Toward the end of Wednesday’s game, after Jeremy Hunt hit one of several clutch shots for the Memphis Tigers, Louisville fans began to hurl ice onto the floor of Freedom Hall.
It was perhaps the best idea anyone had on how to cool down the surging Tigers who went on to topple the No. 3 Louisville Cardinals, 80-73 in front of 19,000 silenced Cardinal fans.
The win was, quite simply, the biggest in nearly 40 years.
Not since the Johnson administration in 1964 has Memphis (17-5 overall, 8-3 in Conference USA) beaten a team ranked as highly as Louisville (19-3, 9-2), when the Tigers took out #2 Loyola-Chicago in what is now the Elma Roane Field House.
This win had as much excitement and drama, with as nice of an outcome, as any other storied match-up between the rivals.
Most of the current Tiger players were sporting diapers when the Memphis/Louisville rivalry was in full swing during the early 80s, but freshman Rodney Carney said even if he wasn’t fully aware of the history, he did realize how sweet of a win it was.
“I don’t understand the rivalry,” Carney said. “I just know their coach (Rick Pitino) hates it when Coach Cal beats him. I know we beat him last year and I guess we beat him again.”
Carney, who was one of five Tigers to score in double figures, finished with 12 points.
With the milestone win, which is Memphis’ sixth in a row, the Tigers seem deserving of an NCAA tournament bid, which they have not had in seven years.
Memphis shot 42-percent from the field and went 13 of 17 from the free-throw line in the last 3:58.
However, defense was the difference-maker for the Tigers as they held the Cardinals to 19 of 53 shooting from the field and 22 percent (5 of 23) from beyond the arc.
After the game Memphis head coach John Calipari said Tiger fans and players shouldn’t get ahead of themselves in anticipation of a tournament bid.
“We’ve still got to win every game, because (members of the selection committee) can move those numbers around however they want. It happened to us last year,” Calipari said, referring to last year’s team who finished the regular season with a record of 22-8, but were not invited to the big dance.
The Cardinals had no answer for Memphis in the post as the Tigers grabbed 19 offensive rebounds and Chris Massie collected his fifth consecutive double-double hitting 12 points and pulling down 11 rebounds. The senior inside force has 11 double-doubles for the season.
Memphis also out-rebounded the Cardinals 45-29, a large part of that due to Earl Barron who snagged 11 boards in only 17 minutes of play.
For the second-straight game, Antonio Burks lead the Tigers in scoring with 16 points. Burks also had 4 assists and 4 rebounds on the night. John Grice and Jeremy Hunt also scored in double digits with 10 a piece.
