Perfect player mix keys Memphis attack

The Tigers are averaging 80 points per game.

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — The bounce pass down court to the teammate running at breakneck speed, finishing with a pullup jumper. Or the outlet pass to Joey Dorsey for a dunk so powerful it nearly brings down the backboard. There’s also the pretty backcourt cut for the easy layup.

Memphis coach John Calipari jokes that the Tigers’ offensive style involves rolling out the balls, no organization and letting everyone play.

But the man who surprised his mentor and friend Larry Brown by switching offenses to something devised by a junior college coach is heading to the Final Four with the perfect mix of players in the right system for his version of the dribble-drive motion offense.

Or as Calipari describes the way these Tigers are playing now, “Princeton on steroids.”

It’s a big reason why the Tigers are in only the school’s third Final Four and first since 1985. Memphis (37-1) plays UCLA (35-3) Saturday in the national semifinal in San Antonio after rolling through the South Regional where the Tigers first beat Michigan State, then Texas by 18 points each.

The Tigers are averaging 80.3 points. They are taking care of the ball, trimming their turnovers when it matters most. They have had only 33 turnovers in four NCAA tournament games, an average of 8.3. That’s down from 9.7 over the previous 18 games.

This offense didn’t look like this two years ago when UCLA beat Memphis 50-45 in the Oakland Regional final when it was in its infant stage.

Calipari had picked up Vance Walberg’s offense when the then-junior college coach came to one of his clinics six years ago. But the Memphis coach only started easing the Tigers into his variation when he had guard Antonio Burks on the floor through 2004.

The arrival of All-American Chris Douglas-Roberts, Robert Dozier and Antonio Anderson in 2005 gave him the players, with Dorsey under the basket, to play away in an offense that spaces players out, giving the person with the ball room to dribble and drive to the basket or kick out to teammates cutting to spots for open shots.

Now a junior, Dozier said the offense was complicated when the Tigers first started learning.

“Maybe the first two weeks of practice when we had to install it was probably the worst it was there. ... You have to be at a certain spot on the court,” he said.

Now four of Calipari’s five starters have practiced so much over the past two years that they know the offense very well. Freshman point guard Derrick Rose has been a fast learner, and Douglas-Roberts said it isn’t easy for opponents to learn how to stop Memphis’ offense in the postseason.

“A day in advance you can’t really prepare for this offense. So that’s why it looks so good right now,” Douglas-Roberts said.