds he was in the game. The money line was even for most of the last three months of the season. Both guys are constantly looking for their offense while showing grit and aptitude on the defensive end. Jeremy has got to take his one or two mandatory charging fouls a game. Doneal needs to continue to rebound and defend with the same zeal that he’s shown since he became a permanent part of Cal’s rotation. Kirk really isn’t going to hurt the Tigers (although his season high in points came in the Second Round v. Louisville), but Mack and Hunt have the firepower to put a game out of reach with their long distance shooting.
Edge: Large for Memphis

Marlon Pompey v. Kareem Cooper
Not that they play the same position or even have remotely the same games, but these two reserves will be used and might have an impact on the game. The thing I remember about Pompey is that he gets his named called during a game without doing much scoring. That makes me a fan right off the bat. Second, he’s not going to look to score and rather play defense and try to get the starters a few blows during the game. Cooper, the fan favorite that he is and the only man with the same vertical leap as a rock, will play big minutes if we see Dorsey get in early foul trouble. Unlike the first two games, the pace of this tilt will allow Cal to play Kareem for longer stretches. When the pace is fast, Coop has a tough time keeping up. When it’s slow and banging, Coop can be a monster with the lefty hook and the box-out abilities.
Edge: Memphis

John Calipari v. Billy Gillespie
For all the talk of Cal’s lack of in-game acumen, it couldn’t be father off. Can he teach rebounding like Tom Izzo? No. But then again no one can. That’s not the point. Cal is a great recruiter and a good enough in-game coach. Billy Gillespie is a different animal. It is yet to be seen if he can land the huge recruit to College Station, but his in-game decisions have been very good. Of course, it helps to have Acie Law, but them’s the perks. From watching both teams on a ridiculous to fair level, it’s safe to assume that Gillespie can coach a game a little better than Cal and that Cal can outrecruit Gillespie. In my mind that makes it an even edge going into Thursday’s game. Memphis has better players and Texas A&M can execute with the best of them. And this is no indictment of Calipari, not in the least. I think he’s been very upfront in his abilities and what he brings to the table. Can you really argue with his success? He likes to get kids to play a hard nosed defensive system and then let them flow in the offense. Gillespie has gotten his kids to become one of the best defensive clubs in the country and they run crisp and precise offensive sets. While there is a difference, it’s a wash on either side. Because the last thing I like to hear are people bashing every coach from every program. (Wait, you’re going to scream about Tubby Smith? Are you kidding?) Calipari is a very good college in-game coach. He’s not Pete Newell but he’s not Rick Barnes either.
Edge: Even

Final Thoughts:
There were two teams going into the tournament that I really didn’t want to play as a Tigers fan. The first and foremost on that list was Georgetown. They present matchup problems and they play a Princeton offense with the athletes to compete on the biggest of stages. The second, admittedly a far less scary proposition than the Hoyas, was Texas A&M. On any other night, I’m the biggest Acie Law fan you can find. I think he’s the type of player than NBA execs undervalue and he’s just a winner. I love those types of players. Of course, we have to face him. But, typically before games of this magnitude, I have a pretty good idea of how the Tigers are going to fare. I knew we wouldn’t beat Texas at home last year and I knew we would lose at UAB. UCLA is another story. There were no good feelings going into that game. I knew somehow we were going to lose. All of the signs were there; a team we’d already faced, one unnamed moron bringing over a bottle of victory Champagne BEFORE the game even started, three games against vastly inferior competition, etc. This game doesn’t scare me. I have no qualms about the fact that it will be a hard fought game, maybe the game of the tournament (so far that trophy goes to the VCU-Duke game). But, I don’t have that same feeling I did with those games mentioned above. Of course, this could be me talking myself into it after four days of analysis although I doubt it. When you look at the players and the schemes, it just seems Memphis is about five points better than A&M. Subtract three points for home court advantage (which is exactly what Vegas has the line at right now, meaning this game is a pick ‘em in a neutral environment) and there it is- a Memphis two point victory. As always, Go Tigers!