Anyone who was wondering how good the Tigers could be if theystarted hitting shots got a resounding answer Saturday night.
In front of a national audience, Memphis drained a school record16 three-pointers and destroyed Marquette 89-71, silencing thetypically boisterous crowd of 18,120 at the Bradley Center.
It was the best game for No. 23 Memphis away from The Pyramidall season.
"It think it's better than the Villanova game," said Tigersforward Sean Banks. "In the Villanova game we didn't shoot as well.Tonight we were just there together, and everything justclicked."
The performance moved the winning streak to nine games and wasso dominating that Marquette coach Tom Crean christened the Tigersas a legitimate NCAA tournament threat.
"Memphis is not only the odds-on favorite to win this league,but they are a favorite to end up in San Antonio," Crean said."From a coach who has been there and knows what a team has to haveto get there, Memphis has it."
What "it" was Saturday was a deft shooting touch.
Banks led the long distance dial-up shooting six of seven fromthree-point range. The freshman scored 28 points and added sixrebounds. Anthony Rice hit five threes on his way to 17 points, andRodney Carney and Jeremy Hunt added two triples apiece. AntonioBurks hit the other three and scored 14 points to compliment his 11assists.
Many of those assists came on spot-up threes. The Tigersexcelled in transition. Burks consistently found teammates setbeyond the line, and more often than not, his teammatesdelivered.
The win gives the Tigers their ninth in a row and moved them toNo. 23 in the Associated Press Top 25. It is the first appearancein the poll this season for Memphis.
"This is how we shot at the beginning of the year," Burks said."If we keep that up, we're going to have to be reckoned with. Weplayed so good tonight as a team. We found the open man."
For the Tigers, finding an open man hasn't always meant scoring,and Memphis coach John Calipari was level headed in his assessmentof his team's shooting spree.
"We're not 17 points better than Marquette," Calipari said. "Wejust can't play any better. We made 16 threes."
The Tigers shot 47 percent from the field, including 51 percentfrom three-point range.
The three-point performance was a page right out of Marquette'splaybook, lead by point guard Travis Diener and forward SteveNovak. Both players are in the top four in three pointers made, andeach shoots over 43 percent from beyond the arc. The two combinedfor 31 points -- right on their average -- but in the all-importantfirst half, the Tigers limited the sharpshooters to nine totalpoints.
"The defensive effort was outstanding," said Memphis coach JohnCalipari. "We held them to 28 percent in the first half. Short of acouple miscommunications where we didn't get to some guys, we wereon everybody."
For the game, Marquette shot 38.6 percent. It was the fifth timeduring the winning streak, the Tigers held an opponent to less than40 percent shooting and the third consecutive game theyaccomplished that feat.
Still, the defensive effort paled in comparison to the offensiveoutburst.
The three-point fest started early. After the opening basket byHunt, the Tigers next eight baskets were threes.
Following a 9-0 Marquette run gave the Golden Eagles theirfirst, and only, lead of the game at 16-14, the Tigers hit fiveconsecutive bombs to take a 26-21 advantage. Burks had six assistson three-pointers before he scored his first two points of thegame.
Marquette tried to stay close on the offensive boards, earningseveral put-back points in the half, but the Tigers long-rangebarrage was too much. A three pointer from Carney capped a 26-9 runand gave Memphis a comfortable 40-28 lead.
The U of M opened the second half in the same fashion, hittingthree quick threes to take a commanding 51-34 lead. The GoldenEagles would inch to 72-57 late in the game, but Banks hit amid-range turnaround and a transition three to stretch the leadback to 20.
Novak finally got his points late, hitting two threes to bringMarquette back to respectability. He finished with 16 points whileDiener added 15.
