Antonio Burks knows he has precious little time on a collegebasketball floor, so he wants to make the most of it.
"I've been thinking about (the last game) really since beforethe season started," Burks said. "Lately, I've been thinking aboutit even more. All I can hope is that we come out and play hard.
"If things go our way, we'll keep advancing, if they don't we'llgo home."
With the NCAA format, every possession has exaggeratedimportance. For the loser, there is no next game. One bad bouncecan send a team home, a missed free throw, a defensive lapse or aquestionable call can make the difference.
The Tigers can't control all of the variables, but what they cancontrol is defense.
For Memphis -- and every other team -- keeping the opponentsshooting percentage down will make their chances of success goup.
Consider the last two national champions, Syracuse andMaryland.
In 12 tournament games, the best opponent shooting percentagewas Connecticut's 45.5 percent against Maryland.
Four times those teams held opponents to under 40 percent, threetimes under 35 percent.
Overall, Syracuse and Maryland held their foes to 40 percentshooting.
"I don't think it's important to shoot well," Burks said. "It'sall about defense. Defense wins championships. If we play good teamdefense we'll always be in every game."
Statistics tend to back Burks up.
In 2003, Syracuse shot just 43 percent on two occasions, butmanaged to eek out victories.
Maryland struggled offensively against Indiana in the 2002championship game, connecting just 43.8 percent of the time.However, Maryland was able to squeeze out a 64-52 victory becausethey held the Hoosiers to just 34.5 percent.
Memphis Coach John Calipari knows how important defense is inThe Big Dance. Since his team's lax performance against SaintLouis, he has been pleading with his team to play with more fire.It's a message that hasn't been lost on the players.
"Coach isn't going to demand anything less (than defensiveintensity) and if you don't play defense, you won't be playing,"said guard Anthony Rice.
The Tigers know the benefits of good defense. During their11-game winning streak earlier this year, Memphis held opponents tounder 40 percent seven times. Teams shot just over 38 percentoverall.
To contrast, in the conference tournament loss to Saint Louis,the Billikens shot 53.3 percent.
In practice,
Calipari has demanded intensity and urged his team to "play withan edge."
"Most of the focus (in practice) is on us," Calipari said. "Onour ability to get to their three-point shooters and our ability toplay team defense."
He doesn't know exactly how his team will respond to the poorouting against SLU, but he said it is always one of two ways.
"You either kick it in and get mean and mad," Calipari said. "Oryou get cool and act like this stuff doesn't matter and you justback it up and say 'I'm not trying today.' When you do that youlose ball games."
No one knows exactly which Tigers team will show up on Friday,but Burks said he would do his part to make the defense better.
"(I'm) going to play real aggressive this game and play realhard on defense," Burks said. "It's not about the offense, it'sabout defense."
One thing is for sure, you can bet he'll play like it's his lastcollege game.
